Job Title: Senior Marketing & Digital Finance Analyst

Division: Consumer Products Division (CPD)

Location: Woodmead, Johannesburg (South Africa)

Reporting to: Senior Business Finance Manager CPD

1. Job Purpose

The Senior Marketing & Digital Finance Analyst acts as a strategic co-pilot to the Marketing and Digital teams. Your mission is to optimize the Advertising & Promotion (A&P) spend and Digital Media investments. You will provide the financial transparency and analytical rigor needed to shift from "spending" to "investing," ensuring that L'Oréal CPD wins the "Share of Voice" while protecting the divisional bottom line.

2. Key Responsibilities:

2.1 A&P - Landing of A&P, A&P monthly trackers for marketing

A. A&P (Advertising & Promotion) Management

• Budget Oversight: Manage the end-to-end A&P budget for South Africa, ensuring 100% compliance with L'Oréal’s internal control standards.
• Monthly Closures: Lead the monthly financial closing process for Marketing spend, ensuring accurate accruals and variance analysis (Actual vs. Budget vs. Trend).
•  Strategic Planning: Play a lead role in the Budget (Plan) and Trend (Forecasting) cycles, challenging Brand Managers on their spending priorities.

B. Digital Finance & Media ROI

•  Digital Transformation: Track and analyze the efficiency of Digital Media spend (Social Media, Search, Influencers).
•  Performance Metrics: Monitor and report on key digital KPIs: ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), CPC (Cost Per Click), and CPM, translating digital metrics into financial impact.
•   E-commerce Controlling: Analyze the profitability of e-commerce channels (Pure Players like Takealot and Brick-and-Click partners), focusing on the "Contribution Margin" of digital activations.

C. Marketing Investment Optimization

•  Resource Allocation: Use data-driven insights to recommend shifts in investment between brands (e.g., Garnier vs. L'Oréal Paris) or between traditional and digital media.
•   Pre- & Post-Mortem Analysis: Conduct rigorous financial evaluations of major marketing campaigns and product launches in the South African market to identify "what worked" and "what didn't."
•  Competitor Benchmarking: Analyze competitor A&P intensity in the local market to support strategic decision-making.

D. Internal Control & Process Improvement

•   Purchasing Compliance: Ensure the "Purchase-to-Pay" process for marketing agencies and vendors is seamless and compliant with Group policies.
•  Audit Readiness: Maintain high standards of documentation for all marketing and digital contracts and spend approvals.
•  Process Automation: Drive the "Simplicity 2" mindset by automating repetitive reporting tasks using Power BI or internal L'Oréal finance tools.
•   Media spend analysis - Monitor KPIs with CDMO % of digital/ Total media
•  Rules of engagement
•   Obsessed with Digital spend, online offline

2) Brand P&Ls - Do Business Cases for Innovations

A. Perform a 3 year P&L for innovations and  support marketing on motivation  to Snr Finance Manager and Divisional GM for Go or No go.

3) Post Launch evaluations - Quarterly - Launch Tracker and P&L

A. Perform a 3 year P&L for innovations and  support marketing on motivation  to Snr Finance Manager and Divisional GM for Go or No go.

B. Run the launch tracker from the platform. 

C. Do an analysis on the actuals vs the business cases and have comments. 

D. Share the launch performance with the business. 

4) Events Post analysis - Define the Threshold for events - ROI - Top 10 events in the BU. Pre and Post 

evaluation – Present to Mancom on the performance of the events

5) BA's analysis Budget/ Trend/ Actuals in line with audit requirements - Productivity of BAs 

6) Increase in Educating marketing to increase KPI: POT, correct allocation of costs, Purchasing Process

3. Requirements & Qualifications

Education & Experience

•  Degree: Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or Economics (CIMA or CA(SA) is a strong advantage).
• Experience: 5–7 years of experience in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) or Commercial Controlling, preferably within the FMCG or Retail sector.
•  Specialization: Proven experience in managing Marketing/A&P budgets or Digital Media finance is highly preferred.

Technical Skills

• Expert Data Analysis: Mastery of Excel (advanced modeling) and SAP.
•  Digital Literacy: Familiarity with Digital Marketing platforms (Google Analytics, Facebook Business Manager) from a financial reporting perspective.
•  Visualization: Proficiency in Power BI or Tableau to create executive dashboards.

Soft Skills

• The "Business Partner" Mindset: Ability to challenge Marketing teams constructively while remaining a supportive partner.
•  Clarity: Ability to simplify complex financial data for non-finance stakeholders.
•   Agility: Capacity to thrive in the fast-paced environment of South Africa's beauty market.

Who We Are

L’Oréal is present in 150 markets on five continents. For more than a century, L’Oréal has devoted itself solely to ‘Create beauty that moves the world’; it is now the industry world leader with €42 billion consolidated sales. Together, we solve complex challenges at scale, while making sure we stay committed to making the world a more inclusive and a better place for everyone & our planet.

We’re committed to guaranteeing inclusive recruitment processes and to advocating for hiring and promoting each candidate in an ethical and equitable way. The Group strictly prohibits discrimination against any applicant for employment because of the individual’s gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, visible and/or invisible disabilities, socio-economic and/or multicultural origins, health conditions, age, religion, or any other characteristics protected by law.