Finance Business Partner

Finance Business Partner

Department: Customer

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Boston or Washington, DC area

Description

About us

We are Digital Science and we are advancing the research ecosystem.

We are a pioneering technology company, and our vision is of a future where a trusted and collaborative research ecosystem drives progress for all. We believe in better, open, collaborative and inclusive research. In creating the next generation of tools and working in partnership with the community we tackle some of the biggest challenges to research. In order to achieve our vision, we need innovative, inspiring and dynamic people to join our team.

Want to join us?

Your new role

We are looking for a Finance Business Partner to be the go-to finance person for our Academic/GFN segment and our Sales and Marketing teams.

In this role, you will own the numbers for your areas. That means reviewing monthly results, explaining what is driving them, validating revenue and ARR against real sales activity, and leading the forecast and budget. You will sit alongside business leaders, including the EVP of Academic/GFN and the Chief Revenue Officer, and you will be trusted to ask the hard questions and help them make confident, well-informed decisions.

Please note - due to business need, we can only consider applications from candidates based in the Boston or Washington, DC area, where we have established legal entities.

If you apply from outside of these areas, your application will not be considered.

What you’ll be doing Month End and Monthly Reporting

• Review monthly financial accounts in detail, identify material corrections and explain key variances
• Provide commentary on results with business context, and highlight where the business needs to act
• Produce clear monthly reporting for each business area, review it with them, and hold them accountable for delivering agreed actions

Revenue and ARR

• Understand monthly revenue in detail and make sure reported revenue aligns with sales activity
• Validate reported ARR each month by working closely with the business and understanding the segment’s sales activity
• Spot where the business needs to act to improve performance, for example delayed renewals
• Understand the status and lifecycle of non-recurring revenue on the books

Planning and Forecasting

• Lead cost, revenue and headcount forecasting and budgeting for your business areas, meeting all guidelines and timelines
• Explain changes in the business clearly using charts, tables and waterfalls with the right context
• Challenge assumptions such as cost growth and hiring timing to build a robust forecast that doesn’t need major rework
• Give the business a monthly view of expected landing positions so corrective action or early warnings can be raised
• Make sure allocations to segments are accurate and any changes are understood and explainable

Decision Support

• Support the business with robust analysis, flexible financial models and clear explanations across
  • Pricing strategies
  • Business cases, for example new products or restructuring
  • Trends
  • Accounting treatment
  • Other business questions

Continuous Improvement

• Review existing ways of working and drive changes that improve output or efficiency
• Share best practice with the wider team
• Take ownership of issues and drive them to a satisfactory resolution
• Identify where systems could be used more for control and automation

What you’ll bring to the role

• Finance business partnering experience across both cost and revenue areas
• Experience delivering discrete budgets and forecasts for specific business areas, on time and to target
• Sound understanding of ARR, sales processes and revenue recognition principles
• Ability to work with imperfect data and still reach robust conclusions
• Strong modeling and analytical skills,…