Sr. Director, Finance

Job Title

Sr. Director, Finance

Job Description Summary

The Sr. Director, Finance Applications will own the business strategy, roadmap and functional governance for Cushman & Wakefield's enterprise consolidation and planning platform, OneStream, in partnership with a counterpart in the IT organization (TDS). This role is accountable for the functional design, integrity and continuous advancement of the financial close, consolidation, budgeting, forecasting and long-range planning solutions that the global Finance organization runs on. The Sr. Director owns the end-to-end planning process within the application — from planning calendar and model design through data load, validation, reporting and executive delivery — as well as the data validation framework that governs what enters and leaves the platform. A core mandate of the role is to advance the Company from static, spreadsheet-driven planning to driver-based, algorithmic forecasting through the deployment of machine learning and predictive analytics.

Job Description

Cushman & Wakefield is a global leader in commercial real estate services, helping clients transform the way people work, shop, and live. The firm’s 50,000 employees in more than 60 countries provide deep local and global insights that create significant value for occupiers and investors around the world. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest commercial real estate services firms with revenues of $8 billion across core services of agency leasing, asset services, capital markets, facility services (branded C&W Services), global occupier services, investment management (branded DTZ Investors), project & development services, tenant representation and valuation & advisory. To learn more, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com or follow @CushWake on Twitter.

Scope note: This role is the Finance half of a two-in-the-box partnership with a counterpart in the IT organization (TDS). The Finance role owns the business strategy, process design, functional configuration and financial governance of OneStream. The TDS counterpart owns the technical elements of the platform, including 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. The Sr. Director partners closely with the Workday Finance and IT teams on master data alignment and release coordination, while the TDS counterpart leads technical integration. Accountability for the business strategy, process design and financial governance of OneStream sits with this role.

This role requires strong partnership and collaboration with Finance Global Process Owners, FP&A leadership, Controllership and the TDS counterpart. A successful candidate will be a hands-on technologist and finance professional — fluent in consolidation and planning application architecture, generally accepted accounting principles, internal controls, and modern analytics and machine learning techniques. A control and process-oriented mindset, strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and the desire and ability to identify, recommend and lead improvements are essential. This individual will be a visible leader in the global Finance organization, so management experience is required.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Detailed responsibilities include: 

• Own and communicate the business vision and multi-year roadmap, and jointly with the TDS counterpart the governance model, for the OneStream platform and the broader consolidation and planning ecosystem
• Operate as one half of a two-in-the-box leadership model with the TDS counterpart — align on priorities, enhancement intake and prioritization, release calendar, issue escalation and resourcing, and present a unified view to Finance and IT leadership
• Own the end-to-end planning process within the application — annual budget, quarterly reforecasts, long-range plan, workforce, capital and cash planning — including calendar design, workflow, model build, data load, submission, review and executive reporting
• Lead the functional design and continuous enhancement of OneStream applications: cube and dimension design, business rules, workflow profiles, metadata and dashboards, partnering with the TDS counterpart on technical configuration and build
• Own the consolidation solution — legal entity and management consolidation, intercompany eliminations, currency translation, ownership and close workflow — ensuring an accurate, on-time and auditable global close
• Establish and own the data validation framework: source-to-target reconciliation, automated confirmation rules, variance thresholds, exception routing and audit-ready evidence of tie-out between the ERP and the consolidation and planning layers
• Build the Company’s predictive forecasting capability — deploy machine learning and statistical models to produce driver-based, algorithmic forecasts, and establish model governance, back-testing, accuracy tracking and business adoption
• Define business requirements and acceptance criteria for integrations between OneStream and source systems (ERP, HCM, CRM, data warehouse), and partner with the TDS counterpart, who owns integration architecture and build, in ensuring controlled, reliable and timely data flows
• Own financial data governance and metadata management in partnership with the Financial Data Management (FDM) master data governance team, driving alignment and consistency of hierarchies and data structures across systems
• Partner with the TDS counterpart to define and enforce SOX-compliant change management, security and release governance across the platform, with this role owning business user acceptance testing, access reviews and control documentation, and TDS owning security administration, environment strategy and technical release management
• Partner with other members of Finance & Accounting to drive positive change in end-to-end processes and develop solutions to optimize and improve effectiveness and efficiency
• Improve process efficiency through the use of new 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 working relationships across departments to enhance communication and teamwork globally
• Co-manage, with the TDS counterpart, the OneStream vendor and implementation-partner relationships, including licensing, release adoption, MarketPlace solution deployment and roadmap influence

JOB REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

·       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

·       CPA, MBA or Master’s degree a plus; OneStream certification (Foundation, Planning or Analytic Blend) a plus

Skills/Previous Experience:

• Finance or Accounting professional with a strong technology background, or a technologist with deep finance domain fluency
• 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 considered)
• At least 8 years of experience implementing, owning or managing enterprise consolidation and planning platforms, with direct OneStream ownership strongly preferred
• Demonstrated ownership of an end-to-end planning cycle — 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 data and analytics stack supporting Finance — SQL, Python or R, data warehousing, Power BI, 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 requirements of this role
• Ability to assess granular level details to facilitate strategic high-level decision making
• Excellent communication skills / relationship management / client facing / influence decision making
• Strong attention to detail and data analysis including ability to draw conclusions, glean insights and tell a story through data
• Experience leading within a global organization
• Proven leadership abilities and management experience required
• Experience building and leading teams of financial systems professionals, with a focus on staff development
• Ability to multi-task and act with a sense of urgency
• Strong organization skills and ability to prioritize

Core Competencies:

• Relationship management; ability to partner and influence at all levels within an organization
• 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, 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 the application of AI and machine learning to Finance processes
• Change leadership; ability to drive adoption of new planning models and forecasting methods across a global Finance organization

Cushman & Wakefield also provides eligible employees with an opportunity to enroll in a variety of benefit programs, generally including health, vision, and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement savings plans, life, and disability insurance programs, and paid and unpaid time away from work. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, Cushman and Wakefield provide eligible employees with competitive pay, which may vary depending on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, total hours worked, job type, business line, and applicability of collective bargaining agreements.

The compensation that will be offered to the successful candidate will depend on factors such as whether the position is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the geographic area in which the work will be performed, market pay rates in that area, and the candidate’s experience and qualifications.

The company will not pay less than minimum wage for this role.

The compensation for the position is: $ 170,000.00 - $200,000.00

Cushman & Wakefield is an Equal Opportunity employer to all protected groups, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. Discrimination of any type will not be tolerated.

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position at Cushman & Wakefield, please call the ADA line at 1-888-365-5406 or email [email protected]. Please refer to the job title and job location when you contact us.

INCO: “Cushman & Wakefield”