Finance Business Partner (Creative)

The Finance Business Partner (Creative) serves as the analytical engine of the finance department, focusing on the "why" and the "what's next" rather than just the "what happened." In a marketing services or production environment, this role ensures that creative ambitions are backed by rigorous financial logic and scalable models. As part of the Engage Divisional Finance team, reporting to the VP Finance Business Partnering (Social & Creative), this role focuses on supporting our Creative Marketing Pillar, acting as an advisor to the Pillars executive team, using data-driven insights to influence Pillar strategy. This role sits at the intersection of Finance, Operations, and Business Development, providing the financial architecture needed to scale the studio profitably. The role will work alongside other Senior Finance team leaders championing the Finance Excellence vision to be trusted business partners that champion growth, create value and manage risk.

Keywords Studios comprises 4 Divisions, Create, Globalise, Engage, Media & Entertainment. Within the Engage Division, there are two Service Lines, Marketing Services and Player Engagement, and within Marketing Services, there are 3x Pillars, Social, Creative & PR. The Creative Pillar comprises Marketing Studios based in LA, London, Montreal and Brighton. This role’s primary focus will be supporting the Creative Studios in LA & Montreal, whilst partnering with the “Finance Lead” who supports London & Brighton.

The Finance Business Partner (Creative) will deliver the following key activities:

Advanced Financial Modeling & Forecasting

• Dynamic Modeling: Build and maintain sophisticated models to project the long-term health of the studio.
• Scenario Planning: Create "What-If" analyses to evaluate the impact of losing a major anchor client, expanding into a new geographic market, or shifting from project-based fees to a retainer model.

Operational Partnership & Advisory

• Departmental "Co-Pilot": Work directly with Creative, Production, and Account Directors to translate their operational KPIs (e.g., billable utilization, pitch win rates) into financial outcomes.
• Resource Optimization: Analyze the "Build vs. Buy" trade-offs for production—deciding when to hire full-time staff versus leveraging high-cost freelance talent based on pipeline velocity.
• Financial Gatekeeper & Liaison: Serve as the primary point of contact between Creative/Operational teams whilst partnering closely with the Finance Manager to ensure seamless financial compliance.
• Performance Monitoring: Own the monthly and quarterly variance analysis, deeply investigating deviations from budget and working with department heads to implement corrective operational actions.

Profitability & Margin Engineering

• Client/Project Audits: Perform deep-dive "Post-Mortem" analyses on major campaigns to identify "scope creep" and margin erosion, recommending pricing adjustments for future contracts.
• Overhead Management: Monitor and optimize non-billable spend, ensuring that agency "burn" is aligned with revenue growth

Strategic Capital Allocation

• Investment ROI: Lead the financial due diligence for major capital expenditures, such as upgrading production equipment or investing in tools
• Budgetary Governance: Lead the annual budgeting process, ensuring that every dollar allocated aligns with the company’s long-term strategic plan.

Data Visualization & Reporting

• Executive Dashboards: Design and manage automated Google Sheets dashboards that provide the leadership team with real-time visibility into metrics like Revenue per Head and EBITDA margin.
• Narrative Reporting: Move beyond the spreadsheet to provide clear, concise monthly narratives that explain the "story behind the numbers" to non-finance stakeholders.
• Financial Process Efficiency: Identify and drive opportunities for automating non-value-add financial processes within the business (e.g., procurement, expense tracking, time-sheet approval workflows) to free up operational team capacity.

Requirements:
This is a high-profile, strategic role. The ideal candidate will possess proven leadership experience in managing Finance Business Partnering activities and bring the essential skills, experience, and mindsets required to succeed in a fast-moving environment that demands sharp attention to contract pricing and margins.

• Fully qualified accountant (e.g., CPA, CA, ACA, ACCA) with 5–8 years of progressive experience in high-growth Finance roles (FP&A, Strategic Finance) within a Global Finance function.
• Exceptional Finance business partnering and influencing skills, paired with strong commercial acumen and organizational savvy.
• A bias for action, advanced problem-solving capabilities, and proven success in influencing strategic decisions and managing change.
• Experience working in organizations that have high levels of contract driven revenue and require careful attention to revenue forecasting and managing the drivers of contract margins (e.g. staff utilization), including but not limited to Agency/Media space, professional services, business and technology consulting.
• Expert-level Google Sheets skills (sheet linking, complex formulas, and data structure) and proficiency with ERPs (e.g., NetSuite, Quickbooks, Workday)
• Ability to simplify complex financial concepts for creative leaders without losing the technical nuance.
• Strong results orientation with the ability to challenge existing mindsets and drive process improvement.
• Advanced financial analysis and scenario modelling skills
• Collaborative and inclusive approach to working with team members and colleagues.