Senior Financial Analyst Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

Senior Financial Analyst Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

If you are searching for information on the job description of a senior financial analyst, this post provides it. It exhaustively highlights the duties, tasks, and responsibilities individuals who work as senior financial analysts may be expected to perform.

Also, job seekers applying for the role of a senior financial analyst at a company will find the major employers’ requirements for the job in this post to help them prepare their resumes. Please, read on:

What Does a Senior Financial Analyst Do?

Financial analysts interpret financial statements, market trends, and microeconomic conditions in order to offer recommendations on potential business deals and decisions.

The senior financial analyst is responsible for managing a team of financial analysts to provide core financial planning and analysis support to various areas of the company.

They work in various sectors of the economy, including: manufacturing, retail, telecommunication, and banking, etc.

They are responsible for core financial planning and analysis, and provide support global annual operating plan and quarterly forecast process across organization.

The senior financial analyst job description entails driving financial reporting and operating rhythm through development of KPIs, standardization of reporting, and simplification of current processes.

It also involves providing financial planning and analysis support for functional leaders during monthly, quarterly, and yearly planning cycles.

Analysts provide support for the financial landscape, speed, quality, and cost efficiency of the organization through budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis and reporting.

They are responsible for performing variance and trend analysis, driving process improvement, and implementing corrective actions.

In a finance company, the senior financial analyst is expected to coordinate at varying levels of the organization to ensure timely and accurate income statement forecast; evaluating and communicating risks, while driving stakeholder ownership.

They are responsible for consolidating financial revenue and profit forecast; providing analysis “sense of reasonableness”, understanding of policies and procedures, and managing department expense and secondary pool budgets; managing near term element of cost projections and evaluating staffing forecasts.

They apply an understanding of the business strategy in translating the overall strategy into the financial metrics through a full comprehension of FP&A Metrics.

The senior financial analyst work description entails continually identifying ways to improve processes and levels of efficiency, and also carrying out oversight surrounding tools and databases in the preparation of weekly analysis and communication of performance, risks, and opportunities to management.

To become a senior financial analyst requires at least a Bachelor’s degree. Individuals interested in this career must also be proficient in analyzing accounting data and determining economic, statistical, and financial risks.

Senior Financial Analyst Job Description Example/ Sample/Template

Senior financial analysts perform various functions, including carrying out core financial planning and analysis and playing an important role in managing financial performance, and implementing finance strategies of an organization to achieve committed business performance.

They work in various sectors of the economy; hence their responsibilities may vary depending on the organization they work for.

However, the major tasks, duties, and responsibilities that commonly form the senior financial analyst job description are listed below:

• Responsible for developing forward-looking forecasts and budgets
• Responsible for the preparation and presentation of accurate monthly summary of expenses such as direct costs (data, printing, fulfillment) with concise action-oriented commentary and analysis to designated higher authority
• Responsible for various aspects of the month-end close process, including proposing corrections for accounting during month end close, accrual entries, etc.
• Prepare monthly reports on financials to be distributed to the business
• Drive decision making across the business to meet organizational objectives by providing insightful financial analysis, interpretations, predictions, support, tools and recommendations; and clearly communicate results and recommendations to ensure clarity and optimal decision making
• Undertake a monthly proactive review of costs; flag early any changes to be inputted into the forecast based on actual results
• Provide support/assistance in performing monthly analysis of revenue vs forecast, with details of under- or over-performance
• Responsible for establishing and maintaining effective relationships across the business to understand the business and the primary drivers, goals, and the needs of partners and internal customers
• Improve efficiency and control environment, including management of cost center structure and assignment by evaluating processes and providing recommendations
• Develop and perform reporting of operating metrics that ensures financial performance, e.g. profitability of different products in the portfolio.

Senior Financial Analyst Requirements – Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for a Successful Career

If you are seeking the job of a senior financial analyst, employers will normally want to be sure that you will be effective in carrying out the obligations, purpose, and objectives of the role by requiring applicants to possess certain skills, abilities, experience, etc. to access the job.

Provided below are major requirements recruiters may want applicants to meet to qualify to apply for the senior financial analyst position:

• Education: Applicants require a minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, or Business Administration; but an MBA or Master’s degree in Finance or CPA is preferred
• Experience: They require 3+ years of corporate financial analysis and planning experience
• They require the ability to present complex analysis with clarity, and must be able to work in a deadline driven environment
• Knowledge: They must possess Strong financial acumen and analytics skills with a high degree of proficiency in data mining and forecasting model development. They require a strong understanding of accounting and financial processes related to the business; knowledge of US GAAP Sarbanes-Oxley and internal controls; strong systems knowledge such as Essbase, SAP ERP Systems, and Business Objects.; and a solid background and experience in P&L management
• Communication skills: They require excellent communication skills (written and oral) to support the preparation and presentation of written briefs and summaries for internal communication
• Attention to detail: They also require a high level of attention to detail when preparing results and reports
• Organizational skills: They must possess the ability to multi-task and also coordinate peers towards common finance goals by setting priorities and working within deadlines
• Creative problem solving skills: They require the ability to think strategically, as well as tactically.

Conclusion

This post is helpful to recruiters who are hiring for the role of a senior financial analyst in their company. They can apply the sample senior financial analyst job description provided in this post in creating a good description for the role so that only suitably qualified candidates should apply for the job.

Individuals who are interested in the senior financial analyst career can improve their knowledge of the duties and responsibilities of the role by using the information contained in this article.

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