Senior Manager - Finance Transformation, Operating Model

Senior Manager – Finance Transformation (Operating Model)

Profile summary

The Finance Business Consulting team is looking for a Senior Manager with a strong delivery track record in Finance Transformation, who can bring business and technology-based solutions together to deliver outcomes for our clients.

You will act as the lead business architect on our engagements: the person who designs how a finance function should work, and then makes that design real. That covers target operating model design, organisation design, process and controls, and leading the business side of major system implementations, including ERP and EPM programmes. You will not be expected to own the technical build, but you will be expected to hold the business design together across it.

Prior consulting experience is essential, alongside a track record of delivering large-scale Finance Transformation programmes in Financial Services, ideally with a Big 4 or top-tier firm. We work across Banking, Capital Markets and Insurance, and we welcome candidates with depth in any of these sectors.

The role calls for an adaptable individual who is comfortable across a wide range of client issues. The nature of our work varies considerably, so you should be at ease taking on different delivery roles and the challenges that come with them.

Your responsibilities

As a Senior Manager in our Finance Business Consulting team, you will own the delivery of engagements and workstreams, hold the relationship with senior client stakeholders, and be accountable for the commercial performance of the work you lead. You will also help build the practice.

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Leading large and complex end-to-end Finance Transformations, either as engagement lead on mid-sized work or as workstream lead on major programmes
• Designing target operating models for finance functions, covering service and process taxonomies, delivery models, locations and sourcing, governance, and the interfaces into Risk, Front Office, Actuarial and IT
• Leading organisation design: functional structures, role and capability models, spans and layers, sizing and the transition from current to target
• Leading the business side of ERP and EPM programmes – requirements, business process design, design authority, testing strategy, data readiness input, cutover and business readiness – partnering with, but not owning, the technical delivery track
• Running the current-state assessment: requirements gathering, existing organisation structure, processes and controls, pain points and the case for change
• Designing the working day timetable and delivering an accelerated close
• Leading design workshops, drawing out the client's business requirements and translating them into a leading-practice process and business design
• Leading business readiness and change management to take the client through go-live and into business as usual
• Using AI to accelerate our own delivery – for example in current-state analysis, process documentation, deliverable drafting and quality review – and setting the standard for how the team does this well
• Using AI as a thinking partner: stress-testing design options, challenging your own conclusions and pressure-testing deliverables before they reach the client
• Designing operating models that assume AI and automation are part of the target state, and being able to explain to a client where judgement stays with people and where it does not
• Leading and managing delivery teams, reviewing and challenging the outputs they produce, and giving clear guidance to more junior colleagues
• Taking responsibility for the financial management of engagements, including scoping, budgeting, resourcing and margin
• Leading business development: identifying and shaping opportunities with new and existing clients, running proposals and bid teams, and managing the delivery of high-quality proposals
• Building strong internal and external networks that support long-term relationships, managing EY accounts and bringing the breadth of the firm to our clients
• Growing the practice by sharing knowledge and experience, and by contributing to EY points of view, solutions, engagement tools and enablers
• Training, coaching and supervising junior colleagues, and supporting the development of the wider team
• Keeping current with industry developments and the technologies, reporting standards and trends shaping Financial Services
• Providing quality assurance and monitoring risk, managing assignment teams and third parties, and liaising with service line teams, functional specialists and partners

Professional experience

Typical experience may include, but is not limited to:

• Prior consulting experience is essential, preferably with a Big 4 or top-tier consulting firm
• Experience delivering large-scale Finance Transformation programmes in Financial Services – Banking, Capital Markets or Insurance
• Experience of four or more Finance Transformations in Financial Services
• A track record as business architect or design lead, delivering the business-focused elements of a client's target operating model: organisation design, process and controls, working day timetable, change management, training and business readiness
• Experience leading the business workstream of an ERP or EPM implementation, and holding the business design against a technical delivery plan
• An understanding of how finance technology is used to solve client problems, and the ability to work with technology partners across the spectrum from low-code tooling through to full ERP and EPM capability
• Practical experience of using AI tools in a delivery context, and a view on where they add value and where they do not

Finance Transformation experience should span:

• Current-state assessment of a client's operating model
• Identification of pain points and requirements to underpin a transformation
• Target process taxonomy and process design, from Level 1 through to Level 4
• Leading-practice controls frameworks and finance controls
• Working day timetable design and improvement
• The processes that surround Finance – Risk, Front Office, Actuarial, IT and others
• Standard operating procedures
• Delivering a business design that meets the client's ambition: greater automation and standardisation, fewer manual processes, lower cost, leading-practice processes and a fit-for-purpose organisation
• Delivering across all transformation phases – business case and discovery, design, implementation, business readiness, testing, training, go-live and post go-live support

Skills

Finance Transformation skills

• Strong knowledge of Finance Transformation, particularly the business architecture side of a programme
• The ability to deliver a full business design, covering:
  • Target operating model and organisation design
  • Process taxonomy, processes and controls
  • Working day timetable
  • Design that drives automation and standardisation
  • Change management and business readiness strategy and implementation
  • Training approach and materials
  • Support model and processes
  • Cutover and transition into business as usual
• Reviewing functional and technical designs against business requirements, and challenging where they do not hold up
• Taking written deliverables from early storyboarding through to content delivery and client sign-off

Working with AI

• Confident using AI tools to accelerate delivery, and able to judge where output needs human review before it goes anywhere near a client
• Comfortable using AI as a thinking partner – to explore options, test logic and challenge a design before others do
• Able to design target operating models that reflect what AI and automation genuinely change about how finance work gets done
• Willing to set the standard for how the team adopts these tools, and to coach others in doing so well

Consulting skills

• Excellent communication and presentation skills, used consistently with people at every level of an organisation
• Extremely comfortable and confident around senior stakeholders, internally and externally
• Demonstrable leadership across both engagement and practice teams
• High level of drive, a commitment to finding solutions, and the ability to work well under pressure
• Confident and comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity in a project environment
• Able to apply logic and structured problem solving to complex finance problems
• A good grasp of the key issues and challenges currently facing CFOs in Financial Services
• Takes personal responsibility for the quality of delivery
• Instils a positive team mentality, even under pressure, by treating colleagues well and creating an inclusive culture
• Extremely comfortable with PowerPoint, Excel and Visio. Much of our work involves detailed analysis and deliverable writing, so it is critical that you can work with these tools

Qualifications

• A first-level university degree at 2:1 or equivalent is common, but not compulsory
• An accounting qualification (ACA, ACMA, ACCA) applied within a financial institution would be beneficial, but is not essential

What working at EY offers

You will join a growing and diverse team that combines business design, systems integration and financial modelling capability across the Financial Services market. You will gain experience across the full spectrum of Finance Transformation, and help take our business to the next level as we embrace advances in technology, data and AI to solve our clients' business challenges.

We offer a competitive remuneration package where you will be rewarded for your individual and team performance. Our comprehensive Total Rewards package includes support for flexible working and career development, and with MyReward you can select benefits that suit your needs, covering holidays, health and well-being, insurance, savings, and a wide range of discounts, offers and promotions. In addition, we offer:

• Support, coaching and feedback from some of the most engaging colleagues around
• Opportunities to develop new skills and progress your career
• The freedom and flexibility to handle your role in a way that is right for you

About EY

As a global leader in Assurance, Tax, Strategy, Transaction and Consulting services, we are using the products, expertise and systems we have developed to build a better working world. That starts with a culture that believes in giving you the training, opportunities and creative freedom to make things better. Whenever you join, however long you stay, the exceptional EY experience lasts a lifetime.

The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all our stakeholders. In doing so, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, our clients and our communities.

Our values define who we are. They influence the way we work with each other, with our clients and regulators, and within our communities, where we use our professional skills to create positive change close to home and around the world.

Who we are

EY is committed to being an inclusive employer, and we are happy to consider flexible working arrangements. We strive to achieve the right balance for our people, enabling us to deliver excellent client service while allowing you to build your career without sacrificing your personal priorities. While our client-facing professionals can be required to travel regularly, and at times be based at client sites, our flexible working arrangements can help you achieve a lifestyle balance.

If you can confidently demonstrate that you meet the criteria above, please contact us as soon as possible. Join us in building a better working world.

Apply now

Please note: prior to finalising your application, you will be asked to provide personal information across several dimensions of diversity and inclusiveness. The information you provide is kept entirely confidential and will not be used to evaluate your candidacy. We collect this data to help us analyse our recruitment process holistically and implement actions that promote diversity and inclusiveness. While optional, we encourage you to provide this information to hold us accountable towards our goal of building a better working world. We ask because it matters.