Finance AI & Automation Specialist

Job Summary

Ready to build the next generation of AI and automation capabilities for a global finance organization, using Microsoft Power Platform, Copilot Studio, and agentic AI tools to drive measurable business impact? IFF is a global leader in flavors, fragrances, food ingredients and health & biosciences, we deliver sustainable innovations that elevate everyday products. The role is part of our Food Ingredients BU, where we are innovating to improve nutritional profiles, better taste and texture, and greater cost efficiency to meet the needs of global food and beverage manufacturers. This role can be based out of our offices in Asturias, Spain OR Valencia, Spain in a hybrid working capacity. The AI & Automation Specialist builds and operates the automation and artificial intelligence capabilities that Finance uses day to day — across Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Intercompany, General Ledger, Master Data, Tax, Treasury, Reporting, and the Global Shared Service Centres. The role builds primarily on IFF's Microsoft 365 and Power Platform estate, extended with scripting and integration work where the standard tooling does not reach, and integrates those capabilities with our finance systems and reporting layers. This is a build-and-operate role rather than a design-only one. The person in this role writes the solution, tests it with the colleagues who will use it, documents it, deploys it, and stands behind it afterwards. Because these capabilities touch financial data and financial controls, every deployment must produce the evidence that Internal Audit and our external auditors will ask for, and must have a tested way of being switched off. That discipline is part of the build, not an administrative task that follows it. The role reports to the Head of AI Adoption, Process Improvement & Automation and works in close daily partnership with the Finance AI Analyst in the Asturias Global Shared Service Centre, who owns the process judgement and validation side of the same work. Infrastructure, identity, and security are owned by IT and the Global Process Transformation team; this role builds on that foundation and integrates cleanly with it rather than duplicating it inside Finance.

Where You’ll Make a Difference

• Build automation and AI solutions on IFF's Microsoft estate — Power Automate, Power Apps, Copilot Studio, SharePoint and Dataverse — and extend with Python or equivalent scripting where required, using agentic development tooling such as Claude Code where it produces safer, better-documented work.
• Integrate solutions with finance systems and data sources, including SAP extracts, reporting layers, and shared service centre tooling, without creating undocumented data stores outside the governed environment.
• Work to the specifications produced with the Finance AI Analyst and the process owners, and raise it early when a specification would automate an unresolved process problem.

Make Every Deployment Auditable

• Ensure that each capability produces its audit evidence by construction: what was deployed, when, by whom, what it was tested against, who approved it, and what its current state is.
• Implement the human review points that the process design requires, so that decisions carrying financial or legal consequence remain with a named person.
• Apply security practice as a default — access scoped to purpose, credentials managed properly, logs written and redacted appropriately.

Operate, Support, and Improve

• Maintain a runbook and tested rollback path for every deployed capability, act as the first point of contact for deployment issues, and lead reviews to address recurring patterns and improve the approach.
• Monitor deployed capabilities against intended outcomes and proactively flag when expected results are not being achieved.

Collaborate and Enable

• Partner with the Finance AI Analyst, champion network and end users to test capabilities before release, deliver user training, produce plain‑language documentation, and contribute to technical assessments of external vendors and tools, including integration constraints and lock‑in considerations.

What Makes You the Right Fit

• Practical, hands‑on capability with Microsoft Power Platform (Power Automate and Power Apps), Copilot Studio, Python or an equivalent scripting language, agentic development tools such as Claude Code, and integrating systems through interfaces and application programming interfaces.
• Hands‑on experience designing, building, testing, deploying, and supporting robotic process automation solutions, including automations that interact with SAP through approved interfaces, SAP GUI scripting, or equivalent methods.
• Experience should include appropriate controls, logging, documentation, exception handling, and rollback procedures.
• Comfortable working with finance data structures, reconciling outputs against a source, and recognising when a result is wrong even when it appears plausible.
• Security and audit mindset, treating access control, credential management, logging, and audit trails as an integral part of the build process rather than a subsequent checklist.
• Strong focus on documentation, including written runbooks, rollback procedures, and plain‑language descriptions, with the view that a capability without documentation is unfinished.
• Works effectively with colleagues whose domain expertise exceeds their technical expertise, treating their process knowledge and judgement as authoritative.
• Able to exercise sound judgement, including declining requests that cannot be built safely and explaining the rationale in terms the requester accepts.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Finance or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Minimum of 3 years' experience building automation, integration or data solutions in a business environment, including at least 1 year working with artificial intelligence or large language model‑based tooling in genuine production environments.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, and fluent English (Spanish an advantage).

How You Would Stand Out

• Experience managing business‑critical RPA solutions in production, including incident resolution, controlled changes, recovery or rollback, and post‑incident reviews.
• Experience with Power Automate Desktop, UiPath, Blue Prism, Excel VBA, or SAP‑connected automation is particularly valuable.
• Experience working in a regulated or audited environment, such as financial services, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, insurance, or a listed multinational organization.
• Direct exposure to finance processes, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, or period close activities.

Why Choose Us?

IFF offers an attractive compensation and benefits package designed to support your health, wellbeing, and work‑life balance, including:

• Comprehensive medical coverage for you, with optional coverage for your family.
• Pension plan to help build your long‑term financial security.
• Life and accident/disability insurance.
• Benefits Club with exclusive discounts and savings on everyday purchases and vacation packages through a wide network of providers.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP), offering confidential access to a wide range of wellbeing, financial, and personal support services for you and members of your household.
• Hybrid work profile

For your awareness, IFF has announced its intention to sell its Food Ingredients Business to CVC Capital Partners. The sale is presently expected to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. The Food Ingredient business unit will remain a part of IFF until close and, at such time, it will transition to CVC Capital Partners.

In applying for this position, you acknowledge your awareness that the position is a part of the Food Ingredient business unit and has been identified to transition to CVC Capital Partners.

We are a global leader in taste, scent, and nutrition, offering our customers a broader range of natural solutions and accelerating our growth strategy. At IFF, we believe that your uniqueness unleashes our potential. We value the diverse mosaic of the ethnicity, national origin, race, age, sex, or veteran status. We strive for an inclusive workplace that allows each of our colleagues to bring their authentic self to work regardless of their religion, gender identity & expression, sexual orientation, or disability. Visit IFF.com/careers/workplace-diversity-and-inclusion to learn more. At IFF, we make joy through science, creativity and heart. As the global leader in flavors, fragrances, food ingredients, health and biosciences, we deliver groundbreaking, sustainable innovations that elevate everyday products – advancing wellness, delighting the senses and enhancing the human experience. We value an inclusive, creative workplace where all individuals can thrive and do their best work. We consider all qualified candidates equally and based on merit, without regard to religion, ethnicity, national origin, race, age, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation or disability.