About Eversheds Sutherland:

Eversheds Sutherland represents the combination of two firms with a shared culture and commitment to client service excellence. We are each known for our commercial awareness and industry knowledge and for providing innovative and tailored solution for every client. As a full service law firm, we act for the public and private sector across the UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the USA providing legal advice to clients across its company commercial, human resources, litigation and dispute management, and real estate practices. With 67 offices across 34 countries worldwide, we have become one of the largest law firms in the world and a great place to work and develop your career.

The Team
The FP&A team supports the Eversheds Sutherland International partnership to deliver management reporting and insights into performance to support decision making for the Executive, Board and International Leadership Team. We provide support on strategic opportunities to drive improvements to financial performance, over the short and medium term, and to evolve management reporting to support key strategic initiatives.

The Role
This is an extremely high profile role working closely with the Chief Financial Officer and the Commercial Finance Director to drive commercial performance. This role has oversight of all firmwide commercial KPIs and needs to be able to very quickly be able to identify trends and opportunities, producing insightful analysis to influence key stakeholders. The successful candidate needs to be able to operate under pressure and enjoy making decisions that will have a real impact on our business. The work is stimulating, the atmosphere dynamic and the opportunity to influence very real.

Key responsibilities:

This is a Senior Commercial Finance Manager role within the Finance team with responsibility for Firmwide FP&A and the global overhead cost base of Eversheds Sutherland International. You will directly line manage a team of six, and reporting to the Chief Financial Officer.

• Delivering an outstanding level of service to internal stakeholders.
• Management and development of team of six direct reports
• Key member and contributor of the Finance Leadership team, driving innovation and transformation.
• Provide benchmark insights and identify opportunities to continuously drive performance improvements.
• Leading the annual budget, planning and forecast processes including preparing presentations to the Exec and Board.
• Drive the development and standardisation of new MI reports to ensure reporting aligned to roles and responsibilities.
• Leading the preparation of business case financials for input into key business cases covering property, IT and other parts of International Operations (Opex and Capex)
• Delivering analysis and presentation of data to the leadership team to explain financials
• Identifying and commentating on peer analysis and be aware of major changes in legal industry
• Leading the strategic review, planning (budgeting), reporting and oversight of a £0.6bn revenue firm, including direct oversight of a c. £170m global cost base
• Managing cost share budgets with US colleagues and preparing reports for Global Executive.
• Reporting in collaboration with HR on partner performance, promotions, and chargeable hours bonuses.

Skills and experience:
We are looking for someone who can demonstrate:

• Ability to work in a fast pace environment, providing analytical support to, and reporting to the Chief Financial Officer.
• Strong understanding of legal market KPIs and key drivers of performance
• Work in collaboration with Commercial Finance Managers to ensure one version of the truth.
• Continuous improvement methodology to ensure current processes are efficient and fit for purpose
• Have experience of working in the Legal Services environment or a Professional Services organisation
• Have a strong background in the management and negotiation of third party contracts
• Good judgement and decision making skills
• Strong IT skills, intermediate/advanced excel, intermediate PowerPoint
• Strong interpersonal, communication, negotiation and presentation skills
• Strong attention to detail and excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong organisational skills and an ability to priorities and complete simultaneous projects.
• Ability to meet deadlines and work well under pressure.
• Educated to degree level or A levels with relevant work experience.

Key competencies:
• Confident and credible in dealing with internal and external stakeholders.
• Creative, able to think laterally and have a commercial outlook.
• Consistently positive attitude and ‘can do’ approach, as well as the ability being able to work well on your own initiative and as part of a wider team.
• Solution oriented with a lively, energetic and positive outlook. Pragmatic, robust and resourceful, with the ability to adapt quickly to different situations and personalities.