Advanced Specialist, Commercial Finance

Job Title – Advanced Specialist, Commercial Finance

Description – Support high-impact commercial decisions through financial modelling, pricing strategy, and deal optimisation within a fast-scaling business; this role aligns to industry level titles such as Pricing Analyst, Commercial Finance Analyst, Deal Desk Analyst or Revenue Analyst.

As Pearson Virtual Schools (PVS) continues to grow, the Advanced Specialist, Commercial Finance will play a critical role in evaluating, optimising, and supporting commercial opportunities across the business.

Partnering closely with the Deal Desk, Finance, and cross-functional stakeholders, this role will own financial models, support pricing strategy, and enable data‑driven decision‑making needed to balance growth, profitability, and long‑term sustainability.

You will act as the analytical backbone of the Deal Desk function, bringing financial rigour to deal processes while enabling high‑impact strategic opportunities across new business, renewals, and complex commercial scenarios.

This role sits at the intersection of finance and commercial operations, requiring both strong analytical capability and the ability to influence stakeholders through clear, structured insights.

• Build, evaluate, and maintain detailed financial models supporting new business opportunities, renewals, and complex commercial deal structures.
• Analyse key performance drivers including margin, revenue per student, pricing structures, and cost base to assess overall financial sustainability.
• Partner cross‑functionally with Finance, Deal Desk, Sales, and operational stakeholders to support deal progression and alignment.
• Manage deals throughout the full lifecycle, coordinating inputs, pressure‑testing assumptions, and ensuring timely movement through approval stages.
• Develop and model pricing scenarios for both new and existing products, supporting commercial strategy and decision‑making.
• Partner with Deal Desk leadership to build and enhance product‑level costing frameworks and margin infrastructure.
• Deliver ongoing reporting and insights related to pricing performance, deal outcomes, profitability trends, and key financial drivers.
• Evaluate ad‑hoc pricing requests and support non‑standard or complex commercial structures.
• Identify and implement process improvement initiatives to enhance Deal Desk scalability, governance, and operational efficiency.
• Own the integrity and accuracy of deal inputs and outputs, ensuring consistency and alignment with pricing frameworks and commercial policies.
• Support Deal Desk reviews by synthesising insights, modelling scenarios, and presenting risks or considerations to stakeholders.
• Develop recurring reporting across deal pipeline, deal volume, turnaround time, pricing trends, and operational performance metrics.

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field.
• 3–6+ years of relevant professional experience, including exposure to pricing, deal desk, or commercial finance environments.
• Strong financial modelling capability, with the ability to independently build and maintain models in Excel.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities within a fast‑paced, cross‑functional environment.
• Strong analytical and commercial mindset, with a high level of attention to detail and data accuracy.
• Experience working with cross‑functional stakeholders such as Sales, Finance, and Operations.
• Ability to translate complex financial data into clear, structured insights and recommendations.
• Experience working with large or complex datasets, and structuring models to support ongoing analysis.
• Exposure to tools such as Tableau, Alteryx, or other data visualisation/workflow tools is advantageous.
• Strong problem‑solving capability and proactive mindset with a focus on continuous improvement.

This role offers a flexible remote working model, with expectations aligned to business and team needs. You will work closely with global stakeholders and cross‑functional teams across the organisation.

Compensation at Pearson is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill…