Ralph Lauren Senior Financial Planning Analyst

Company Description

Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality.

For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets.

The Company's brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world’s most widely recognized families of consumer brands.

At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all.

We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.

Position Overview

As a key member of the FP&A team, the Senior Finance Analyst will lead the management and reporting of Marketing & Creative expenses across all EMEA regions.

This role works closely with Marketing stakeholders to support month-end close, forecasting and planning cycles, delivering clear insights into key variances and performance drivers.

This position provides financial oversight and guidance across multiple Marketing teams, ensuring accurate PO and Budget tracking, advising on appropriate accounting treatments; helping to ensure that events, campaigns and activations are executed smoothly and within budget.

We're seeking a qualified finance professional who is proactive, self-sufficient and confident in navigating complex expense structures.

Demonstrating strong analytical skills, professional integrity and the ability to tailor financial conversations to suit a range of stakeholders and help execute required business outcomes.

Success in this role is building effective cross-functional relationships, operating with autonomy and maintaining a positive, solution-focused mindset in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Partner with functional leads to develop forecasts aligned with regional and channel strategic objectives.
• Support the month-end close and forecasting processes for Marketing & Creative costs across EMEA, delivering detailed insights and variance analysis.
• Advise business stakeholders on appropriate accounting treatment and P&L recognition of marketing expenditures.
• Help manage the Marketing teams PO and Budget Trackers to ensure accurate cost recognition, invoice receipting, accruals, prepayments, reclassifications and rebills.
• Assist in overseeing significant marketing spend across functions, including fund allocations by project, channel, region, brand, category and ATL vs. BTL analysis.
• Conduct monthly expense reviews with key partners ensuring clear communication, timely follow-up and query resolution.
• Proactively identify and flag any operational and financial risks or opportunities associated with Marketing & Creative.
• Provide financial knowledge and support to Marketing teams on both ad-hoc commercial projects and recurring EMEA marketing events and activations, to ensure they are budgeted and tracked accurately.
• Analyse expense and cost trends, generating actionable insights and recommendations to identify opportunities for efficiency and cost optimisation.
• Drive process improvements across FP&A including PO management and cost reporting.
• Build and maintain strong business partnerships with Marketing teams to promote best practice, process alignment and encourage accountability amongst budget owners.
• Anticipate stakeholder needs and prioritise efforts to help deliver results.
• Key Partners: Marketing and Creative teams, Divisional and Corporate FP&A teams, Procurement & Channel Leadership.
• Scope: Role covers the RL EMEA region which includes UK, Germany, Italy, France, Iberia, Scandi and Emerging Markets.

Experience, Skills & Knowledge

• Qualified Accountant (e. g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA or overseas equivalent)
• Relevant post-qualified experience, ideally within a Multinational Retail environment FP&A experience preferred, with a focus on expense management and planning
• Strong academic background and record of achievement
• Effective cross-functional collaborator with strong communication skills and ability to adapt communication style to different stakeholders
• Experience managing complex expense structures and advising on accounting treatment
• Proactive, positive and solution focused mindset
• Able to work independently and manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking, with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail
• High proficiency in Excel and other Microsoft applications
• Preferred: SAP and Hyperion Essbase
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