Senior Financial Modelling Analyst

Department: Corporate Finance

Employment Type: Fixed Term Contract

Location: Cheltenham

Description

Key Responsibilities

• Assess and document the existing model, including its source data, dependencies, allocation logic, outputs and control weaknesses. 
• Agree the target design and migration approach with Corporate Finance, the GL team, Operations and relevant system owners. 
• Rebuild and roll forward the model using transparent, maintainable structures that distinguish source data, controlled inputs, approved planning versions, calculations and controls. 
• Establish controlled mappings for employees, contracts, Statements of Work (SOWs), clients and reporting classifications, identifying ambiguous, duplicate and unmatched records. 
• Preserve agreed reporting requirements and accounting treatments, with Finance approval for material methodology changes. 
• Diagnose and correct broken references, formula errors and data-quality issues rather than masking unresolved problems. 

• Establish a repeatable process to extract and load actual time allocations from Sage Intacct timesheets, working with Finance, IT and system owners to select an appropriate method. 
• Use approved timesheet data to allocate staff costs to contracts and SOWs under an agreed, documented methodology. 
• Load actual costs from the general ledger and supporting schedules, reconciling source costs to allocated costs and showing unallocated balances separately. 
• Maintain transparent treatment of direct and indirect costs, non-project time, overheads, new business, starters, leavers, contractors and other agreed exceptions. 
• Operate validation and exception controls covering missing or incomplete data, invalid mappings, duplicate records and potential cost omissions or duplication. 

• Use historical actual allocations to prepare transparent baseline estimates for future quarters, clearly identifying the period and methodology used. 
• Provide simple, controlled inputs for SFBPs to refine future allocations with Operations, while retaining visibility of baseline assumptions and overrides. 
• Maintain the logic that translates approved allocations, staffing assumptions and cost schedules into forecasts, protecting actual periods and approved versions. 
• Load and cost signed-off vacancies and approved additional FTE roles, enabling SFBPs to allocate them to SOWs and avoiding double counting as roles are filled. 
• Import approved schedules supplied by the GL team and SFBPs, validating completeness, mappings, periods, units and phasing. 

• Produce reliable contract- and SOW-level P&Ls covering revenue, allocated costs, bonus, gross margin, gross margin excluding bonus, margin percentages and FTE. 
• Maintain consistent actual, budget and forecast reporting by client, division, vertical and sub-vertical, including SOWs appearing in only one reporting version. 
• Maintain agreed financial definitions, sign conventions and units, distinguishing new, continuing and ended contracts and percentage changes from percentage-point movements. 
• Produce variance and exception reporting for SFBPs to investigate with the business, keeping technical and data exceptions separate from commercial performance issues. 
• Maintain configurable, Finance-approved materiality thresholds and traceable exclusions. 

• Maintain reconciliations to the general ledger, timesheet data and supporting schedules, together with an accessible summary of exceptions, owners and required actions. 
• Document calculation logic, data sources, assumptions, mappings and operating procedures to support ongoing use and future migration to a dedicated planning platform. 
• Maintain version control, change logs, testing evidence and approval of material changes, including controlled parallel runs against agreed existing outputs. 
• Train SFBPs to use controlled inputs and outputs, provide cross-training and protect confidential employee, salary and commercial information. 

• Use Microsoft Copilot and other approved AI tools to support model development, review, testing, documentation and process improvement, independently validating outputs before use. 
• Use appropriate Excel functionality and approved tools to create repeatable processes for importing, mapping, validating and reporting data, prioritising transparent and maintainable solutions. 

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Exceptional Excel and financial modelling skills, with evidence of rebuilding and maintaining complex financial models. 
• Strong experience of importing, combining, cleaning, mapping and validating data from multiple sources within robust Excel models. 
• Practical Microsoft Copilot or comparable approved AI experience, including independent validation of outputs. 
• Strong management accounting knowledge, including P&Ls, GL structures, staff costs, FTE, cost allocation, budgets and forecasts. 
• Experience designing reconciliations, financial controls and useful exception reporting. 
• Ability to work collaboratively with Finance, Operations and system owners and challenge unclear requirements constructively. 

• Sage Intacct experience, particularly timesheet, project or dimensional data. 
• Experience in a staff-intensive professional services or contract-based business. 
• Experience taking a finance model rebuild through design, testing, implementation, parallel run and handover. 

• Pioneering - we don’t stand still. 
• Responsible - we do the right thing. 
• Inclusive - we all play a role. 
• Delivery Focussed - we provide services we are proud of. 
• Empowering - we equip people to be their best. 

Benefits