JELLYVISION NEEDS AN AMAZING FINANCIAL ANALYST

Founded by the creator of the YOU DON'T KNOW JACK® game series, The Jellyvision Lab, Inc. creates virtual teachers, advisors, and salespeople who make online learning and decision making delightful.  In all that we do, our goal is to make complex topics simple and boring material interesting, using a combination of great design, unexpectedly funny content, and serious technology.  
 
Of all the virtual people Jellyvision has created, the tallest and least afraid of bears is ALEX® (www.meetalex.com). ALEX helps companies talk their employees through the tricky choices they’ll have to make, like picking a health insurance plan, deciding how much to put in the 401(k), or whether they might want extra life insurance. Our customers love ALEX because ALEX helps their employees figure out what’s best for their personal situations, which, in turn, saves our customers a boat-load of time and money - everybody wins!

As we sell more and more of ALEX, we need more and more non-virtual (i.e., real life) people to keep the virtual ones amazing. Business is booming and we need to add to our Finance team to get more rigor in our forecasting and analysis. That’s where you come in.

GREAT, SO WHAT’S THE JOB?

We’re looking for an incredibly detail-oriented, proactive person with a head for numbers and a background in financial planning and analysis to join our Finance team.  Our business is growing significantly each year, and that means we need more forecasting, budgeting, reporting, and ad-hoc analyses than ever before. Specifically your responsibilities would include:

• Forecasting of revenues, expenses, and cash flows
  • Specific responsibilities will range from detailed data-input to complicated Excel modeling for forward-looking strategic analyses
  • Constantly work with various company managers to uncover the best assumptions in forecasting the financials
  • Build, maintain, and improve upon a detailed three-statement financial model
• Support preparation of presentation materials for management and board meetings (PowerPoint, Excel modeling, analyses, etc.)
• Prepare monthly operational review packets with qualitative and quantitative variance analyses and operational metrics
• Propose and implement ideas to improve efficiency and accuracy of FP&A process
• Ad-hoc analytical support for special projects
• Proactively drive analyses around business performance by making sense of raw data, identifying trends, and understanding key drivers of costs and revenues

AND WHAT KIND OF A PERSON ARE YOU LOOKING FOR TO FILL THIS ROLE?

• The obvious qualities: professional, responsible, dedicated, friendly, flexible, patient and enthusiastic.
• Strong technical finance skills. You should have intimate knowledge of building a three-statement financial model. You should probe to understand the business drivers behind the financial forecast. While you don’t necessarily need the accounting chops of a CPA, you should be comfortable thinking about profitability metrics and implications of GAAP revenue changes, and have a position about doing an indirect or direct cash flow method forecast.  Generally, you’re likely pretty ‘mathy’ and like to find empirical data to prove your points.
• General computer skills. Excel modeling is a craft you take seriously.  You find ways to write error-proof formulas and build models with logical flow. Besides sweating the details, you can also derive insights and put together summary presentations with key findings for a high-level audience. This means you’re super comfortable in PowerPoint and feel a sense of pride in your analyses.  Finally, it helps to have an interest in other software in general.  We use many SAAS products ourselves (like Harvest for time tracking, Salesforce for bookings, Asana for task management), and will likely add more tools in the future. If you’re not super comfortable in Excel and open to learning new software/tools, then this is probably not the right environment for you.
• Extreme attention to detail. You will be doing critical analyses from which decisions are made.  From Excel modeling to PowerPoint decks to curiously digging into raw numbers, you need an eye for sniffing out errors or anomalies in the data to do better work. You should be someone interested in constantly improving the accuracy and visual presentation of your work.
• Organization savvy. You need to be someone who thrives on having lots to do, loves checking things off of lists and manages to get things done efficiently. We don’t want rigid and inflexible organizational skills, just a solid ability to arrange and execute tasks effectively.The ability to work independently or as part of a team, depending on the nature of the work you are doing. You’re joining a team that’s accounting, finance, business analytics and payroll/benefits. Sometimes we huddle, other times we put our heads down and are eerily quiet.  You need to thrive in both environments.
• A sense of humor is a must. Interesting or unusual hobbies and tastes in music is a plus.

SO WHAT KIND OF EXPERIENCE SHOULD YOU HAVE?

• At least one of the following, or some combination: corporate finance at a high growth company, investment banking, venture capital or private equity
• Minimum 5 years work experience in a related position with heavy financial analysis
• Background in Tech/Software companies is helpful but not required
• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting or economics preferred

ANYTHING ELSE? Yes. We share a commitment to excellence and a desire to work in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere, so we only hire nice, bright, funny people who are willing to work hard.  Our credo is a simple one: be helpful. And we think we can be most helpful if our workforce is as diverse in thought, perspective, and culture as the people who use our products. We are looking to add amazing folks to our team who will bring diversity across many lines, including race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity, sex, and country of origin. 

ARE THERE ANY PERKS? Yes, we love perks.

• Competitive pay, stock options and benefits. 401(k) with matching. And we pay 100% of the cost of premiums for medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance for our employees (as long as you qualify for our tobacco-free discount; if you’re a tobacco user, your medical premiums will be higher than $0). We also cover a really nice chunk of the cost of premiums for spouse/partner/dependent medical, dental and vision insurance.
• Casual dress and a flexible schedule. Come in a sweatshirt, jeans, whatever, like everyone else here.
• Creative work environment. We are lucky to work in a place that is full of intelligent, talented and innovative folks. Although most hours the place is deathly quiet (we're a focused bunch), this is punctuated with hilarious outbursts and general merriment, which makes a nice way to spend the day.
• Free food. Every week, we stock our kitchen with free healthy snack foods, and we have a catered lunch once a week to give people a reason to hang out and eat together.
• Easy transportation. We’re really close to the 'L' and the Halsted (#8) bus (right by the Apple Store and Mega Whole Foods too), and we have a transit FSA that allows you to dedicate pre-tax dollars to public transportation expenses. And a number of our employees like to bike to work, so we also have showers and lockers in the office.
• Did we mention our yoga class? We bring a pro instructor right to the office. Fully subsidized by Jellyvision and fully optional, btw.
• Oh! And we have a massage chair. Not just any massage chair, my friend. It’s the HumanTouch HT 5320 WholeBody™ Massage Chair. Feeling a little stiff? Sit down. Relax. Feel better? Good. Okay, back to work.

I’M REALLY INTERESTED!  HOW DO I APPLY? 

Great, we look forward to reading your application - make sure it includes:

• A cover letter that highlights three reasons you think you’d be great for the gig, focusing on how your past work experience has prepared you for this kind of position. Writing is key to all that we do, and we weigh cover letters heavily.
• Your resume.

You will receive an auto-reply confirming that we've received your application.

If you decide to apply, please know that every complete application will be carefully reviewed. Seriously! We know it is a time commitment to prepare an application. And we respect that effort by thoughtfully reviewing every complete application and responding one way or the other. But that kind of thoughtful review means that it sometimes takes us awhile to get back to applicants, so please NO PHONE CALLS. The time we spend responding to phone calls and emails inquiring about where we are in the process is time that we could be spending actually moving the process along – so please be patient with us!

Thank you for your interest in Jellyvision!