Analyst - Financial Planning & Analysis

Jackson Spalding•Atlanta, GA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Analyst, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) plays a key role in supporting Jackson Spalding (JS) by providing value-added financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting; operational analysis; KPI driven analytics and trends; benchmarking and executive level reporting; and other ad-hoc analysis to enhance decision making. The Analyst will be responsible for building forecasting models to identify future risks, participate in the month-end close process, and maintain the integrity and accuracy of the financial statements. This role also will be responsible for supporting JS’ operational business units (i.e., Disciplines) and client account teams, acting as a financial resource and helping them to analyze, manage, grow, and optimize their functions and accounts. This involves: building partnerships and maintaining strong relationships with internal teams managing planning processes, developing key management reporting/ dashboards, thought leadership on analytics / reporting architecture, and providing general finance support for assigned functions. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, analytical, and a strong communicator—curious, focused, and able to balance quality with accuracy. The Analyst is an organized, efficient self-starter who works with minimal supervision and demonstrates strong time management and multitasking skills.

Requirements

4+ years of FP&A or corporate finance experience
BA/BS degree in Finance, Accounting or Economics required
Excellent interpersonal, oral/written communication skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships with business stakeholders and “tell the story” using financial information
Strong analytical skills and demonstrated expertise in financial modeling, reporting and budgeting
Ability to clearly link financial results/outcomes to operational performance drivers, while maintaining a high level of integrity, accuracy and ethics, accuracy and precision in your work; be able to maintain confidentiality
General understanding of professional services or marketing agency business model and key drivers, including setting billable rates and optimizing utilization
Excellent Microsoft Office skills, more specifically an expert with Excel
Experience with enterprise resource planning systems primarily used in a professional services environment (e.g., Advantage)
Demonstrated adoption of modern tools for business analytics, such as planning systems, data analysis, and visualization/dashboard tools (Ex: Domo) and willingness to continue learning new approaches
Proficiency with AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude
General understanding of accounting processes, procedures, and internal controls
Positive collaborative team player with eagerness to learn and add value to the team and organization.
Self-starter who will take initiative; independent in work ethic and thought process, needing little direction
Agility and flexibility to manage multiple, changing priorities and work under tight deadlines

Responsibilities

Proactively work with assigned Disciplines to provide financial management and decision-making support including the allocation of resources against strategic objectives
Effectively leverage financial information to provide the business timely insight into business performance and opportunities for growth
Conduct strategic and analytical projects in collaboration with Discipline and key account team leads to reach business growth and goals while staying within budget, which may include identifying ideal client team structures, optimizing internal processes, etc.
Produce variance analyses to provide transparency to leaders on how actual performance compares against forecasts and budget
Perform in-depth financial variance and trending analyses of key drivers, including detailed margin analysis to identify key trends, risks, and opportunities
Work closely with internal teams to inform headcount and hiring decisions
Collaborate with CFO to inform near- and long-term financial forecasts, which includes developing annual, quarterly, and monthly financial forecasts
Partner with Accounting on month-end close to ensure accuracy and completeness of revenue, expenses, and explanations of variances to plan
Lead the development, maintenance, and publication/distribution of relevant and reliable daily, weekly, and monthly performance reporting and analysis of financial and non-financial data
Compile monthly, quarterly, and annual variance analysis and dig into variances; identify risks and opportunities to the budget and forecast
Drive initiatives to continuously improve and automate forecasting and reporting tools and processes
Leverage business intelligence (BI) tools to deliver meaningful insights into business performance, both internally and externally; maintain relationships with BI tool vendors
Perform ad-hoc analysis and financial modeling in support of key initiatives and required analytics