Sr. Director, Finance

Cushman & Wakefield•Chicago, IL

12d•$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. The role is the Finance half of a two-in-the-box partnership with a counterpart in the IT organization (TDS), who 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. This 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 role is accountable for the financial close, consolidation, budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning solutions used by global Finance. It owns the end-to-end planning process in the application, including planning calendar and model design, data loads, validation, reporting, and executive delivery, as well as the validation framework governing platform data. A core mandate is to advance the Company from spreadsheet-driven planning to driver-based, algorithmic forecasting through machine learning and predictive analytics. The Sr. Director partners with Finance Global Process Owners, FP&A leadership, Controllership, TDS, and other Finance and Accounting colleagues. The successful candidate combines finance expertise and hands-on technology fluency, including consolidation and planning application architecture, accounting principles, internal controls, analytics, and machine learning. Management experience is required, as this is a visible leadership role in the global Finance organization.

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; direct OneStream ownership is strongly preferred.
Hands-on functional experience with OneStream and working technical knowledge of cube and dimension design, business rules, workflow, and data management; comparable CPM platforms such as Hyperion HFM/Planning, Anaplan, Tagetik, or Board are 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 facilitate strategic, high-level decision-making.
Excellent communication, relationship management, client-facing, and influence skills.
Strong attention to detail and data analysis, 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 organization skills and ability to prioritize.
Ability to partner with and influence people at all organizational levels.
Ability to operate in a two-in-the-box partnership with a TDS counterpart, sharing accountability and aligning on priorities, decisions, and delivery.
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 applying AI and machine learning to Finance processes.
Change leadership skills and 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 (Foundation, Planning, or Analytic Blend).

Responsibilities

Own and communicate the business vision and multi-year roadmap for OneStream and the broader consolidation and planning ecosystem; jointly establish the governance model with the TDS counterpart.
Align with the TDS counterpart on priorities, enhancement intake and prioritization, release calendar, issue escalation, and resourcing, and present a unified view to Finance and IT leadership.
Own the application-based 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 load, submission, review, and executive reporting.
Lead functional design and continuous 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, to support an accurate, timely, and auditable global close.
Establish and own the data validation framework, including source-to-target reconciliation, automated confirmation rules, variance thresholds, exception routing, and audit-ready tie-out evidence between ERP and consolidation and planning layers.
Build predictive forecasting capability by deploying machine learning and statistical models for driver-based, algorithmic forecasts, and establishing model governance, back-testing, accuracy tracking, and business adoption.
Define business requirements and acceptance criteria for integrations between OneStream and source systems such as ERP, HCM, CRM, and the data warehouse; partner with TDS on controlled, reliable, and timely data flows.
Own financial data governance and metadata management with the Financial Data Management master data governance team, aligning 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 working relationships to enhance global communication and teamwork.
Co-manage OneStream vendor and implementation-partner relationships with the TDS counterpart, including licensing, release adoption, MarketPlace solution deployment, and roadmap influence.