Finance Director, Financial Reporting – Publicis Sapient International

Company Description

Publicis Sapient is a digital transformation partner helping established organisations get to their future, digitally-enabled state, both in the way they work and the way they serve their customers. We help unlock value through a start-up mindset and modern methods, fusing strategy, consulting and customer experience with agile engineering and problem-solving creativity. United by our core values and our purpose of helping people thrive in the brave pursuit of next, our 20,000+ people in 53 offices around the world combine experience across technology, data sciences, consulting and customer obsession to accelerate our clients’ businesses through designing the products and services their customers truly value.

Job Description

The Finance Director reports to the VP, Financial Planning and Analysis of Publicis Sapient International. She/he is responsible for the consolidation, analysis, management and presentation of key financial data of the region with interaction with many key strategic stakeholders, including -but not limited to- the PS International Finance Leadership Team, country and industry finance leads, global Publicis Sapient teams and Finance team members of other departments. The position requires a strong ability to communicate with other members of the finance team across multiple geographical markets and attention to detail to ensure that information is collected and reported accurately, timely and reliably.. This position is meant to be filled by an experienced finance leader possessing strong project management skills, with the ability to coordinate and deliver multiple/concurrent projects, with an inquisitive and curious nature, a passion for delivering and communicating clear and actionable analysis, and a desire to achieve exceptional results in a fast-paced environment.

Key Areas of Responsibilities

• Provide guidance and work closely with the VP, Financial Planning and Analysis and eventually the Regional CFO and Senior Finance leadership, through analysis of company operations and by providing financial reporting as a basis for strategic decisions and improving operating performance
• Collaborate with, and provide direction, guidance, mentorship and prioritisation to, country level reporting teams to:
  • Ensure efficiency and consistency of the planning process across geographical markets and industry groups;
  • Disseminate changes to Financial Reporting practices and changes to reporting systems;
  • Provide thorough recommendations to solve business issues and implement “best practices”
  • Prioritise and streamline tasks to ensure accuracy of financial information that is being shared across the organization at different levels.
• Support VP, Financial Planning and Analysis to co-ordinate all information gathering including KPIs and other metrics by:
  • Assessing financial opportunities and risks and making recommendations as needed to balance them;
  • Driving best practices in financial reporting and the global consolidation process;
  • Assisting in the preparation of various presentations or supporting materials to management;
  • Performing ad hoc analysis, projects, and other duties as assigned.
• Complete Monthly, Quarterly and Annual financial analysis (Budget, Forecast and Actuals) by:
  • Preparing and participating in month-end financial statement reviews for accuracy;
  • Partnering with the regional and local Controllership teams in monthly and quarterly closes to understand and be able to explain all significant variances to budget/forecast;
  • Scrutinizing forecasted expenses to understand their substantiation, and ensure expenditure by nature is on track.
• Lead initiatives, including model building and refining, forecasting, and other in-depth analyses from start to finish by:
  • Developing solid working understanding of the company’s planning and reporting tools (HFM, Oracle/SAP and SalesForce)
  • Performing extensive modeling to predict growth, conversion, profitability, capacity and cash flows
  • Ensuring financial standards and verifying that finance teams are preparing financial information using approved company financial reporting tools & procedures

Qualifications

• 10 to 15 years of experience within FP&A or Financial/Management Reporting
• Experience in leading projects and tracks of work through to completion
• Committed, detail oriented, self-starter with strong problem solving and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work independently
• Ability to meet deadlines and work in time-sensitive environments
• Excellent communication skills to clearly and accurately convey complex metrics and analysis to internal teams and all levels of management
• Demonstrated ability to theorize, develop and refine creative financial/operational models
• Experience in leading projects and tracks of work through to completion
• Perceptive discernment to identify problems, understand and be able to explain variances, evaluate consistency of financial information reported by agencies and calculate and project results
• Proficiency in interpreting financial results and key ratios to analyze and project trends
• Executive presence necessary to work with senior level management
• Strong Excel skills including experience with financial/operational model building
• Hyperion Financial Manager, Oracle, SAP and/or SalesForce experience preferred
• Thrive under pressure and deadlines in a fast-paced organization

Education:

• Four-year degree in Finance / Accounting (Master’s degree preferred)

Additional Information

What’s in it for you?

• We have got you and your family covered with 25 days paid annual leave (plus bank holidays), life assurance, dental insurance, income protection, critical illness cover, private healthcare for you AND your family (pre-existing conditions included), and a pension
• We know the importance of health and wellbeing so offer you extensive retail discount offers and further reimbursement towards activities that contribute to a healthier lifestyle
• Our beautiful Turnmill office is open
• You can meet over a complimentary barista-made coffee and our teams have been busy replicating face-to-face social activities through learning languages virtually, yoga sessions, having a laugh at our online summer fairs and so much more
• We are proud to actively invest in your learning through various learning platforms
• Diversity and inclusion aren't just buzzwords. We offer an inclusive environment through our inspirational business resource groups and work with you to give back to the local community through CSR efforts

As part of our dedication to the diversity of our workforce, Publicis Sapient is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity without regard for race, colour, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.