Director, Strategic Finance Transformation (FP&A)

Join Goodwin’s Global Operations Team, and make a real impact on a global scale. At Goodwin, we work with some of the world’s most successful and innovative investors, entrepreneurs and disruptors in the life sciences, private equity, real estate, technology and financial industries, and where they converge. As part of the Global Operations Team – all business professionals at the firm – you’ll collaborate with colleagues from diverse backgrounds and experiences, fostering an environment where cross-functional learning, networking, and collaboration are at the core of what we do.

Here, we’re not just supporting a law firm; we’re partnering with attorneys and clients to deliver cutting-edge solutions in high-stakes litigation and dispute resolution, world-class regulatory compliance and advisory services, and complex transactions. Our commitment to integrity, ingenuity, agility, and ambition drives us, and we’re proud to have been recognised as the “Best Business Team” by The American Lawyer.

This is your opportunity to grow professionally in a dynamic, global environment, surrounded by forward-thinking peers.

As a leader within the Finance department, the Director of Strategic Finance Transformation will report directly to the Managing Director (MD) of Strategic Finance, a subfunction of finance that includes the Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Business Intelligence – Finance and Partner Compensation teams. This central role will serve as this group’s lead project coordinator and provide ad-hoc finance process support for both the MD of Strategic Finance and the CFO. The Director will take a lead role in conducting due diligence and defining the primary business requirements in an effort to identify opportunities for process enhancement and value creation in areas including but not limited to: expense management and planning processes, workflow development for systematic tracking of stakeholder requests, standardizing documentation procedures to ensure transfer of institutional knowledge, and streamlining of recurring internal executive reporting and external benchmarking reporting. 

This role will also encompass select traditional FP&A responsibilities including administering the execution of the firm’s annual planning cycles and leveraging financial analysis to provide ongoing decision support for the firm’s Partners and Global Operations (GO!) Leadership. The Director will work closely with other members of the Strategic Finance group, broader Finance department and other GO! Team members to identify, manage and provide thought leadership on best practices to support the continued progression of our business support model.  This individual will be a critical part of an impactful finance team driving operational improvements with regular exposure to executive leadership.

What You Will Do:

• Lead the implementation of a new budget planning platform and the coordination of the enterprise budgeting and forecast planning production process to ensure high quality delivery according to defined timelines

• Facilitate the development of a partner compensation platform to ensure equitable and consistent compensation practices, with a focus on program design for user access testing, end user training programs and execution of follow-on enhancements

• Administer a firmwide roll-out of a new centralized reporting and analytics portal

• Continuously evaluate, enhance and/or architect operational processes for scale, simplicity and reliability

• Keep a pulse on finance industry trends and best practices to provide thought leadership in support of advancing of the Strategic Finance business support model and brand

• Contribute into a dynamic environment that empowers and rewards those who take the initiative to develop a commercial acumen and learn the business of law

Who You Are:

• Bachelor’s Degree required, preferably in a finance discipline

• Advanced degree or professional certifications are a plus

• Minimum of 10+ years professional experience in a finance related role, preferably in a FP&A or Finance operations management role with some exposure to legal or professional services

• Up to 15% travel or ~3 business days per month

• Proven track record of driving change management, managing complex projects and producing high quality content with minimal oversight

• Excellent (executive level) communication / presentation skills

• Strong knowledge of finance and accounting fundamentals and processes

• Superior organizational skills to ensure progress on critical tasks remains highly visible to leadership through completion

• Demonstrated ability to create cl