Manager, Financial Operations (FinOps)- Huron Digital Services

Huron Consulting Services • Chicago, IL

1d • $110,000 - $150,000 • Remote

About The Position

Huron is redefining what a global consulting organization can be. Advancing new ideas every day to build even stronger clients, individuals and communities. We’re helping our clients find new ways to drive growth, enhance business performance and sustain leadership in the markets they serve. And, we’re developing strategies and implementing solutions that enable the transformative change they need to own their future. As a member of the Huron corporate team, you’ll help to evolve our business model to stay ahead of market forces, industry trends and client needs. Our accounting, finance, human resources, IT, legal, marketing and facilities management professionals work collaboratively to support Huron’s collective strategies and enable real transformation to produce sustainable business results. Join our team and create your future. The Manager, Financial Operations (FinOps) is a key operational and analytical leadership role within the Digital Services organization. This manager leads a global FinOps team of early-career analysts and associates in the United States and India, ensuring they deliver accurate, timely, and actionable financial data and insights that support business management and decision-making. The Manager, FinOps defines and continuously refines the team’s responsibilities, ensures each team member fulfills their role, and drives the development of team skills and expertise. This role works in close partnership with the Director, Digital Operations to align the team’s reporting, analytics, and insights with business needs and strategic objectives, acting as a critical bridge between detailed financial analysis and strategic operational decision-making. In addition, the FinOps Manager coordinates across enterprise departments and systems – collaborating with internal product owners (e.g. IT data teams) and enterprise Finance/IT initiatives – to maintain alignment and consistency in financial data and reporting tools. A continuous improvement mindset is essential, as the Manager, FinOps is charged with streamlining processes, improving workflows, and championing automation to eliminate manual reporting tasks and leverage global resources effectively. This role reports to the Corporate Vice President, Digital Services Operations, contributing to the execution of key business strategies, strategic initiatives, and the ongoing improvement of Digital Services’ financial and operational performance.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or a related field required .
• Experience: Experience managing or leading an early career team (including remote/global team members) is required, as this role involves direct management of employees in multiple locations. Approximately 7+ years of experience in financial planning & analysis (FP&A), operations finance, or related roles, with a track record of increasing responsibility. Prior experience in a professional services, consulting, or digital/technology services environment is highly desirable, as it provides familiarity with project-based revenue, resource utilization, and fast-paced growth scenarios.
• Technical & Analytical Skills: Strong financial analytical capabilities – proficiency in financial modeling, forecasting techniques, and variance analysis. Hands-on experience with budgeting and forecasting processes , and creating management reports or dashboards is essential. Advanced Excel skills are required; experience with enterprise financial systems or planning tools (such as Adaptive Insights, Workday/OfficeConnect, Power BI, or similar platforms) is strongly preferred. Demonstrated ability to wrangle large data sets and ensure data integrity is important. Familiarity with automation, scripting, or business intelligence tools to streamline data processes is a plus.
• Leadership & Team Management: Proven ability to lead, coach, and develop a team of finance/operations analysts who are early in their career. Capable of setting clear goals, providing constructive feedback, and fostering a high-performance team culture. Experience leading a distributed or global team is beneficial, including awareness of how to coordinate work across time zones and leverage strengths of team members in different locations.
• Business Acumen & Industry Knowledge: Solid understanding of how a services business operates – including revenue recognition basics, project financials (WIP, backlog, AR), and key performance metrics for consulting or digital services (utilization, bill rates, margin, etc.). Ability to interpret financial results in a business context and to discuss performance with non-financial stakeholders. Experience interfacing with senior business leaders (e.g., BU or practice leaders) in support of strategic decisions or business performance reviews is required.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Experience working cross-functionally with departments such as IT, data analytics, or corporate finance. The ideal candidate has participated in or led projects that involved improving financial systems or reports , implementing new tools, or process improvement initiatives that required coordination with multiple stakeholders. A track record of driving or contributing to automation and process enhancement projects is highly valued.
• Communication Skills: Excellent communication and presentation skills. Ability to translate complex financial data into clear, concise insights and actionable recommendations for business leaders. Comfortable presenting to senior management and tailoring communication style to different audiences (detailed reviews with analysts vs. executive summaries for leadership). Strong written communication skills are needed for crafting commentary in reports and developing documentation for processes or training.

Nice To Haves

• Global Team & Diversity Awareness: Experience working with or managing teams in multiple countries (particularly US and India) can be advantageous, as it demonstrates ability to navigate cultural differences, varying business hours, and communication styles.
• Process Improvement & Automation: Demonstrated success in automating reports or financial processes , such as implementing dashboard solutions, using macros/scripts, or partnering with IT on tool enhancements. Familiarity with modern data visualization and reporting tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) and how they can replace manual Excel reporting is beneficial.
• Enterprise Systems & Tools: Prior experience acting as a business owner or power user of financial systems (ERP, planning, or BI tools). For example, involvement in testing or rolling out new forecast models, maintaining reporting tools like OfficeConnect, or being the liaison between finance teams and IT for system updates. Understanding of data governance and ensuring data quality in enterprise systems is a plus.
• Adaptability and Change Management: Experience in a dynamic environment undergoing growth or reorganization. Able to adapt to new structures, changing business models, or evolving leadership priorities. Experience playing a role in change management – such as helping teams adopt new tools or processes – is a plus.
• High-Growth or Startup Environment: Experience in a high-growth business or a startup-like environment can be beneficial, indicating an ability to build or improve processes from the ground up, handle ambiguity, and scale operations efficiently.
• Core Competencies
• Leadership & Mentoring: Strong people leadership skills – motivates and guides the team to achieve their best performance. Passionate about developing new talent, providing coaching, and creating a supportive environment where team members continuously learn and improve. Leads by example in work ethic, integrity, and proactive approach to challenges.
• Analytical Rigor: Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills. Able to dive into the details of financial data, identify trends, pinpoint issues, and interpret the “story” behind the numbers. Maintains a rigorous attention to detail to ensure accuracy in all financial deliverables while also being able to step back and see the bigger picture for strategy and planning.
• Communication & Influence: Excellent communicator who can convey financial information to non-financial stakeholders in a clear and impactful way. Skilled at writing executive summaries, explaining complex analysis in straightforward terms, and using data visualization or storytelling techniques to influence decision-making. Comfortable influencing peers and superiors by presenting well-reasoned analysis and recommendations.
• Collaboration & Relationship-Building: A team player who works effectively across organizational boundaries. Builds strong relationships with key stakeholders such as business unit leaders, the Director of Operations, corporate finance teams, and IT partners. Demonstrates a collaborative approach , understanding that success in this role comes from enabling others (e.g., providing OBPs and leaders with the information they need) and integrating input from various sources.
• Initiative & Continuous Improvement: Proactive and forward-thinking, constantly looking for ways to improve existing processes and tools. Embraces innovation and change , whether it’s adopting a new reporting technology or redesigning a workflow for efficiency. Not content with the status quo – regularly seeks feedback, identifies pain points (like manual or redundant processes), and drives solutions that enhance productivity and the quality of insights delivered.
• Strategic Mindset: While deeply involved in the details, maintains a strategic perspective on how operational finances link to business strategy. Understands the organization’s strategic goals and ensures that the FinOps team’s efforts (reporting, analysis, forecasts) are aligned to support those objectives. Able to anticipate what information or analysis will be needed for upcoming decisions or initiatives, and prepares the team to meet those needs.

Responsibilities

• Lead and Develop the FinOps Team: Manage a global team of FinOps analysts and associates, located in the US and India, providing clear direction, setting performance expectations, and fostering professional development. Define and refine the FinOps team’s roles and responsibilities, ensuring all core work and deliverables are owned and executed effectively. Mentor team members to build financial acumen, analytical skills, and business understanding, thus enhancing overall team capability and career growth opportunities. Promote a collaborative and inclusive team culture that leverages diverse perspectives across geographies.
• Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Content Delivery: Oversee the creation and distribution of key financial reports and presentations that inform Digital Services leadership and business units. Ensure timely preparation of recurring executive reports – including biweekly Executive Operating Committee (EOC) and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) update decks, monthly Management Financial Reports (MFRs), weekly backlog updates, and month-end financial result summaries – that provide clear visibility into business performance. Review and refine these deliverables for accuracy, insightfulness, and alignment with enterprise reporting standards.
• Budgeting, Forecasting & Planning Processes: Manage the annual budget process and regular forecasting cycles for Digital Services, in partnership with the Director, Digital Operations, Digital FinOps team and and corporate FP&A. This includes end-to-end program management of forecasting and planning timelines and milestones, consolidation of inputs from various BUs, industries, and regions, and preparation of executive-level forecasting materials (e.g. quarterly Executive Leadership Team forecasts and annual plan presentations). Maintain key planning resources and models – such as consolidated financial forecast models, backlog coverage models by industry, and scenario planning or investment thesis models. Track and document planning assumptions, and perform rigorous quality assurance (QA) and audits on forecast data (e.g. checking generalist revenue, average salary assumptions). Provide hands-on support during budgeting and forecasting, ensuring that assumptions are applied and that the process runs smoothly and on schedule.
• Financial Reporting, Analytics & Insights: Ensure the FinOps team delivers robust financial analysis and business insights to inform decision-making. Oversee preparation of regular and ad-hoc analyses on key performance indicators – revenue, pipeline health, backlog trends, profit margins, utilization rates, etc. – and interpret these metrics in the context of targets and forecasts. Monitor performance metrics (e.g., managing director/partner KPIs, utilization, sold margin trends) and highlight variances or trends, providing commentary on underlying drivers. Validate that all reporting outputs adhere to the enterprise’s taxonomy and financial governance standards, so that data is consistent, reliable, and comparable across the organization
• Tools, Systems & Automation: Own the FinOps tools and resources that support Digital Services operations and continuously improve them. This includes managing and enhancing the consolidated forecasting and reporting models , maintaining the OfficeConnect reporting linkages, overseeing backlog and pipeline tracking systems and capacity models for resource planning. Act as the operations representative with internal Enterprise Data & Information Systems (EDIS) teams and other product owners to identify and implement enhancements to reporting and analytics platforms. Champion automation efforts to replace manual report creation with self-service dashboards or improved system reports, reducing errors and freeing team capacity for analysis. Regularly review existing reports and tools for usage and effectiveness, consolidating or updating them to ensure relevance and eliminate redundant efforts. In partnership with IT and data teams, address data quality issues (e.g., a “broken” backlog report or misaligned data fields) proactively to prevent disruptions in reporting. Stay attuned to enterprise-level IT initiatives (such as new financial systems, reporting platforms, or analytics tools) and represent the Digital Services Operations perspective in those projects, ensuring that new systems meet the needs of the FinOps team and Digital Services leaders.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Alignment: Work closely with a broad range of stakeholders to ensure holistic support of Digital Services operations. Coordinate with the Director, Digital Operations (OBP lead) to align on priorities, share insights, and produce integrated reporting that combines both operational analysis and financial analysis for a complete picture of business health. Collaborate with Operations Business Partners (OBPs) to integrate front-line business insights with financial data. Work with other departments (IT, HR, Sales, Delivery) to support cross-functional initiatives, such as refining performance measurement systems, contributing data and analysis to enterprise projects, or adjusting processes to new company-wide tools or policies. Ensure alignment between industry-focused teams, regional operations, and business units by coordinating how financial data is collected and reported, so that all stakeholders are making decisions based on a single source of truth.
• Continuous Improvement & Strategic Initiatives: Maintain a relentless focus on process improvement, efficiency, and scalability . Regularly evaluate FinOps workflows (report generation, data consolidation, analysis processes) to identify opportunities for simplification and standardization. Lead initiatives to automate repetitive or time-consuming tasks , leveraging technology and enterprise resources to implement solutions that reduce manual work. Encourage knowledge sharing and the development of best practices within the team to reduce redundant efforts and improve consistency in metrics and reports. Actively engage in Digital Services strategic initiatives and special projects as a key operations/finance resource, providing data-driven insights and analytics support for new business strategies, performance improvement plans, and other operational excellence programs. Support the CVP, Digital Services Operations in driving continuous improvement in business performance , by delivering analyses and recommendations that highlight areas for cost optimization, revenue growth, and operational efficiency gains.

Benefits

• This job is also eligible to participate in Huron’s annual incentive compensation program, which reflects Huron’s pay for performance philosophy.
• Inclusive of annual incentive compensation opportunity, the total estimated compensation range for this job is $126,500-$172,000.
• The job is also eligible to participate in Huron’s benefit plans which include medical, dental and vision coverage and other wellness programs.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager