Financial Analyst

Job Description

Financial Analyst | Applied Systems

The Tone:
This is a full-time, hybrid role at Applied Systems, located in Chicago, IL. Applied Systems, a 2,833-person organization with over 40 years of experience, is dedicated to transforming the insurance industry by building innovative software and services. This role is crucial for the company’s financial direction, as the Financial Analyst will join the FP&A team to lead budgeting, forecasting, and provide strategic financial insights that influence key business decisions.

The TL;DR
• Role: Early Career
• Type: Full-time
• Location: Hybrid, Chicago, IL
• Pay: $75000–$93000 yearly
• Team: FP&A team
• Mission: This person will own the end-to-end budgeting and forecasting process and provide strategic financial insights to support company performance and decision-making.
• Tech Stack: Excel, Alteryx, Tableau, Vena Financial System

What You’ll Actually Do
• Process Ownership: Own and lead the end-to-end budgeting and forecasting process, serving as the primary administrator of the Vena Financial System, including P&L governance and cycle management across business units.
• Financial Reporting: Drive the monthly/quarterly close process, producing executive-ready operating materials such as variance analyses, bridge explanations, and management commentary that ties actuals to plan/forecast.
• Strategic Partnership: Serve as a strategic finance business partner to internal stakeholders by proactively monitoring company performance, identifying risks and opportunities, and delivering financial insights that influence decision-making.
• Process Improvement: Spearhead automation and process improvement initiatives across daily and monthly reporting workflows, aiming to reduce cycle time and increase forecast accuracy.
• Data Management & AI: Manage and synthesize large datasets, building scalable models and analyses that surface meaningful trends, and champion AI adoption within the finance function by leveraging AI tools and building internal best practices.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience in finance, business, or a related field.
• Experience: Expertise in Excel with the ability to build and manage complex models, coupled with a deep and demonstrated understanding of financial modeling and analysis tools.
• Skills: Excellent financial management and analytical skills, effective communication across multiple organizational levels, exceptional problem-solving and analytical abilities, particularly in understanding key financial and operational needle movers, and strong aptitude with numbers, math & logic.
• Bonus: Experience in the insurance or SaaS industries, and a passion for understanding what drives a business, identifying opportunities, and mitigating risks.