Commercial Finance Manager

About us

With over 200 brands sold in nearly 180 countries, Diageo is home to some of the world’s most iconic drinks. From Johnnie Walker and Guinness to Tanqueray, Smirnoff and Don Julio, we craft brands chosen for life’s moments — from everyday connections to landmark celebrations.

Bring your talent, curiosity and ambition, and strive for your personal best alongside people who challenge, support and learn from each other. Together, as one outstanding team, we keep learning, improving and raising the bar for our brands, our business and each other.

Join us and play your part in making life’s moments mean a little more.

Join our Finance Team

Our Finance team deliver sustainable growth for our business, customers, and much-loved brands. We’re part of a $12.2 billion gross profit organisation, responsible for driving an exceptional level of performance and creating the potential for future growth.

Whether we’re utilising our digital capabilities and analytics to inform our business strategy or creating capacity to invest in the future — no two days are the same in our Finance team. Wherever your skills lie, we’ll help you to learn and develop, supporting you along the way in our inclusive culture.

About this role

The Commercial Finance Manager acts as the finance business partner to the Commercial and Marketing teams in Japan, driving profitable growth across brands, channels and customers. The role owns the Commercial Finance agenda, including customer and channel P&L performance, pricing, trade investment, ROI/M&E, A&P efficiency, customer profitability and commercial decision support.

The role is expected to translate commercial strategy into clear financial priorities, challenge investment choices with fact-based insights, and support better decisions on pricing, promotions, innovations, route-to-market and customer negotiations. This role also plays a key role in connecting Commercial Finance with FP&A, Finance Controlling, RGM, Marketing, Sales, Supply and OTC.

You will be responsible for:

1.Commercial Performance Management

• Lead the in-year performance rhythm for brands, channels and key customers.
• Own or co-lead channel, customer and brand P&L reviews.
• Provide clear performance insights on NSV, gross profit, contribution, mix, pricing, volume and customer trends.
• Identify risks, opportunities and required interventions to improve commercial performance.
• Support strategic reviews across category, customers and competition.

2. Trade Investment, A&P and ROI Effectiveness

• Lead the governance of trade investment and A&P effectiveness.
• Track TI and A&P spend versus plan, identify efficiency gaps and recommend reallocation opportunities.
• With the CF Analyst, drive pre- and post-event ROI reviews, ensuring learnings are converted into clear actions.
• Challenge customer plans, investment choices and promotional activities with fact-based financial insights.
• Improve deal discipline through pre- and post-evaluation, documentation and consistent decision guardrails.

3. Customer, Channel and Brand Financial Planning

• Translate business strategy into channel, customer and brand financial plans.
• Support AOP, forecast and scenario planning with bottom-up commercial assumptions.
• Align trade investment and A&P envelopes with ROI logic.
• Build customer profitability assumptions, JBP guardrails and channel/customer performance targets.
• Validate volume, mix, pricing and trade investment assumptions with FP&A.

4. Pricing, Promotions and Business Cases

• Provide financial support for pricing decisions, promotion architecture and customer negotiations.
• Build and review business cases for innovation, RTM changes, distributors, capex and customer proposals.
• Evaluate pricing, rebates, terms and one-off investments to safeguard margin, cash and value creation.
• Partner with RGM, Sales and Marketing on pricing architecture, market share analysis and competitive performance.

5. Business Partnering and Stakeholder Management

• Act as the key Finance partner for Commercial Director, Sales, Marketing and RGM teams.
• Build strong relationships with FP&A, Finance Controlling, Supply, OTC and regional teams.
• Translate complex financial analysis into simple, actionable recommendations for non-finance stakeholders.
• Support negotiations, innovation planning, customer strategy and commercial interventions.
• Ensure clear hand-offs with FP&A on channel outlook, pricing, TI assumptions, M&E and commercial actions.

6. Governance, Controls and Ways of Working

• Set governance standards for trade spend, customer profitability and value creation actions.
• Define commercial finance guardrails, approval limits, templates and decision processes.
• Ensure consistency of definitions and reporting with FP&A to maintain a single source of truth.
• Maintain trackers for key decisions, commitments and follow-ups.
• Support strong controls around trade spend, A&P, pricing compliance and customer profitability.

7. Analytics, Dashboards and Continuous Improvement

• Build and improve channel, brand and customer analysis, scorecards and dashboards.
• Use data-driven models to identify trends, risks and opportunities.
• Improve reporting automation and analytical tools to support faster commercial decisions.
• Coach the team and stakeholders on commercial finance basics, ROI discipline and performance interpretation.

Experience/skills required:

• Strong experience in Commercial Finance, FP&A, Business Performance or related finance roles.
• Solid understanding of brand, channel and customer P&L management.
• Experience with trade investment, pricing, promotions, A&P efficiency and ROI/M&E.
• Strong analytical and modelling skills, including Excel, Power BI and data tools.
• Ability to turn complex data into simple business recommendations.
• Strong communication and influencing skills with senior non-finance stakeholders.
• Experience in FMCG, beverage alcohol or a similar fast-paced commercial environment preferred.
• Fluent English and Japanese.
• Strong ownership, learning agility and problem-solving mindset.

Working with Us

Flexibility is key to our success. Talk to us about what flexibility means to you so that you’re supported to manage your wellbeing and balance your priorities from day one.

Our purpose is crafting iconic drinks chosen for life’s moments. And it’s our people, with their different experiences, perspectives and talents, who make that possible.

We value diversity in its broadest sense and want everyone to feel they can belong, contribute and strive for their personal best. You’ll work alongside people with different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives — challenging, supporting and learning from one another as one outstanding team.

Together, we’re constantly learning and improving, combining the strength of our people, capabilities and iconic brands to raise the bar, grow and win. Wherever you join us, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute, make an impact and play your part in making life’s moments mean a little more.

Ready to bring your best? This could be your opportunity.

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Recruitment Scam Warning

Protecting candidates is very important to us. All communications regarding your application will come from an email address ending in @diageo.com. In our recruitment process, we'll never ask for money.