Senior Manager - Finance, Data & AI

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Profile summary

The Finance Business Consulting team is looking for a Senior Manager with a strong delivery record in finance data within Financial Services – someone who can design technology-based solutions that deliver real business outcomes for our clients.

This role sits deliberately between two worlds. You will be the interface between the finance function and the data and technology teams that serve it: translating accounting, actuarial and reporting requirements into something a data team can build, and translating architectural constraints back into language a CFO can act on. Very few people do both sides well, and that is exactly what we are looking for.

The role also carries a clear AI dimension. You will need to understand the AI and data products on the market, know how to bring them into client solutions, and use them to build those solutions faster.

We work across Banking, Capital Markets and Insurance, and we welcome candidates with depth in any of these sectors. You should be highly motivated, professional and genuinely interested in the work.

Your responsibilities

As a Senior Manager in our Finance Business Consulting team, you will lead the data architecture and solution design on large finance implementations, own senior client relationships, and be accountable for the commercial performance of the work you lead.

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Acting as the bridge between finance and data teams – turning accounting, actuarial, regulatory and reporting requirements into clear data requirements, and explaining architectural trade-offs back to finance stakeholders in terms they can act on
• Leading the data architecture and solution design for large, complex, front-to-back finance implementations: helping clients select and design the tooling needed for finance-relevant data to be sourced, captured, transformed, stored, distributed and controlled across cloud and hybrid architectures
• Working with finance teams to deliver data architecture solutions, drawing on cloud data platforms and equivalent assets from the hyperscale providers
• Identifying and communicating the comparative implications of different architectures, and articulating the relative benefits and challenges of big data, cloud and traditional on-premise approaches
• Providing oversight of data-related requirements gathering, solution design and build, including defining and driving key design decisions through to closure
• Partnering with stakeholders to design well-defined solutions aligned to the client's business and IT strategies, leveraging common services to meet programme goals
• Advising clients on how AI and data products can be applied within finance – what they are genuinely good for, what they cost, what they require of the underlying data estate, and where the control and governance risks sit
• Designing and delivering AI-enabled components within client solutions, and making sure the data foundations underneath them are sound
• Using AI to accelerate our own delivery – in requirements analysis, data profiling and mapping, documentation, code review and deliverable drafting – and as a thinking partner to test design options before they are committed
• Working with client IT and with EY onshore and offshore delivery teams, reviewing and challenging the outputs they produce, and producing material yourself where needed
• Taking responsibility for the financial management of engagements, including scoping, budgeting, resourcing and margin

Professional experience

Typical experience may include, but is not limited to:

• Significant hands-on consulting experience with a Big 4 firm, major systems integrator or top-tier consultancy within Financial Services, or a comparable transformation role in industry, including a minimum of two finance data implementations
• A background in Finance, Risk, Regulatory Reporting or Treasury, preferably with exposure to top-tier clients
• Experience working within or alongside a finance function, with a solid understanding of accounting, calculation and reporting requirements and the data needed to support them
• Candidates specialising in Banking and Capital Markets will bring market data and valuation data knowledge
• Candidates specialising in Insurance will demonstrate awareness of the complexities of actuarial data interactions
• Hands-on experience delivering finance data solutions using prevailing cloud and hybrid architectures
• Experience leading and advising clients through finance data implementations, covering analysis, design, build, testing and support models
• Extensive exposure to finance processes and the finance lifecycle
• Practical experience applying AI or advanced analytics within a finance or data context, and a considered view of where the technology adds value and where it does not
• Strong insight into industry trends and the leading vendors in this space
• Experience of two or more full implementation lifecycles

Typical programmes will have included the design and delivery of data architecture to support:

• Consolidation, planning, cost allocation and management information
• Product accounting solution implementations
• Finance systems architecture and strategy
• Data warehousing and data management
• Finance, Risk and Treasury integration
• Finance operating model design and implementation

Skills

Finance data and architecture skills

• Strong ability to lead the definition and resolution of key finance data architecture decisions
• The ability to work fluently in both directions across the finance and data boundary, covering:
  • Finance data models, chart of accounts and hierarchy design
  • Sourcing, transformation, lineage and reconciliation
  • Data quality, ownership and control frameworks
  • Cloud and hybrid platform design, including the relevant trade-offs
  • Integration between finance, risk, actuarial and front office data
  • Reporting and analytics layers, and how they are consumed
• Providing insight and challenge during solution reviews and technology option assessments
• Proven expertise reviewing functional and technical designs against business requirements, and challenging where they fall short
• A strong understanding of how to apply data architecture and emerging technologies to a client problem

Working with AI

• A working understanding of the AI and data products relevant to finance – what they do, how they are licensed and what they demand of the data estate underneath them
• Able to bring AI capability into client solutions in a way that is proportionate, governed and genuinely useful
• Confident using AI to accelerate the build itself, and able to judge where output needs human review before it is relied upon
• Comfortable using AI as a thinking partner – to explore design options, test logic and challenge a solution before others do

Consulting skills

• Comfortable and confident around senior stakeholders, internally and externally
• A confident, concise and precise communicator, able to express complex or challenging messages clearly
• Able to translate complex technical concepts into digestible communications for a finance audience
• Demonstrates strong leadership across engagement and practice teams, and takes personal responsibility for the quality of delivery
• Able to manage uncertainty and ambiguity in a project environment
• Able to apply logic and structure to solve complex problems through improved data architecture
• Knowledgeable about and sympathetic to the key issues and challenges currently facing CFOs in Financial Services
• Instils a positive team mentality, even under pressure, by treating colleagues well and creating an inclusive culture
• Comfortable with Excel, Word and PowerPoint

Qualifications

• A first-level university degree at 2:1 or equivalent is preferred, but not compulsory
• An accounting qualification (ACA, ACMA, ACCA) with practical experience gained in a financial institution would be beneficial, but is not essential
• Relevant technical or cloud platform certification is preferred, but not essential

What working at EY offers

You will join a growing and diverse team that combines business design, systems integration and financial modelling capability across the Financial Services market. You will gain experience across the full spectrum of Finance Transformation, and help take our business to the next level as we embrace advances in technology, data and AI to solve our clients' business challenges.

We offer a competitive remuneration package where you will be rewarded for your individual and team performance. Our comprehensive Total Rewards package includes support for flexible working and career development, and with MyReward you can select benefits that suit your needs, covering holidays, health and well-being, insurance, savings, and a wide range of discounts, offers and promotions. In addition, we offer:

• Support, coaching and feedback from some of the most engaging colleagues around
• Opportunities to develop new skills and progress your career
• The freedom and flexibility to handle your role in a way that is right for you

About EY

As a global leader in Assurance, Tax, Strategy, Transaction and Consulting services, we are using the products, expertise and systems we have developed to build a better working world. That starts with a culture that believes in giving you the training, opportunities and creative freedom to make things better. Whenever you join, however long you stay, the exceptional EY experience lasts a lifetime.

The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all our stakeholders. In doing so, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, our clients and our communities.

Our values define who we are. They influence the way we work with each other, with our clients and regulators, and within our communities, where we use our professional skills to create positive change close to home and around the world.

Who we are

EY is committed to being an inclusive employer, and we are happy to consider flexible working arrangements. We strive to achieve the right balance for our people, enabling us to deliver excellent client service while allowing you to build your career without sacrificing your personal priorities. While our client-facing professionals can be required to travel regularly, and at times be based at client sites, our flexible working arrangements can help you achieve a lifestyle balance.

If you can confidently demonstrate that you meet the criteria above, please contact us as soon as possible. Join us in building a better working world.

Apply now

Please note: prior to finalising your application, you will be asked to provide personal information across several dimensions of diversity and inclusiveness. The information you provide is kept entirely confidential and will not be used to evaluate your candidacy. We collect this data to help us analyse our recruitment process holistically and implement actions that promote diversity and inclusiveness. While optional, we encourage you to provide this information to hold us accountable towards our goal of building a better working world. We ask because it matters.

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