Lead Financial Planning Analyst (Marketing)

Vanguard • Malvern, PA

8d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Lead Financial Planning Analyst serves as a strategic Finance partner within Marketing, combining FP&A expertise with business acumen, analytical curiosity, and an investment mindset. The role partners with senior leaders to interpret financial and business performance, evaluate investment opportunities and tradeoffs, and connect Marketing resources to measurable business outcomes. It looks beyond reporting results to identify what drives them and how Finance can help improve subsequent decisions.

The position owns core FP&A activities for key Marketing functions and develops financial insights, business cases, scenario analyses, and models to support investment and resource decisions. It also partners with Marketing and Finance stakeholders to improve understanding of marketing investment, media, measurement, and analytics, while advancing processes, automation, and decision support.

Vanguard describes a hybrid working model for the majority of its crew members, combining flexibility with in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience in FP&A, financial analysis, or a related Finance role.
• Strong capabilities in planning, forecasting, financial modeling, and performance analysis.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including synthesizing complex financial and business information, identifying key drivers, and developing clear recommendations.
• Exceptional written and executive communication skills, including the ability to prepare strategic memos, executive presentations, business cases, and other decision-support materials for senior audiences.
• Strong business partnership and influencing skills, including the ability to build credibility with senior leaders and cross-functional partners, constructively challenge thinking, and help advance decisions and priorities.
• Strategic and commercial mindset, curiosity about how the business works, and ability to connect financial decisions and investments to broader business outcomes.
• High degree of ownership and initiative; ability to work independently, anticipate needs, manage competing priorities, and drive work forward in an evolving environment.
• Strong attention to detail balanced with an ability to see the bigger picture and focus effort on important questions and decisions.

Responsibilities

• Own annual planning, forecasting, monthly reporting, variance analysis, risk and opportunity identification, and ongoing expense and headcount management for key Marketing functions; surface insights and issues requiring leadership attention.
• Serve as a trusted Finance partner to senior Marketing leaders by understanding their strategies, priorities, investments, and performance drivers, and providing financial perspective to support decisions.
• Evaluate Marketing investments and business opportunities through business cases, scenario analyses, and financial models that clarify costs, benefits, tradeoffs, risks, and expected outcomes.
• Build expertise in marketing investment, media, measurement, and analytics, partnering with Marketing and Finance stakeholders to improve understanding of how investments translate into marketing and business outcomes.
• Translate financial and business data into actionable insights, explain drivers and implications, challenge assumptions constructively, and recommend next steps.
• Collaborate across Finance and Marketing to solve problems, align stakeholders, and move work forward with ownership, sound judgment, and follow-through.
• Simplify and standardize Finance processes, leverage automation and emerging tools, and eliminate lower-value activities to create more capacity for analysis, decision support, and strategic partnership.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed