Innovative Business Partnering

building icon

CFO
Sales Director
Supply Director
Strategy Director

building icon

Strategy Manager
Sales / Brand BP
Supply BP
FP&A BP

building icon

Sales / Brand
Analyst
Supply Analyst
FP&A Analyst

building icon
building icon
building icon
building icon
building icon
Smart Financial Operations

building icon

Ops Director
PMO Director
GPO Director

building icon

Ops Manager
CL Lead
Prog Manager
Bus Proc Owner

building icon

Functional SME
Digital Analyst
Ops Specialist

building icon
building icon
building icon
building icon
building icon
Enhanced Specialised Services

building icon

Controller
ICTC Director
Reg IA Director

building icon

Corp Dev Manager
Tax Manager
Treasury Manager
IA Manager

building icon

G&C Analyst
Tax Analyst
Treasury Analyst

Organization
building icon
Team/Project
team icon
Individual
teams icon
testimonial image
Amanda Hawkins
“Discovering where your passion lies”

The Breadth layer is about having a variety of experiences. It is about becoming more comfortable with the way we do business whether in a new country or in a new segment. Gaining this experience empowers Associates to take more credible and informed decisions and understand where the value comes from. Some of these experiences can be checked off simply by working in project teams that are cross-segment, cross-country, or within different types of business models (i.e. Mature vs Emerging markets, CPG vs Retail, DTC or Services business, Shared services business).

Back to Job Families

Job Family

Smart Financial Operations

Purpose

To deliver Smart Financial Operations at Mars, our goal is to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, experience, and insights in each area: Record to Report (General Accounting, Intercompany and Fixed Assets), Invoice to Cash (Accounts Receivable), Invoice to Pay (Accounts Payable), Supply Chain Finance, Travel and Expense and Payroll.

In this pillar you will have access to financial systems and valuable data, in addition to new digital tools – enabling insight and foresight, ultimately creating more value for the organization.

Crucial skills

• Problem Solving
• Collaboration & Partnering
• Change Management
• Communication
• Data Analytics
• Internal Controls Excellence
• New Technologies, Solutions, & Digital Literacy

Crucial Experiences

• Smart Financial Operations
• Talent development
• Influencing across a matrix
• Change management
• Digital contribution

Myth Busting

Assumptions Associates might have about MGS Finance, which is where Smart Financial Operations roles will reside:

MYTH: MGS Finance has remained the same and embraces the status quo.

By honestly assessing and identifying areas of opportunity, we have actively developed a continuous improvement mindset to transform opportunities into successes. In addition, by teaming with the best 3rd party strategic partners in the world, we have positioned ourselves to optimize their operational expertise to continue to improve and disrupt ourselves.  A robust performance management ecosystem of dashboards, metrics, and digital tools supports our ability to learn where we are challenged – and react swiftly and aggressively.  For example, the lack of a reconciliation quality framework in MGS Finance resulted in the speedy creation of robust operational mechanisms and metrics meant to optimize reconciliation quality.  Furthermore, we are deploying global approaches to measure customer experience and identify pain points so we can act upon the findings with a goal of getting better every day.  This transparent and open approach to identifying challenges and attacking them with skills, scale, and technology has enabled MGS Finance to achieve several multi-year highs and all-time bests – and this is merely the beginning.

MYTH: MGS Finance is not destination for talent.

In fact, MGS is embracing the goal to become an agile, digital-centric team meaning there is a unique opportunity to reshape our organization, developing skills to better serve our partners, stakeholders and end users.  As a growing part of our business, MGS will provide increasing opportunities for Associates. As an MGS Finance Associate you will have a tremendous opportunity to develop new and expanded skills to add even more value to the business and to our customers across the globe. MGS Finance’s profound and unique opportunity to shape the way business results are achieved across segments and the globe is astounding; as a result, the opportunities for top talent to thrive in MGS Finance have never been greater.

MYTH: MGS Finance is not an essential step in building a senior Finance leader’s career path.

As a growing part of our business, MGS Finance roles play an increasing role in shaping the future of Finance.  MGS Finance Associates have the distinct opportunity work across multiple business units, segments, and geographies, providing our Associates with a unique and broad experience that can prove invaluable, especially within an organization as large and dynamic as Mars.  Simply put, the perspectives, skills, and relationships you build within MGS Finance today within will support and accelerate your career development at Mars tomorrow.

Read case studies

Brian Kemp

ANZ Financial Services Centre Director | Mars Global Services | Australia

Jason Lewis

Senior Financial Operations Leader - NA | Mars Global Services | USA

Danielle Larison

Global Transformation Leader | Mars Global Services | USA

Brian Kemp
“ANZ Financial Services Centre Director | Mars Global Services | Australia”
  • What have been the key experiences learned throughout your journey?

    Within MGS Finance there has been an exceptional amount of opportunities for development simply as a result of the amount of different experiences that come our way.

    Almost every project that touches on finance will involve MGS Finance, and I personally have had great learnings across multiple dimensions as a result of the opportunities these present. Some of the most memorable experiences I have had at Mars have been large projects that have involved MGSF as a key player: MW integration, Eukanuba acquisition, and the transformation of our own MGSF operations by partnering with Genpact all stand out as high impact experiences.

    In addition to this there are so many opportunities for different experiences in our day to day operations: tapping into functional knowledge of Smart Financial Operations, building people leadership skills and partnering with our S&F customers to build cross functional finance expertise; these experiences (and more!) are in abundance in our team.

Jason Lewis
“Senior Financial Operations Leader - NA | Mars Global Services | USA”
  • What types of projects are you working on?

    The main projects that I’m honored to collaborate on with other MGS Finance Associates and our friends in the Business Units (“BUs”) pertains to leading our Culture of Performance – showcasing our successes, highlighting challenges, seizing related opportunities, and mining for actionable insights.  Specifically, it means:

    (a) driving useful dashboards, visualizations, & related insights – this work, when combined with great Associates, resulted in the achievement of numerous “personal bests” in 2020 across many finance functions.
    (b) analyzing, synthesizing, & communicating our MGS Finance story to internal & external stakeholders – highlighted by great experiences from our BUs, as well as the growing external recognition we have received from SSOW.
    (c) leading initiatives vertically & horizontally across Mars to continuously drive improvements – like the actions we are taking to drive enhanced reporting around efficiency + customer service, as well as upskilling our Associates to be prepared for the Finance of Tomorrow.

    Regardless of the specific project, the road travelled within MGS Finance has been very rewarding!

Danielle Larison
“Global Transformation Leader | Mars Global Services | USA”
  • What has been/is the most challenging when working in the Smart Financial Operations job family?

    One of the challenges/opportunities for Associates in Smart Financial Operations is related to upskilling ourselves. In order to deliver on our objectives of bringing efficiency, effectiveness, experience and insights to Mars, we will need to continuously build our competencies in areas such as digital, analytics, and process improvement. If we can keep up to date on the latest and greatest tools, technology, and information available, there is no doubt we can drive best-in-class value to the business.

Armanda Hawkins

"Discovering where your passion lies."

In my career I’ve worked across several business models, prior to Mars I had experience working in Business Advisory services for KPMG and in an infrastructure engineering team consulting for government. Since joining Mars I have worked in the Petcare division and Mars Global Services, both complimenting each other while also presenting very different experiences. In my time in MGS we have also drastically changed our business model: moving from an in-house service center with all tasks performed by Mars associates, to leveraging a 3rd Party provider (Genpact) to execute transactional processes across most of our teams.

Lorem ipsum dolor, sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Accusamus labore voluptatem ipsa suscipit maxime enim saepe quidem vero nostrum quam.

Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Amet libero incidunt iure esse doloremque, cumque iusto quibusdam temporibus a deleniti.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Obcaecati accusantium labore repellendus impedit quis odio eaque quasi eligendi beatae ratione?

Back to cross segments experience
Armanda Hawkins

"Discovering where your passion lies."

In my career I’ve worked across several business models, prior to Mars I had experience working in Business Advisory services for KPMG and in an infrastructure engineering team consulting for government. Since joining Mars I have worked in the Petcare division and Mars Global Services, both complimenting each other while also presenting very different experiences. In my time in MGS we have also drastically changed our business model: moving from an in-house service center with all tasks performed by Mars associates, to leveraging a 3rd Party provider (Genpact) to execute transactional processes across most of our teams.

Lorem ipsum dolor, sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Accusamus labore voluptatem ipsa suscipit maxime enim saepe quidem vero nostrum quam.

Lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Amet libero incidunt iure esse doloremque, cumque iusto quibusdam temporibus a deleniti.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Obcaecati accusantium labore repellendus impedit quis odio eaque quasi eligendi beatae ratione?

Breadth

The Breadth layer is about having a variety of experiences. It is about becoming more comfortable with the way we do business whether in a new country or in a new segment. Gaining this experience empowers Associates to take more credible and informed decisions and understand where the value comes from. Some of these experiences can be checked off simply by working in project teams that are cross-segment, cross-country, or within different types of business models (i.e. Mature vs Emerging markets, CPG vs Retail, DTC or Services business, Shared services business).

Business

The Breadth layer is about having a variety of experiences. It is about becoming more comfortable with the way we do business whether in a new country or in a new segment. Gaining this experience empowers Associates to take more credible and informed decisions and understand where the value comes from. Some of these experiences can be checked off simply by working in project teams that are cross-segment, cross-country, or within different types of business models (i.e. Mature vs Emerging markets, CPG vs Retail, DTC or Services business, Shared services business).

People

The Breadth layer is about having a variety of experiences. It is about becoming more comfortable with the way we do business whether in a new country or in a new segment. Gaining this experience empowers Associates to take more credible and informed decisions and understand where the value comes from. Some of these experiences can be checked off simply by working in project teams that are cross-segment, cross-country, or within different types of business models (i.e. Mature vs Emerging markets, CPG vs Retail, DTC or Services business, Shared services business).

Depth

The Breadth layer is about having a variety of experiences. It is about becoming more comfortable with the way we do business whether in a new country or in a new segment. Gaining this experience empowers Associates to take more credible and informed decisions and understand where the value comes from. Some of these experiences can be checked off simply by working in project teams that are cross-segment, cross-country, or within different types of business models (i.e. Mature vs Emerging markets, CPG vs Retail, DTC or Services business, Shared services business).

testimonial image
Amanda Hawkins
“Discovering where your passion lies”

The Breadth layer is about having a variety of experiences. It is about becoming more comfortable with the way we do business whether in a new country or in a new segment. Gaining this experience empowers Associates to take more credible and informed decisions and understand where the value comes from. Some of these experiences can be checked off simply by working in project teams that are cross-segment, cross-country, or within different types of business models (i.e. Mature vs Emerging markets, CPG vs Retail, DTC or Services business, Shared services business).