Transformation Finance Lead

Location: New York

Company description

Present in over 100 countries and employing nearly 80,000 professionals, Publicis Groupe is the third largest communications group in the world. Publicis Groupe is listed on the Euronext Paris [FR] and is part of the CAC 40 index. Active across the entire value chain, Publicis Groupe offers its major clients a transversal, unified and fluid model allowing them access to all the Groupe’s tools and expertise around the world through the mantra "The Power of One."​Overview

Position Summary The Transformation Finance Lead will serve as the finance and commercial partner to the Transformation Team. They will own the full financial picture of the transformation: what we invest in people, process change and technology, whether that investment is paying off, and how we price and sell what we build. The role covers three areas. First, owning the financial side of the transformation, from planning through value: planning the full cost of change, including the people, time and technology it takes, keeping it on budget, and measuring the value it creates, from redesigned workflows and freed-up capacity to the platforms, tools and products behind them.

Second, product economics: understanding what our tools and products cost to build and run and setting how they are priced. Third, client pricing: designing new pricing and commercial models for what we sell and working with our client commercial teams on new ways to be paid that move beyond time and materials and traditional fees. This person brings fresh thinking about how agencies make money as the way we work changes, and the practical skill to turn that thinking into models that actually work.

How this role works The Transformation team is a small, nimble team that works through the line. This is a senior role, and it is also a hands-on one. At the start, the expectation is that Transformation Finance Lead will drive work with support from an existing finance team and build much of the analysis themselves. They will be expected to develop recommendations with limited direction, shape them with the Chief Transformation Officer, and bring them to the CFO for approval.

They will partner with finance, FP&A, IT, ICTT, data and build teams, and push to automate routine reporting and tracking so their time goes to the higher-value work. Additional headcount may be added once current capacity and team structure are assessed. Responsibilities Transformation Planning & financial control

Finance partner to the IC Transformation Team and the agencies on the full cost and value of  partnership with FP&A, own planning, budgeting and forecasting for the transformation as a whole, including the people who lead and support it (transformation teams, builders, training and agency time), process and workflow redesign, and technology such as platforms, licenses, compute and partners. Build a clear, single view of what the transformation costs, where, and why, including what is shared versus agency-specific and what is fixed versus variable.

Monitor spend against budget, flag issues early and recommend corrective action. Lead value measurement end to end, using one consistent approach across workflow and process changes, third-party platforms, internally built tools, and products we build or sell. Translate time savings and capacity gains into hiring, staffing, budget and P&L outcomes. Work with HR and agency leaders to model the financial impact of changing roles, skills and team structures as workflows change.

Build and pressure-test business cases (ROI, payback, run-rate costs) and give an independent finance view on major investments before money is committed. Find savings across the transformation, from removing duplicate tools and unused licenses to stopping work that isn't paying off. Set the vision for finance tools and dashboards and work with the build team to create them, so agencies and leadership can self-serve and manual reporting is kept to a minimum.

Find new ways to run transformation finance itself, using AI and automation, rather than recreating traditional finance processes. Product economics and internal pricing Work with the build and product teams to estimate, track and manage the full cost of building and running our tools and products, from development through ongoing support and optimization. Measure the value each product delivers and use it to inform build, scale or stop decisions.

Develop unit economics for each product, such as cost per user,…