Deals Transaction Services Financial Decisions and Analysis Manager

Job Description

About the TeamFinancial Decisions and Analysis (FDnA) is one of our highest growth teams, having doubled in size over the last 4 years. We work on some of the most high-profile deals in the market, across a wide range of clients and sectors. FDnA sits within the Transaction Services team in Deals and provides support to private equity firms, investment funds and corporate clients through mergers, acquisitions and disposals. We advise throughout the business life cycle, including pre-deal, during deal execution and post deal using cutting-edge modelling and analytical techniques.Every assignment is different, but we broadly define our offerings under the key headings;Deal Analytics - Using advanced analytical tools to increase confidence both before and during the deal through detailed analysis (customer segmentation, product profitability, pricing etc) Financial Modelling - Modelling either within a deal, restructuring or financial forecasting context (e.g. 3 statement financial models, short term cash forecasting or IFRS impact modelling) Accelerated Insights - delivering value creation opportunities using intelligent analytics to corporate and portfolio companies (e.g. enabling data driven decision making across sales teams, HR or finance functions)We are now looking to recruit a manager to join our high performing Reading team and support our continued growth in the London & South region. We are looking for people with a commercial mindset who can quickly get to the crux of business issues and deliver commercially "game changing" insight to our clients, enhancing the Deal value through compelling analysis.FDnA is a diverse team with a range of skillsets and are looking for an individual to join the Reading office, who has a strong academic background and either substantive experience using advanced analytics, experience with financial modelling, consulting experience or working in another commercial client facing role. If you are naturally inquisitive, have an analytical mind and enjoy solving problems in a rigorous and logical manner, for a variety of different businesses then this is the role for you.The FDnA team expanded to the Reading office two years ago and quickly established itself within a fast growing and integrated Deals business. The FDnA team has enjoyed success in the local market, quickly building strong client relationships and delivering a full range of FDnA projects. The team is now looking to recruit an ambitious manager to support the continued growth of FDnA in the region.About the roleYour first assignment may be working with CFOs or CEOs of a mid-size private business or a leading PE backed, or FTSE listed businesses to: Improve clarity and transparency for investors and finance providers by developing a driver based integrated model which assists with the budgeting and forecasting Support investors secure their funding needs on a high-profile acquisition Assess shareholder return by implementing rapid analytics to assess the value drivers of the target business Guide managements pricing decisions by evaluating the impact of price on margins and volume Understand the performance of different customers and products by applying techniques such as cohort analysis and clustering Implement better data driven decision making through use-case driven analytics (e.g. Sales team performance and effectiveness dashboards)Your responsibilities will include but may not be limited to: Working in multidisciplinary teams directly with our clients to use data analysis, visualisation and modelling - either within, before or after a Deal process to answer critical commercial questions Clear and concise communication of complex concepts and their business benefits to senior management (both internally and externally) from a range of backgrounds and business areas to help clients make robust, evidence based decisions Connecting the dots from disparate information streams (e.g. extracts from client system, management reports, developing architecture in Azure etc) and turning them into structured data that can be analysed as part of a project to provide greater insight to our clients Drafting reports and presentations and using data visualisation to explain our findings Supporting the team to develop and pitch for opportunitiesEssential skills and ExperienceTo be successful in this role, you will also need to demonstrate the following: Exceptional analytical and technical aptitude, possess both financial and commercial acumen and enjoy problem solving to understand the drivers of a business, analyse their data and use this to provide insight and advice to our clients; Have an entrepreneurial mindset and self-starter mentality, and be comfortable with a degree ambiguity with little supervision to come up with creative solutions to complex problems and develop these ideas into structured deliverable projects; The ability to manage time, prioritise tasks, self-review your work and produce deliverables of a high quality under tight client deadlines in time pressured environments; A strong desire to acquire and share technical knowledge with colleagues and clients Passion for technology and new tools and applying and developing yourself to new areas (e.g. quickly getting up to speed with tools, analytical approaches and business challenges) The ability to build collaborative working relationships at all levels, establishing credibility both internally and externally Experience in either Modelling, Advanced analytics (e.g. Microsoft stack; PowerBI, SQL & Azure), Consulting, Deals or have completed an ACA qualificationOur commitment to youOur team has constructed sophisticated training programs in order to equip and support commercially minded individuals with best practice techniques through technical training in both advanced analytics and financial modelling.Upon joining the team, you will participate in a wide range of training programs, conducted by external specialists, in order to develop your proficiency in data analytics and visualisation tools such as Microsoft Azure, PowerBI, Alteryx, and Tableau. These training programs are combined with work shadowing, on the job coaching and an amicable team culture that will support you in developing your skills and career within the team. FDnA also partners with leading data analytics and cloud computing service providers, such as Azure and Alteryx, in order to put our team at the forefront of the latest developments - including access to events that showcase the changing technology.DealsOur Deals business is an exciting, fast-paced and an ever-growing business that focuses on deals and crisis situations for our clients. Collectively, we deal with the types of situations you hear about regularly in the news and we provide support, insight and analysis to the management, shareholders and financiers of business.Not the role for youDid you know PwC offer flexible contract arrangements as well as contingent work (ie temporar