Senior Finance Business Partner

CBIZ is seeking a Senior Finance Business Partner to join the Financial Services (FS) Division's newly established Strategic Finance function. This is a high-visibility, high-impact role for a commercially-oriented finance professional who wants to be more than a reporter of numbers — someone who wants to be a genuine strategic advisor to the business. The Finance Business Partner will advise and support the business in areas related to future state financial performance. 

The Senior Finance Business Partner will serve as the primary finance relationship for one or more business line leaders or market managing partners within the FS Division's Accounting & Tax segment. This individual owns the forecasting, budgeting, and management reporting process for their assigned business units, and is expected to proactively surface insights, risks, and opportunities — not wait to be asked. They bring a point of view to business reviews, build trusted relationships with non-finance leaders, and partner closely with the Director of Strategic Finance to support the financial strategy of a segment that represents a significant portion of CBIZ's total revenue.

Essential Functions and Primary Duties

Business Finance Partnership

• Serve as the primary finance relationship for assigned business line leaders and market managing partners within the Accounting & Tax segment; be viewed as a trusted advisor, not a reporting function

• Build and maintain proactive, substantive working relationships with segment and market leadership; be present in the business and engaged in strategic conversations

• Establish and maintain close relationships with all cross-functional areas (Corporate Finance, BP&A, Marketing, HR, and Operations).  These relationships will allow this role to have a full and complete understanding of all internal and external factors impacting the business.

• Provide forward-looking financial guidance on business decisions: significant lateral hire investments, office-level P&L changes, service line launches, pricing strategy, and market growth decisions.

• Bring a point of view to monthly and quarterly business reviews — surface risks and opportunities proactively, and propose alternatives rather than simply presenting historical actuals.

• Improve the quality of internal and external financial data to drive business decision making and performance.

Financial Planning & Analysis 

• Own the annual budget and rolling forecast process for assigned business units; responsible for building the financial model, facilitating leadership reviews, and documenting assumptions

• Prepare and deliver monthly variance analysis and management commentary for assigned segments; explain drivers clearly and connect financial results to operational dynamics

• Develop and maintain KPI dashboards and operational metrics tailored to the Accounting & Tax business: utilization rates, realization rates, WIP aging, collections performance, YOY impactful client gains and losses, and margin by service line

• Build financial models to support business decisions: lateral hire ROI analysis, office profitability assessments, service line investment cases, and pricing scenario analysis

• Partner with the Director of Strategic Finance to contribute to the division-wide budget and forecast consolidation

• Provide direction to cross-functional units on matters involving product pricing, overhead distribution, inventory rollover, cost determination, and other financial metrics. 

• Provides reports and analyses of overall trending financial performance; stay abreast of economic/financial trends to develop business strategies and tactics.

• Studies organizational capacity and operating costs, and develops recommendations meant to improve margins.

Reporting & Analytics

• Design and maintain management reporting packages for assigned business leaders; ensure reporting is clear, consistent, and decision-relevant — not just a data dump

• Partner with the Director of Analytics to develop and leverage data tools, automated reporting feeds, and dashboards that scale insight delivery across the business

• Identify trends, anomalies, and leading indicators in the business proactively — surfaces issues before they appear in the actuals

• Ensure that all FBP-generated reporting follows the standardized framework established by the Director of Strategic Finance: consistent KPI definitions, forecast templates, and business review cadence

Cross - Function Partnership

• Partner closely with the Director of Accounting Operations to ensure actuals are received accurately, on time, and with clear explanations of close-to-forecast variances

• Coordinate with the Director of M&A Integration on financial impacts of acquisitions affecting assigned business units, including integration P&L builds and earnout tracking

• Support the Director of Strategic Finance in preparing divisional financial narrative and executive-level reporting for the Divisional CFO

• Operate as a collaborative member of the Strategic Finance team; share insights with peer FBPs and contribute to continuous improvement in the team's tools, templates, and operating model

• Support strategy development, direction, and goal setting for the Strategic Finance function in collaboration with senior management.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8-10 years of progressive finance experience, with meaningful time spent in a financial planning, business finance, or management reporting capacity

• Demonstrated experience serving as a finance business partner, FP&A manager, or internal finance advisor to non-finance business leaders

• Strong financial modeling skills; proficiency in Excel required

• Experience building and presenting management reporting packages and KPI frameworks to senior leadership

• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex financial information clearly and persuasively in both written and verbal formats

• Experience in a professional services firm (accounting, consulting, advisory, or legal) strongly preferred; familiarity with professional services economics — utilization, realization, WIP, fee arrangements — is a significant advantage

• Prior experience in a Finance Business Partner, Senior FP&A, or Operational Finance role within a business of comparable scale and complexity ($500M+ revenue)

• MBA or advanced degree in Finance or Business from an accredited institution

• CPA or CFA designation is a plus but not required

• Experience with enterprise planning and reporting tools such as Adaptive Insights, Anaplan, Workiva, Oracle PBCS, or equivalent

• Proficiency with data visualization tools such as Power BI or Tableau

• Familiarity with the dynamics of a publicly traded company, including quarterly reporting cadence, earnings preparation support, and investor relations considerations

• Prior experience working within a matrix organization or multi-segment finance structure

• Experience leading, mentoring, and developing a team or function 

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required
• Graduate or specialty degree preferred
• 8 years experience
• 6 years supervisory experience (if applicable)
• Ability to manage deadlines, work on multiple assignments and prioritize each assignment as necessary
• Proficient use of applicable technology
• Demonstrated ability to communicate verbally and in writing throughout all levels of organization, both internally and externally