Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) – the leading destination for innovative management thinking. We reach lifelong learners to improve the practice of management in a changing world. This mission inspires each of us to unlock the leader in everyone – including you!
The opportunity
Harvard Business Publishing Education (HBP Education) partners with educators & learners worldwide by being the richest source of ideas for improving management.
The Senior Director, Finance and Business Performance will drive continued growth for the Higher Education unit by leading the long-range planning, budgeting and monitoring processes and providing strategic decision support. As a member of the leadership team, this role will partner with Product, Marketing, Sales and Customer Success to support key business decisions to meet our strategic and financial goals. This role will have dual reporting to unit leadership and the CFO and will own the creation and execution of efficient systems to enhance nimble and data-driven decision making capabilities while building a high performing, outcome-driven team.
What you’ll do:
- Work in broad partnership with the unit head and the CFO to ensure the short and long-term financial health of the Higher Education business
- Steward the Long Range Plan (LRP) by building and refining revenue models, reconciling revenue aspirations to resourcing levels, analyzing trends and forecasting profitability over a three to five-year window.
- Make budget and resource allocation recommendations across the unit and central groups, assessing the efficacy of resource employment, identifying areas for strategic investment, and setting key annual financial targets and KPIs to drive business performance.
- Lead the financial aspects of the unit’s strategic planning, financial modeling, sales compensation, and goal setting processes.
- Collaborate with Sales Leadership to manage the process of setting annual sales targets, compensation modeling and pricing scenarios for the business.
- Oversee the Financial Operations functions for the unit and the interfacing with Corporate Finance and FP&A to:
- Prepare and upload the annual budget, quarterly outlooks, and long-range plan
- Perform monthly variance analysis and provide updates to senior management and the board of directors
- Manage the accounting of sales territory performance for comp purposes
- Liaise with AR/AP on issues related to credit, bad debt, and associated protocols and procedures
- Expand and evolve the Business Intelligence function, managing two senior analysts and a network of vendors, to:
- Build and maintain management dashboards, key reports, financial models, and other financially based decision-making tools (e.g. product/channel margin analysis, pipeline optimization models, etc).
- Fully leverage marketing and web analytics tools to develop more refined forecasts and provide more insightful intelligence to the unit via A/B testing and other methods
- Develop and help others develop business and investment plans with an emphasis on clearly defining realistic ROI and assessing NPV
- Develop and employ more sophisticated predictive models
- Partner closely with Marketing and Sales to analyze key trends such as market size and the competitive dynamic and to inform account and customer scoring rubrics
- Conduct investment reviews, tracking milestones, and analyzing performance.
What we’re looking for:
- 10+ years of finance, business intelligence and/or analytics related experience
- Demonstrated proficiency with financial metrics; able to direct analytical work and set KPIs
- Extensive experience leading and developing high-performing teams
- Expert-level Excel skills; working knowledge of Tableau and web analytics
- Prior experience working internationally or supporting a global business a plus
- Prior experience working with a sales team a plus
What we offer
As a mission-driven global company, Harvard Business Publishing is committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, trust, and engagement where everyone is welcome, valued, respected, and feels they belong. In addition to a competitive compensation and benefits package, we offer meaningful programs focused on career development and employee wellness, such as education reimbursement and early-release Summer Fridays!
HBP is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or any other characteristic protected by law.
$150,000 - $180,000
Above is the annualized pay range for this position. In addition, this position includes the opportunity to earn our annual Performance Based Variable Pay Program. Actual salary will be set based upon a range of factors, including external benchmark market data, individual knowledge, skills, experience, location and internal equity.
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