Category Finance Manager – Business Finance – Chemicals

We are hiring for a fast-growing global specialty chemicals business.

We are looking for a Category Finance Manager to sit inside that business as the finance partner to our India category and commercial teams. You will own the category P&L, govern pricing and margin, evaluate deals before they are signed, and be the person the category leader turns to before making a call not after.

This is a commercial finance role, not a reporting role.

Key Responsibilities:

Category P&L Ownership:

– Own the P&L for assigned categories revenue, gross margin, contribution margin, and the cost lines that sit between them.

– Build and maintain the margin view at the level decisions are made: by product, customer, deal, and sourcing route, including landed cost, freight, duty, and conversion costs.

– Drive monthly business reviews with category and commercial leadership: performance against plan, variance analysis with root cause, and agreed corrective actions with owners.

– Own category-level forecasting and budgeting inputs, and be accountable for the accuracy of what you commit.

Pricing, Deals & Margin Governance:

– Own pricing governance for the category floor prices, margin thresholds, discount and approval frameworks and enforce them consistently.

– Evaluate customer deals, tenders, and large enquiries before commitment: margin, cash impact, credit exposure, and risk; recommend approve, restructure, or decline with clear reasoning.

– Work with Global Sourcing on landed cost build-ups and vendor commercial terms so that pricing is anchored to real cost, not assumed cost.

– Monitor realised margin against approved margin and close the leakage pricing exceptions, freight overruns, quality claims, and unbilled costs.

Working Capital & Commercial Risk:

– Own working capital outcomes for the category inventory holding and ageing, receivable ageing and DSO, and advance or credit terms extended to customers.

– Manage customer credit assessment and exposure limits in coordination with Controllership; escalate and act on ageing before it becomes a write-off conversation.

– Identify slow-moving and at-risk inventory early and work with the category team on liquidation or repositioning.

Analysis, Business Cases & Process:

– Build business cases for new products, new categories, and new customer segments with honest assumptions and a defined review point after launch.

– Develop dashboards and self-serve reporting so commercial teams can see their own margin and working capital position without waiting on Finance.

– Support design and governance of commercial policy and sales incentive structures so that behaviour follows profitability, not just volume.

– Partner with Controllership and Taxation to ensure commercial structures are accounted for and taxed correctly.

Must-have Requirements:

– 69 years of post-qualification experience, with meaningful time in business finance, category finance, commercial finance, or FP&A in a business-partnering capacity.

– Demonstrated ownership of a P&L, category, or business unit including responsibility for margin outcomes, not only reporting on them.

– Strong analytical capability advanced Excel and financial modelling, plus working proficiency with BI or visualisation tools (Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent). SQL is an advantage.

– Hands-on experience with pricing analysis, deal evaluation, and margin or profitability analytics.

– Understanding of working capital mechanics inventory, receivables, credit terms and the ability to influence them commercially.

– Proven ability to hold commercial stakeholders to a number while remaining a partner they want to involve early.

– Strong ERP capability (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, or equivalent) and comfort working with large transactional datasets.

– Based in Bangalore or willing to relocate.