Financial Analyst

Financial Analyst

This role is to be based near our office in New York City.

About us: 

We drive intelligent growth for ambitious businesses and leading brands. 

Customer understanding is more potent and drives greater value when insights go to work directly within marketing and experience priorities. To give our clients that advantage, we put an insights-driven operating system at the core of our design, go-to-market and digital experience solutions.  

Material clients make smarter growth choices because they can see clearly how and when to take the shots that count. Together, we connect consumer intelligence with customer demand generation to build lasting, profitable relationships.

About the Financial Analyst:

We are actively seeking a Financial Analyst (FP&A) to join our company at an exciting stage, as we sharpen our financial insights and support strategic decision-making across the business. This role is ideal for a high-performing analyst who combines strong fundamentals with a modern mindset—bringing velocity, fresh thinking, and practical ideas to simplify workflows and increase productivity through automation and AI.

In this role, you will be the financial partner to line management, constantly striving to improve the rate of growth in revenue and profit.  You will own key parts of the planning and reporting cycle, build decision-ready analysis for leadership, and partner closely with stakeholders across the business. You will help enhance our reporting and forecasting processes, strengthen data quality, and elevate how we use metrics to run the company.

Level/title may be adjusted based on experience.

In this role, you will:

• Provide Financial Leadership to the line management team and other financial analysts on the team

• Own recurring reporting (weekly/monthly) and deliver actionable insights to Finance leadership and cross-functional partners

• Lead variance analysis and performance commentary, connecting results to business drivers and recommended actions

• Drive quarterly forecasting and annual planning workstreams, including scenario planning, sensitivities, and driver-based models

• Build and maintain scalable tools and reports to track performance against expectations, reducing manual work through automation

• Understand Revenue Recognition principles appropriate to a Services company, including Percentage of Completion and Time and Material contracts.  Understand pricing methodologies and mechanics that may influence revenue recognition.

• Based on a prudent revenue outlook, partner with business leaders to manage expenses and headcount to maximize profit and margin (budget vs. actuals, forecasts, staffing plans, and special analyses)

• Support month-end close analytics (review results, identify anomalies, explain drivers, and improve close-to-report cycle time)

• Improve metric definitions, reporting governance, and “source of truth” alignment across systems and teams

• Build executive-ready dashboards and narratives that simplify complexity and enable decisions

• Leverage AI and automation responsibly to accelerate analysis (e.g., variance explanations, forecast support, validation checks), while ensuring accuracy, auditability, and confidentiality

• Identify and implement process improvements that increase speed, reliability, and self-service insights across Finance

• Coach/mentor more junior team members (formal or informal) and raise the bar on quality and clarity

About You:

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business/Economics, Accounting or related areas.  Alternatively, a technical / engineering degree coupled with an MBA has proven to be an ideal combination.

• 2+ years of experience in financial planning and analysis

• Strong command of budgeting/forecasting, variance analysis, and financial storytelling; able to translate business activity into financial outcomes

• Advanced Excel modeling skills; comfortable building structured, auditable models and templates

• Proven ability to manage multiple stakeholders and deadlines; strong ownership mentality

• Excellent communication skills; capable of producing leadership-ready materials and presenting insights clearly

• High attention to detail with strong judgment—knowing when to move fast and when precision matters

What will make you successful here:

• A passion for the business that leads to visible, measurable results

• You bring “fresh thinking,  energy and strong fundamentals: you look for a better way, move with urgency, and keep quality high

• You’re naturally curious and enjoy turning messy questions into structured analysis, clear insights, and practical recommendations

• You take ownership end-to-end—identifying the question, aligning stakeholders, building the analysis, and driving it to an outcome

• You’re comfortable experimenting with automation and AI to speed up workflows, while validating outputs and protecting confidential information

• You communicate clearly and crisply, adapting your message for both finance and non-finance audiences

• You build trust through accuracy, follow-through, and a bias toward simple, repeatable processes

Technical skills:

• Strong comfort working with finance system outputs; ability to reconcile, validate, and troubleshoot discrepancies

• Experience improving reporting processes (standardization, automation, documentation, controls)

• Advanced Excel (Power Query / data modeling preferred); strong Microsoft tools proficiency

• Comfortable using AI tools to increase productivity (drafting analysis, summarizing findings, creating narrative commentary, validation checks), with a disciplined approach to data privacy and accuracy

• Familiarity with automation approaches/tools (Excel automation, Power Automate, basic scripting, or similar) is a plus

• Familiarity with BI / visualization tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker, or similar) is a plus

Preferred qualifications:

• Knowledge of ERP systems, particularly Workday

• Experience with planning tools, particularly Workday Adaptive Planning

• Experience with key metrics in a professional services business (e.g., Utilization, resource pyramid / leverage, offshore mix, and related delivery/HC productivity metrics)

• Experience with project analysis and project financials, including POC accounting and identifying margin erosion (e.g., delivered margins vs. sold/expected margins)

Why work for Material?

• Material is a global company and we work with best-of-class brands worldwide.  We also create and launch new brands and products, putting innovation and value creation at the center of our practice. Our clients are in the top of their class, across industry sectors from technology to retail, transportation, finance and healthcare. 

• Material employees join a peer group of exceptionally talented colleagues across the company, the country, and even the world. We develop capabilities, craft and leading-edge market offerings across seven global practices including strategy and insights, design, data & analytics, technology and tracking. Our engagement management team makes it all hum for clients.  

• A community focused on learning and making an impact. Material is an outcomes focused company. We create experiences that matter, create new value and make a difference in our clients’ lives and their customers’ lives.

Pay Range: $29.00-32.00/hour

The range shown represents a grouping of relevant ranges currently in use at Material. Actual range for this position may differ, depending on location and specific skillset required for the work itself. 

Equal Employment Opportunity              

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.

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