Head of Strategic Finance & Financial Planning & Analysis

THE CANADIAN REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATION•Ottawa, ON

15h•CA$140,000 - CA$160,000•Remote

About The Position

The Head of Strategic Finance & Financial Planning & Analysis is accountable for building REALTOR.ca's strategic finance, financial planning, performance management, and investment decision support capability. The role exists to provide the financial insight, discipline, and commercial analysis required for REALTOR.ca to operate as a focused, for-profit digital marketplace while continuing to advance its mission of helping Canadians make confident housing decisions. This is a hands-on finance leadership role. The Head of Strategic Finance & FP&A will build the models, prepare executive-ready analysis, work through imperfect data, and partner directly with the CEO, leadership team, and CREA shared-services finance team to strengthen financial visibility, decision quality, and business accountability.

Requirements

CPA designation.
Ability to translate board-level strategy into clear financial analysis, detailed modelling, and practical decision support.
Sound judgment when working with imperfect data and evolving business needs.
Ability to strengthen financial discipline and create structure without unnecessary bureaucracy.
Strong business-partnering skills, with the ability to build trust, explain financial implications, and respectfully challenge assumptions across senior leadership, finance, and functional teams.
Advanced financial modelling across revenue, costs, headcount, capital and operating expenses, scenarios, and investment evaluation.
Strong commercial judgment, connecting financial analysis to strategy, monetization, product decisions, partnerships, and growth.
Ability to build effective planning, forecasting, reporting, and business-case processes.
Ability to communicate complex financial information clearly to executive, board, and non-finance audiences.
Practical understanding of shared-services finance models and how to establish effective routines between business and central finance teams.

Responsibilities

Lead annual budgeting, quarterly forecasting, and long-range financial planning for REALTOR.ca.
Build and maintain financial models for revenue, cost structure, headcount, capital expenditures, operating expenses, and strategic initiatives.
Analyze performance against budget, forecast, prior year, and long-range plan.
Develop executive-ready reporting that explains financial results, underlying business drivers, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions.
Improve financial visibility so leaders understand performance, trade-offs, and the implications of key decisions.
Partner across Product, Technology, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Partnerships, and Data to understand business performance and financial drivers.
Support pricing, monetization, product profitability, partnership economics, and revenue model analysis.
Build business cases for major initiatives and investments, including return, payback, assumptions, risks, and success measures.
Challenge assumptions constructively to help leaders make better, more financially informed decisions.
Connect financial analysis to strategy, business priorities, commercial opportunities, and operational realities.
Translate REALTOR.ca's strategy into financial plans, scenarios, performance targets, and decision frameworks.
Develop scenario analysis to support strategic choices, investment decisions, and trade-offs.
Establish practical investment governance, including business case templates, approval thresholds, success metrics, and post-investment reviews.
Support leadership and board-level discussions with clear financial insight, analysis, and recommendations.
Ensure major initiatives have clear financial assumptions, ownership, expected outcomes, and performance follow-up.
Shape the partnership with CREA shared-services finance, including reporting structure, cost center visibility, and management information required to run the business.
Build the foundational tools, routines, reporting standards, and planning processes required for a disciplined FP&A function.
Set clear finance service requirements, reporting needs, and quality expectations across the business.
Strengthen financial literacy, budget ownership, and accountability across functions.
Identify gaps in financial data, reporting, process, and governance, and create practical ways to improve them over time.