Finance Analyst III

Job Title: Finance Analyst III
Location: Toronto, ON (Hybrid)
Estimated Duration: 3 Months

Department Overview
As part of the North American Marketing division, the Strategic Operations team drives desired business outcomes across marketing by maximizing effectiveness & efficiency through people, processes, tools & measures. The Canadian Budget Management team sits under the Strategic Operations team and is responsible for financial reporting, forecasting, and managing budgeting activities for Marketing expenses. The team delivers expense results and analysis to Marketing Planners and Executives as well as Finance partners. 
Role Description
We are looking for a Senior Analyst to play a key role on the Budget Management team to hold accountability and drive conversations around Marketing expense management to help achieve our strategic and financial targets. This role requires strong analytics and accuracy to support the reporting and forecasting responsibilities within the team. It delivers support for Marketing Planners on budget management as well as interlocks with Marketing Finance on a regular basis to ensure timelines and requirements are met. This role will liaise and influence across the marketing and finance organizations and and have exposure to executives and functional stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Thorough, accurate expense reporting- Heavily involved in the month end reporting process for Marketing expenses through detailed coverage of monthly expense outlooks, assisting Marketing Planners with accrual and budgeting questions, and comprehensive and accurate reporting to Marketing and Segment Finance.
• Thoughtful analysis and communication of marketing expenses- Provide insightful interpretation of segment expenses, prepare delivery of key messages that are concise and follow a logical structure, and make appropriate recommendations to planners on budget management to minimize variances to forecast. Conduct frequent interlocks with Marketing Finance to ensure alignment between Marketing and Finance systems, reporting and commentary.
• Develop new reporting and excel modelling that provide depth and clarity for the budget team, planners, marketing executives.
• Maintain the integrity of budgets within Quickbase (marketing budgeting software) and support marketing planners with budget management within the system.
• Support marketing deliverables as it relates to finance deadlines and objectives, particularly for annual plan and quarterly forecasting.

MUST-HAVE Hard Skills:

• 3+ years of relevant experience within finance, accounting or financial planning and analysis
• Strong analytical and understanding of financial acumen, accounting principles and data visualization
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook

SOFT SKILLS:

• Strong communication skills (written and verbal)
• Solid organizational skills with ability to manage multiple priorities/tasks and meet deadlines
• Strong analytical skills, ability to synthesize information into key messages with logical structure and accuracy
• Comfortable working with many functional stakeholders and relay financial information in a relatable, clear and concise manner to marketers.

NICE-TO-HAVE

• Experience with Quickbase or other budget management software
• Prior client or banking experience
• Experience with editing SharePoint sites