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Overview
Reporting to the Senior Commercial Finance Manager, the Senior Commercial Finance Business Partner (SCFBP) leads the day-to-day financial management of a number of standalone, but interlinked, P&L’s for the FT’s commercial Thought Leadership & Content Creation studios through the production of robust financial reporting, analysis, planning and forecasting.
The role will support efforts to identify and implement best practice across its areas of responsibility and includes line management responsibilities for a UK based Commercial Finance analyst and a Management Accountant based in the FT’s Manila office.
As a key partner to the business, the SCFBP will build collaborative partnerships with the Managing Director’s for each area, as well as the respective leadership teams within each supported business, providing insightful analysis to guide decision making, and communicate timely financial performance to highlight opportunities and drivers of success.
The FT aligns award winning advertising and events businesses with Thought Leadership and Content Creation expertise within Alpha Grid & FT Longitude. This role will drive the further alignment of these businesses by ensuring accurate and effective Financial reporting of joint projects and a gold-standard incentive scheme to drive collaborative sales globally.
The successful candidate joins the Commercial Finance team at a time of growth, change and high ambition as we embark on an extensive exercise of Finance transformation and help guide the FT towards its ambitious growth targets.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone to join a high-profile team that is having a significant impact on decision-making across the business.
What can you expect?
- Partner with the business, developing a deep understanding of their business models, key objectives and the wider business environment.
- Contribute to the development of business strategy with thoughtful advice based on financial expertise and strong working knowledge of commercial trends.
- Produce robust financial modelling of complex business plans to assess risks and opportunities and evaluate alternative options which consider well researched micro and macro factors. Make recommendations for the best course of action.
- Own the production, review and reporting of a suite of KPI’s that are vital to achieving business results.
- Lead the financial management processes including all weekly, monthly and quarterly results reporting and analyses.
- Ownership & presentation of the cross-departmental FT Connect revenue view, aggregating related performance across connected departments and informing key stakeholders to drive decision making. In addition to this, own and evolve the FT Connect incentive scheme to best meet current and future objectives.
- Proactively identify signs of risk and opportunity, articulate the quantitative impact to performance for business leadership and support the business mitigation efforts to achieve targets.
- Collaborate with the business to build well thought-out, data-driven annual budgets, reforecasts and a 5-year strategic plan that reflects wider economic factors and the strategy of the business. Act as a critical partner to challenge these plans and assumptions.
- Drive cross-departmental collaboration where the opportunity exists to ensure strategic success.
- Be the owner of related Balance Sheet accounts – ensure quality record keeping, take charge of the monthly review and reconciliation and collaborate with Group Finance on governance.
- Support external audits as point of contact for including collating relevant supporting documents, researching issues found and implementing remediation/correction required.
- Drive career conversations and development for Commercial Finance Analyst & Management Accountant ensuring continued engagement and focus on growth.
- Support ad hoc analytics and projects relevant to each business area, such as the evolution of pricing or resource tracking, or Commercial Finance.
Your profile (and skills you will continue to strongly develop):
- You thrive on high level interaction with senior stakeholders (from Board level down) with the ability to inform and persuade to drive business outcomes.
- An excellent communicator able to lead discussions confidently, communicate a complex idea or issue and deliver well-structured presentations to a variety of audiences, in a clear, concise and engaging manner.
- An influencer able to persuade and gain buy-in from relevant stakeholders with the use of a range of relevant data/evidence to support rationales.
- You are able to effectively manage a team, quickly building relationships of mutual trust & respect, working to keep your team motivated and engaged.
- A seasoned analyst with an ability to connect the numbers with complex business dynamics - advanced level MS Excel or Google Sheets and financial modelling is essential.
- An effective organiser who can anticipate and address issues with thoughtful planning and appropriate prioritisation.
- A critical thinker who seeks out diverse perspectives, initiates innovative ideas and promotes knowledge-sharing to drive progress.
The ideal candidate:
You are a qualified member of a professional accountancy body (ACA/ACCA/CIMA) and will have several years’ experience in commercial finance or a closely related discipline.
Your background would ideally include:
- A commercial awareness and interest in the marketing and media industry.
- Line management experience with multiple team members.
- Experience with Google suite, Oracle or Essbase would be an advantage.
What’s in it for you? Our Benefits
Our benefits vary depending on location, but we are committed to providing best in class perks across all our offices as well as an inclusive environment to develop your career. Examples of our benefits include; generous annual leave allowances, flexible working (including working from home), medical cover, enhanced maternity & paternity packages, subsidised gym memberships and Giving Back opportunities. Full details of our benefits can be found here.
Further Information
The FT is committed to providing an inclusive working environment for all. We are an equal opportunities employer who seeks to recruit and appoint the best talent regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We also promote flexible working and will consider specific requests around flexibility for all roles where it can be accommodated. Please let us know if you require any adjustments as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements, or have any questions, talent@ft.com and a member of our team will be happy to help.
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