Financial Planning & Analysis Lead, Apac

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 This is a strategic finance leader responsible for transforming financial data into actionable business insights that drive growth, profitability, and long-term value creation across the APAC region, covering, Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Australia and Southeast Asia. This role serves as a trusted advisor to regional and market leadership teams, partnering closely with Commercial, Digital, Retail, Merchandising, Operations, Supply Chain, and Corporate Functions to influence critical business decisions. Beyond planning and reporting, the focus is to elevate finance's impact through compelling storytelling, translating complex data into clear narratives and align leaders around strategic priorities. This role is also expected to connect extensively between APAC Finance and Corporate Accounting, ensuring that business insights, forecasts, and performance narratives are grounded in accurate financial results, consistent accounting treatment, disciplined close processes, and strong controllership practices. The FP&A Lead will partner closely with Corporate Accounting, Regional Controllership, Tax, Treasury, and External Reporting teams to ensure APAC results are transparent, explainable, and aligned with enterprise reporting standards. The ideal candidate combines strong financial acumen, commercial curiosity, and exceptional communication skills, with the ability to simplify complexity and influence outcomes at senior levels of the organization. ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES Strategic Business Partnering • Act as the lead finance business partner to APAC leadership, providing strategic counsel on revenue growth, profitability improvement, capital allocation, and organizational investments. • Influence business decisions through objective financial analysis and commercial insights while balancing market priorities with enterprise objectives. • Partner with market FP&A teams, Managing Directors and functional leaders to evaluate opportunities, risks, and strategic initiatives. • Challenge assumptions constructively and drive accountability for delivering financial commitments. • Support business cases for investments, new market initiatives, store openings, digital expansion, and transformation programs. Financial Planning & Performance Management • Challenge the Annual Plan, Long Range Plan and Forecasts across all APAC markets. • Drive financial performance management through monitoring of key business drivers, KPIs, and strategic metrics. • Develop scenario planning models and sensitivity analyses to support management decisions. • Identify risks and opportunities proactively and recommend corrective actions. • Ensure financial plans accurately reflect business strategies, opportunities, risks, and recommend corrective actions where necessary. • Deliver executive financial reviews that focus on implications, actions, and business outcomes rather than reporting results alone. • Support actions that improve inventory turns, sell-through rates, and gross margin performance. Executive Communication • Translate financial and operational data into clear, compelling, and actionable business narratives. • Simplify analyses into concise messages tailored for regional leadership, global finance, CFO reviews and strategic planning discussions. • Build a culture of insight led decision making by elevating the quality of storytelling across the FP&A organization. Commercial Insights & Decision Support • Lead detail analyses on sales, margin, inventory, customer trends, digital performance, and productivity metrics. • Identify drivers of business performance and uncover opportunities for profitable growth. • Establish analytical frameworks to evaluate pricing, promotions, channel investment, inventory optimization, and operating expenses. • Ensure recommendations are linked to clear financial impact and measurable business outcomes. Finance Compliance • Review of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reporting packages for regional and corporate stakeholders, ensuring results are complete, accurate and supported by clear business explanations. • Review of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reporting packages for regional and corporate stakeholders, ensuring results are complete, accurate and supported by clear business explanations. • Partner with market finance, Corporate Accounting and Regional Controllership teams to ensure consistent reporting and explanation of financial performance across APAC markets. • Support close governance by monitoring key accruals provisions, reserves, intercompany matters, and other judgemental areas that may impact reported results • Support control assessments, audit requests, and remediation plans to strengthen governance, compliance and audit readiness. • Support adherence to company policies, reporting requirements, tax regulations, statutory requirements and governance standards. • Liaise with external auditors for statutory and group audits when required, ensuring issues are resolved timely and consistently with Corporate Accounting expectations. EXPERIENCE, SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE • HKICPA or equivalent qualification required, with prior experience in Big Four or public accounting. • 15+ years of progressive finance experience, including Finance leadership responsibilities. • Degree Holder in Accounting, Finance or any relevant area. • Strong exposure to external audits, accounting policy interpretation, and tax matters. • Strong judgment in identifying accounting, reporting, tax, or control implications of commercial decisions and escalating issues appropriately. • Fluency in English, Mandarin & Cantonese. • Experience in working for a sizable MNC, ideally in a commercial & retail organization with operations across different countries within the APAC region. • Knowledge of Finance Systems – preferably Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP or similar ERP system is an advantage. • Excellent interpersonal & communication skills with the ability to build a rapport with senior business executives as well as immediate team members. • Experience operating in a matrixed global finance organization with regional and corporate reporting requirements. • Ability to work well under pressure on multiple tasks & deadlines.