Senior Financial Analyst

Overview

This role involves independently performing financial and business analysis, supporting recurring and ad hoc reporting, and contributing to budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling, and process improvement. The Senior Financial Analyst will own assigned analyses, processes, and deliverables; independently organize work toward completion; identify issues, risks, opportunities, and next steps; and engage Finance leadership for direction and review as appropriate.

In addition to reporting financial results, this position interprets results, identifies underlying business drivers, and communicates decision-ready insights and recommendations. The role also supports continued improvement of the Finance function through process standardization, automation, business intelligence, and responsible adoption of approved analytical and AI-enabled technologies.

Responsibilities

• Perform detailed financial and business analyses linking firm performance to underlying business drivers at the firm, office, practice group, client, and matter levels.
• Prepare monthly and quarterly variance analyses versus budget, forecast, and prior periods, identifying key revenue and expense drivers, risks, opportunities, and potential actions.
• Synthesize complex financial and operational information into clear, concise, decision-ready insights for Finance and firm leadership.
• Prepare executive summaries, dashboards, presentations, and trend analyses for discussions with senior leadership.
• Develop conclusions and recommendations based on analysis rather than only presenting data.
• Adjust analytical presentations and level of detail to meet the needs of financial and non-financial audiences.
• Respond to recurring and ad hoc analytical requests from the Finance Manager, Director of Finance, Chief Financial Officer, and other internal stakeholders.
• Support annual budgeting, periodic reforecasting, and multi-period outlook processes across the firm, offices, practice groups, and administrative departments.
• Develop and maintain financial and statistical models supporting revenue and expense forecasting, headcount and compensation planning, productivity, utilization, and other performance metrics.
• Analyze key performance indicators including realization, utilization, leverage, productivity, cost efficiency, and other measures relevant to law firm financial performance.
• Perform detailed analyses of practice group and office profitability, matter-level economics, staffing mix, leverage, and other cost and revenue drivers affecting financial performance.
• Conduct rate and realization analyses focused on performance trends and operational drivers rather than pricing decisions.
• Support working capital analysis, including WIP and accounts receivable trends, aging, collections, and other factors affecting cash flow.
• Assist with financial analysis and responses for external industry publications, benchmarking studies, and surveys as needed.
• Take ownership of assigned recurring processes, analyses, reports, and projects and advance work toward completion within established deadlines.
• Develop work plans, identify dependencies, resolve routine issues independently, and proactively communicate significant risks, decisions, or obstacles requiring management input.
• Maintain high standards for accuracy, consistency, documentation, and data integrity.
• Evaluate existing reports and analytical processes and recommend opportunities to simplify, standardize, or eliminate unnecessary work.
• Document recurring processes, analytical methodologies, assumptions, data sources, and validation procedures to support consistency and knowledge transfer.
• Collaborate with Finance, Accounting, Information Technology, and other administrative departments to obtain information, resolve data issues, and complete analytical work.
• Manage multiple priorities and adjust as business needs and leadership priorities change.
• Improve accuracy, speed, scalability, and reliability of financial reporting and analytical processes through technology and process redesign.
• Build and maintain analytical tools, dashboards, models, and reporting solutions using technologies such as Excel, Power BI, Tableau, SQL, Power Query, and other approved platforms.
• Partner with Finance, Accounting, Information Technology, and data teams to improve data quality, reporting structures, and analytical workflows.
• Identify opportunities to reduce repetitive manual work through standardization and automation while maintaining appropriate validation and financial controls.
• Participate in Finance transformation initiatives and contribute ideas to improve how the department produces, reviews, communicates, and retains financial analysis.
• Use approved AI-enabled tools responsibly to support planning, analysis, research, quality review, documentation, and other appropriate Finance workflows.
• Personally validate analytical and AI-assisted outputs and apply professional judgment, confidentiality, data security, and quality standards.
• Stay current on emerging technologies and continuously build technical and analytical skills that improve Finance capabilities.
• Build productive relationships across Finance, practice management, Accounting, Information Technology, and other business professionals.
• Develop an understanding of operational and financial factors affecting the firm’s practices, offices, departments, clients, and matters.
• Communicate financial concepts clearly to non-financial stakeholders and provide appropriate context around analytical findings.
• Ask thoughtful questions, respectfully challenge assumptions when supported by analysis, and seek understanding of the business context behind financial results.
• Maintain strict confidentiality of firm, client, and employee information.

Required Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, including the ability to independently investigate financial questions and synthesize complex information.
• Ability to translate financial and operational data into concise insights, business narratives, and actionable recommendations.
• Strong understanding of accounting principles and financial statements.
• Understanding of financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and financial modeling.
• Working knowledge of law firm or professional services economics and key performance drivers (realization, utilization, leverage, productivity, profitability, WIP, and accounts receivable dynamics) or ability to learn these quickly.
• Strong project and task ownership, including independent organization of work, advancement of deliverables, identification of obstacles, and meeting deadlines.
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, including communicating complex financial concepts to non-financial audiences.
• Ability to balance attention to detail with understanding of the broader business purpose of an analysis.
• Proactive, solutions-oriented mindset with willingness to investigate issues rather than wait for detailed direction.
• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and adapt as business needs change.
• High integrity, professionalism, objectivity, and confidentiality.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in remote, hybrid, and in-office environments.
• Commitment to continuous learning and improving analytical, technical, and business-partnering capabilities.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively while maintaining a strong service orientation.

Required Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Analytics, or a related business discipline.

Preferred Education

• Master’s degree, CPA, or another relevant advanced credential.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum five (5) years of progressive experience in finance, FP&A, financial analysis, or a related analytical role.
• Demonstrated experience independently performing complex financial analysis, financial modeling, budgeting, forecasting, or management reporting.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel, including complex formulas, PivotTables, financial modeling, and data analysis.
• Experience with ERP/GL, financial reporting, or time-and-billing systems.
• Experience with business intelligence and data visualization tools such as Power BI or Tableau.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a law firm or professional services environment.
• Experience supporting senior leaders or other business decision-makers with financial analysis and presentations.
• Working knowledge of SQL, Power Query, Power Pivot, or comparable data extraction and transformation tools.
• Practical experience with approved AI-enabled analytical or productivity tools.
• Experience improving, standardizing, or automating recurring analytical or reporting processes.

Compensation & Benefits

• Hiring Salary Range: $85,000.00 - $125,000.00
• Compensation is dependent on several factors, such as position, location, market, education, training, and/or experience.

Location

• The employer will comply with any applicable city or state workplace mandates in effect in regards to Covid-19.

Additional Information

• This position description is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of the job. Additional duties and responsibilities may be assigned based on business needs.
• This position description does not constitute a written or implied contract of employment.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.