Strategic Finance & Operational Excellence, Senior Manager

Spaulding Ridge • Chicago, IL

12d • $95,000 - $157,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Spaulding Ridge is seeking a high-caliber, hungry, and intellectually curious Senior Manager, Strategic Finance & Operational Excellence to operate as a true athlete across finance, strategy, and operations. This role is not a traditional FP&A role. The Senior Manager will be a core thought partner to leadership, owning critical initiatives across financial and operational planning, financing, M&A, and global business performance. They will help build and scale a modern, AI-enabled finance function, partnering with teams in the U.S., Canada, and India. The ideal candidate thrives in ambiguity, builds trusting relationships with senior leaders, and is energized by solving complex problems that directly impact company trajectory. This leader will work day-to-day with several P&L leaders to drive operational efficiency, financial performance, and strategic execution, while also partnering closely with the COO & CFO on broader company objectives. This individual will act as a delegate and representative for the practice in financial and operational discussions across the firm and with corporate functions. Success in this role requires strong financial acumen, executive-level communication skills, exceptional stakeholder management, and the ability to lead complex initiatives in a fast-growing, consulting-driven environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business or related; MBA or CPA preferred
• 8–12+ years in FP&A, strategic finance, or corporate finance with increasing scope
• High horsepower: exceptional problem solver with strong business intuition
• Experience managing or supporting consulting / service based business models with strong understanding of utilization, realization, backlog, staffing leverage and delivery economics
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive outcomes
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and shifting between strategy and execution
• Deep curiosity and enthusiasm for AI, automation, and the future of finance
• Experience working across global or distributed teams
• Self-starter with a strong sense of ownership and urgency

Nice To Haves

• Snowflake, Anaplan, Salesforce, FinancialForce and/ or Tableau experience preferred
• Experience with M&A, financing, or corporate development strongly preferred

Responsibilities

• Own planning cycles leading business planning & analysis for quarterly forecasts and annual financial plan for several business areas totaling $50M revenue
• Drive operational rigor across forecasting, backlog management, utilization, pipeline conversion and delivery performance through standardized KPI governance & operating cadences
• Build scalable management reporting and executive operating rhythms that connect financials, GTM, delivery and people metrics into actionable decision-making
• Support capital allocation, cash flow & covenant forecasting
• Align incentive design with profitability & growth by supporting workforce planning, sales performance and compensation plan economics
• Support M&A activities including financial modeling, due diligence & integration planning
• Drive finance transformation initiatives spanning process redesign, systems integration, AI enablement and organizational scalability
• Support advisory board & investor reporting
• Influence senior leaders to build & execute financial plans that drive growth & profitability
• Build and own scalable operating mechanisms that improve forecasting accuracy, decision velocity and accountability across the organization
• Improve visibility into pipeline, backlog and profitability
• Proactively identify risks, opportunities, and performance gaps holding leaders accountable
• Influence decisions on pricing, hiring, and investments
• Partner with cross functional groups to support onboarding, training, project close out, system and process enhancement and other routine operations
• Continuously challenge how finance work gets done- simplify, automate, and scale
• Partner with business intelligence & operations teams to elevate data quality and accessibility
• Embed AI and automation into forecasting, reporting, and decision-making processes
• Act as a champion for a modern, tech-enabled finance organization

Benefits

• Generous time off
• Paid holidays
• Paid parental leave
• 401(k) with company match
• Highly subsidized health, dental, and vision plans
• Company-paid life and disability insurance
• Monthly allowance for well-being and technology expenses
• Reimbursement for approved learning and development initiatives within defined limits

What This Job Offers

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