The Team: Morningstar’s Global Finance Transformation Program (GFTP) is looking for a Project Manager, Finance M&A Integrations. The GFTP team was created to establish a formal project management framework and governance structure to ensure coordination between the significant and complex projects of the Finance organization, including teams aligned with Accounting, Financial Reporting, Financial Planning and Analysis, Procurement, Tax, and Internal Audit functions. We assist with project management activities, facilitate project prioritization, coordinate project resources and communicate project status to senior management.  Morningstar’s Finance organization is a leadership function focused on value creation for our internal and external stakeholders.  We accomplish this through our focus on core stewardship activities; building business partnerships; and developing great people in our team.   

The Job: The Project Manager, Finance M&A Integrations will coordinate project tasks with subject matter experts and other stakeholders through all stages of the acquisition life cycle/deal phase.  In this role, you will work closely with the Finance team stakeholders to understand the transaction’s requirements, define a project plan, and monitor progress against milestones across multiple workstreams.  You will also help coordinate cross-functional activities and decisions with other Morningstar teams participating on the M&A project.  While these M&A project tasks will include items related to pre-deal assessment and financial due diligence, we would expect a greater share of the time will be dedicated to post close tasks around process and financial system integrations.

This position reports to the Global Finance Transformation Program Director and is located in our Chicago office.  Some travel may be required.  You will have global exposure to M&A activity in other regions to help drive standardization of these processes within the Finance organization.  You will gain exposure to various processes within the Finance department as well as other functions within Morningstar such as Strategy, Product, Sales, Corporate Systems, and Legal.

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate with Finance team stakeholders to understand the requirements of each transaction, develop a project plan, and monitor progress against milestones across multiple workstreams
• Engage in early stage preparation activities for financial due diligence
• Maintain and disseminate tools, templates and tracking mechanisms to effectively manage the planning, organization and coordination of post-close Finance integration activities
• Develop a working knowledge of the financial systems and related business processes (at both Morningstar and applicable target companies) to facilitate integration planning and execution
• Understand key components and deliverables within an integration project plan (e.g. process mapping and gap assessment; elements of a system implementation such as customer/supplier data conversions, testing, etc.)
• Raise deal or integration issues to leadership team and facilitate a timely resolution
• Develop and maintain processes to drive global standardization and adoption of best practices for Finance merger and acquisition activities
• Assist Finance teams with completion of key M&A tasks as needed
• General project management skills which can be applied to other non-M&A projects as deal activity subsides or as other needs arise.

Requirements:

• 7-10 years of relevant work experience
• Strong project management and organizational skills
• Ability to create and maintain project plans as well as prioritize issues based on their relative risk
• Understanding of finance and accounting process flows and internal control concepts
• Familiarity with financial systems landscape (ERP, Consolidation tools, etc…)
• Proficient with the activities and best practices associated with M&A transactions and integration 
• Ability to anticipate areas of difficulty/potential unknown risks and contribute towards creative solutions
• Ability to roll-up sleeves and assist team members in task completion
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to convey technical information in non-technical terms to other functional groups, global Finance team members, target company personnel, and various management levels
• Undergraduate degree in Finance/Accounting and CPA preferred.
• Intermediate to advanced Excel skills.  Ability to understand and utilize productivity tools (such as MS Teams, JIRA, Wiki, SharePoint, Smartsheet)