Sr. Director, Finance

Cushman & Wakefield•Chicago, IL

13d•$170,000 - $200,000

About The Position

The Sr. Director, Finance Applications owns the business strategy, roadmap, functional design, and financial governance for Cushman & Wakefield’s OneStream enterprise consolidation and planning platform, partnering with a counterpart in the IT organization (TDS). The role is accountable for the integrity and ongoing advancement of the financial close, consolidation, budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning solutions used by global Finance. It owns the application-side planning process from calendar and model design through data loading, validation, reporting, and executive delivery, as well as the controls governing data entering and leaving the platform. A central goal is to advance the Company from spreadsheet-driven planning to driver-based, algorithmic forecasting using machine learning and predictive analytics. The position is the Finance half of a two-in-the-box partnership. It owns OneStream business strategy, process design, functional configuration, and financial governance; the TDS counterpart owns technical platform elements such as integrations, security, and technical administration. The two roles jointly set the roadmap and are jointly accountable for platform performance. The role does not own Workday or the ERP transactional platform, but partners with Workday Finance and IT on master data alignment and release coordination. The Sr. Director works closely with Finance Global Process Owners, FP&A leadership, Controllership, and TDS. The successful candidate combines finance expertise and hands-on technology experience, including application architecture, accounting principles, internal controls, analytics, and machine learning. The role is a visible leader in the global Finance organization and leads and develops a global team of application owners, solution architects, and analysts.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Information Technology, MIS, Data Science, or a related field.
15+ years of related professional work experience desired, including experience in a leadership role.
At least 8 years of experience implementing, owning, or managing enterprise consolidation and planning platforms.
Hands-on functional experience with OneStream and working technical knowledge of cube and dimension design, business rules, workflow, and data management; comparable CPM platforms may be considered.
Demonstrated ownership of an end-to-end planning cycle, including annual budget, reforecast, and long-range plan, in a global, multi-currency organization.
Experience designing data validation, reconciliation, and data quality controls between an ERP and a consolidation and planning system.
Practical experience deploying machine-learning or predictive statistical forecasting in a Finance setting, including model governance, back-testing, and accuracy measurement.
Working knowledge of the Finance data and analytics stack, including SQL, Python or R, data warehousing, Power BI, and Alteryx.
Strong understanding of consolidation accounting, US GAAP, and SOX controls over financial systems.
Working knowledge of how consolidation and planning tools integrate with an ERP such as Workday Financials; ERP administration and integration build are not required.
Ability to assess granular details to support strategic, high-level decision-making.
Excellent communication, relationship-management, client-facing, and decision-influencing skills.
Strong attention to detail and data-analysis skills, including the ability to draw conclusions, glean insights, and tell a story through data.
Experience leading within a global organization.
Proven leadership abilities and management experience.
Experience building and leading teams of financial systems professionals, with a focus on staff development.
Ability to multitask and act with a sense of urgency.
Strong organizational skills and ability to prioritize.
Ability to partner and influence at all organizational levels and operate in a shared-accountability partnership with a TDS counterpart.
Strong project-management capabilities to plan, organize, and deliver projects on time and on budget.
Self-starter with a focus on process improvement.
Ability to deliver under pressure while balancing multiple and sometimes competing priorities.
Intellectual curiosity and comfort with emerging technology, including AI and machine learning applications in Finance.
Change-leadership ability to drive adoption of new planning models and forecasting methods across a global Finance organization.

Nice To Haves

CPA, MBA, or a master’s degree.
OneStream certification in Foundation, Planning, or Analytic Blend.
Direct ownership of OneStream is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Own and communicate the business vision and multi-year roadmap for OneStream and the broader consolidation and planning ecosystem; jointly establish the platform governance model with the TDS counterpart.
Operate in a two-in-the-box leadership model with TDS, aligning on priorities, enhancement intake and prioritization, release calendars, issue escalation, and resourcing, and presenting a unified view to Finance and IT leadership.
Own the application-side end-to-end planning process for annual budgets, quarterly reforecasts, long-range plans, workforce, capital, and cash planning, including calendar design, workflow, model build, data loading, submissions, reviews, and executive reporting.
Lead functional design and ongoing enhancement of OneStream applications, including cube and dimension design, business rules, workflow profiles, metadata, and dashboards, partnering with TDS on technical configuration and build.
Own the consolidation solution, including legal entity and management consolidation, intercompany eliminations, currency translation, ownership, and close workflow, ensuring an accurate, timely, and auditable global close.
Establish and own data validation controls, including source-to-target reconciliation, automated confirmation rules, variance thresholds, exception routing, and audit-ready evidence of ERP-to-platform tie-outs.
Develop predictive forecasting capabilities by deploying machine-learning and statistical models for driver-based forecasts, and establishing model governance, back-testing, accuracy tracking, and business adoption.
Define business requirements and acceptance criteria for OneStream integrations with ERP, HCM, CRM, and data warehouse systems; partner with TDS, which owns integration architecture and build, to support controlled, reliable, timely data flows.
Own financial data governance and metadata management with the Financial Data Management master data governance team, promoting consistent hierarchies and data structures across systems.
Partner with TDS to define and enforce SOX-compliant change management, security, and release governance; own business user acceptance testing, access reviews, and control documentation, while TDS owns security administration, environment strategy, and technical release management.
Partner with Finance and Accounting colleagues to improve end-to-end processes and develop solutions that increase effectiveness and efficiency.
Improve process efficiency through tools and automation, including RPA, citizen development, Power BI, Alteryx, and Python.
Lead, develop, and grow a global team of application owners, solution architects, and analysts, and build cross-departmental relationships that support global communication and teamwork.
Co-manage OneStream vendor and implementation-partner relationships with TDS, including licensing, release adoption, Marketplace solution deployment, and roadmap influence.