Financial Modeling & Strategic Finance Lead

A hands-on strategic finance role supporting informed decisions, disciplined growth, and strong financial performance.

DEPARTMENT Finance	REPORTS TO Chief Financial Officer
LOCATION New York, NY	STATUS/ SALARY Exempt/ $100,00-$120,000
EMPLOYMENT TYPE Full-Time	INDUSTRY Community Banking

About the Organization

We are a mission-driven community bank committed to strengthening the individuals, businesses, and neighborhoods we serve. Our size and operating model create an environment where thoughtful analysis, sound judgment, collaboration, and personal ownership have a direct impact on the organization’s performance and strategic direction.

Position Summary

The Financial Modeling & Strategic Finance Lead is a highly hands-on role responsible for developing financial models, dashboards, forecasts, expense analyses, and decision-support tools that help leadership understand performance and plan for the future. This individual will turn complex financial and operational data into clear, actionable insight and will be expected to build—not simply review—models, reports, and dashboards.

The ideal candidate combines strong technical ability with curiosity, business judgment, and initiative. They are comfortable working in a lean environment, taking an assignment from an initial idea through analysis, recommendation, and implementation. Success requires someone who can work independently, ask the right questions, identify what is missing, and deliver polished, accurate work without waiting for detailed step-by-step direction.

Key Responsibilities

• Build, maintain, and enhance a driver-based three-statement financial model used for forecasting, strategic planning, profitability analysis, capital allocation, and management decision-making.
• Develop integrated forecasts that connect the income statement, balance sheet, capital, liquidity, cash flow, and operating assumptions, including loan growth, deposits, funding costs, net interest margin, credit quality, and non-interest expense.
• Support the annual budget, rolling reforecasts, and multi-year financial planning process, ensuring that assumptions are well supported, transparent, and aligned with the Bank’s strategic priorities.
• Create scenario and sensitivity analyses that help leadership evaluate risks, opportunities, tradeoffs, and the financial impact of strategic decisions.
• Design and build executive-ready KPI dashboards that clearly communicate financial performance, operating trends, key drivers, risks, and emerging issues.
• Improve monthly and quarterly management and Board reporting through meaningful variance analysis, scenario analysis, forward-looking commentary, and clear executive presentations.
• Support ALCO and investment portfolio reporting, including analysis of liquidity, funding costs, interest-rate sensitivity, concentration risk, portfolio performance, and other relevant balance-sheet considerations.
• Translate data from Jack Henry, including ProfitStars where applicable, and other financial, accounting, and operational systems into accurate, practical reporting and analytical tools.
• Own expense reporting and analysis, including budgets, forecasts, actual-to-budget variance analysis, vendor, departmental, and technology spending trends, and cost-saving opportunities.
• Partner with department leaders to understand expense drivers, challenge assumptions constructively, improve forecast accuracy, and strengthen accountability.
• Analyze branch profitability, product performance, business-line results, customer and portfolio trends, non-interest expense, and other performance drivers relevant to a community bank.
• Prepare concise presentations and recommendations for executive leadership, committees, and other stakeholders; explain complex findings in clear business language.
• Take ownership of special projects from definition through completion, including gathering requirements, identifying data sources, building the analysis, validating results, and presenting recommendations.
• Improve existing financial processes, models, dashboards, and reporting by identifying opportunities for automation, simplification, stronger controls, and better decision support.
• Perform thoughtful quality checks and maintain clear documentation of assumptions, methodologies, data sources, and model logic.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience personally building financial models from the ground up, rather than relying primarily on prebuilt templates or work produced by others.
• At least four years of relevant experience in bank FP&A, corporate finance, treasury finance, investment banking, valuation, transaction advisory, or another regulated financial institution environment.
• Strong experience with full balance-sheet and P&L forecasting, budgeting, rolling reforecasts, multi-year planning, scenario analysis, sensitivity analysis, and management reporting.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including complex formulas, linked schedules, data validation, pivot tables, lookups, error checks, and clearly structured model design.
• Proven ability to build useful, visually clear dashboards using Excel, Power BI, Tableau, or a comparable business intelligence platform.
• Hands-on experience analyzing operating expenses, budgets, forecasts, and variances, with the ability to identify and explain underlying business drivers.
• Strong analytical reasoning and the ability to work with imperfect information, organize ambiguity, and develop a practical path forward.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the confidence to present findings, explain assumptions, and support recommendations.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, work independently, meet deadlines, and maintain a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within a community bank, regional bank, financial institution, or similarly hands-on financial environment.
• Experience with Jack Henry, including ProfitStars where applicable, and the ability to extract, reconcile, interpret, and present data from the platform.
• Prior experience in a boutique or middle-market investment bank, transaction advisory firm, valuation practice, private investment firm, or strategic finance team where the individual personally owned modeling and analysis.
• Experience with three-statement modeling, ALM or NIM modeling, capital planning, liquidity forecasting, profitability modeling, valuation, or return analysis.
• Experience preparing Board and ALCO materials and familiarity with regulatory capital ratios, Call Report terminology, and investment portfolio reporting.
• Working knowledge of Power Query, Power BI, Tableau, SQL, Oracle EPBCS, Workday Adaptive, Hyperion, Anaplan, or other tools used to automate analysis and develop dashboards.
• Understanding of bank financial statements, net interest margin, deposit and loan trends, funding costs, capital ratios, credit quality, and other community-bank performance drivers.
• MBA, CFA, CPA, or another relevant advanced credential.

What Success Looks Like

• Leadership receives clear, timely dashboards and analyses that make financial performance easier to understand and act upon.
• Financial models are accurate, transparent, adaptable, and built with assumptions that can be tested and explained.
• Expense trends and variances are identified early, communicated clearly, and connected to practical recommendations.
• Projects move forward with limited supervision because the role holder anticipates needs, follows through, and takes full ownership of the work.
• Finance processes become more efficient, insightful, and scalable through stronger tools, disciplined analysis, and thoughtful automation.

Ideal Candidate Profile

This role is best suited for an intellectually curious, resourceful finance professional who enjoys being close to the work. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable building a detailed model, investigating an unexpected expense variance, designing an executive dashboard, and presenting a recommendation to senior leadership. They will bring energy, good judgment, accountability, and a willingness to roll up their sleeves in support of the bank’s mission and goals.

Equal Employment Opportunity

The Bank is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic prote