Associate, Financial Officer Practice

Associate Role

Spencer Stuart is seeking to recruit an Associate for the Financial Officer Practice.  This Associate will have the opportunity to help solve Chief Financial Officer assignments and other finance-related functional roles across industry sectors with a special focus in serving Private Equity backed clients.  With exposure to a broad set of clients and leadership challenges, this Associate will help to identify and develop diverse candidate slates as an essential member of the search team.  The Associate role combines research, assessment, and relationship-building skills to deliver extraordinary service and value to Spencer Stuart clients who value the quality of our work and insight alongside our ability to deliver at pace when working in private equity.

Successful candidates for the Associate position will have strong project management ability, writing skills, results orientation, rigorous attention to details, intellectual curiosity and ideally, and understanding of finance.  The Associate will enjoy the challenge of working internally with a variety of Consultants, and externally with diverse, senior-level executives and board members.  Associates will be expected to acquire deep and insightful candidate pool knowledge over time.

The Associate will ideally be based in the northeast with slight preference for New York, Philadelphia or Stamford.  It will be the expectation that the Associate spend 2-3 days/week in the office to properly build relationships and benefit from in person apprenticeships.  Open to possibly considering an outstanding candidate in another Spencer Stuart office location where there is a concentration of FOP colleagues if able to flex to east coast hours as needed.

Key Relationships

Reports to:

• Director of Associates

• Consultants (on an assignment basis)

Other key relationships:

• Practice Leader

• Associate Practice Leader

• Associates, Senior Associates and Consultants

• Analysts

• EEA's

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute actively to the start-up phase of each search by participating in client kick-off meetings with the Consultant and assisting in the development of the position specification, search strategy and target list of companies.

• Gather relevant information regarding the appropriate industries and target companies.  Identify potential prospects and sources and represent the client effectively in the marketplace, discussing the opportunity with relevant executives.

• Validate potential candidates through reference and source calls while gathering meaningful insight that is an important part of the process.

• Partner with the Consultant (and team) to prepare for upcoming client updates by developing a slate of qualified candidates, updating client materials and presenting backgrounds offering balanced insight and informed perspective.  Anticipate what needs to drive the search to closure and be prepared to supply additional information, such as related industry/segment trends, market findings, reaction to the opportunity, compensation data, etc., gained during the course of a search.

• Assist in the preparation of position specifications, candidate presentations and reference reports adhering to the Firm’s assessment methodology.

• Communicate effectively with the core search team (Consultant, Analyst, EEA) and remain fully abreast of search developments, in order to communicate accurately and credibly regarding the assignment; pass along real time industry/market updates and any changes that may impact the course of the search.

• Add to the firm’s candidate pool expertise by continually identifying and introducing new talent to the firm.  Ensure that up to date assignment, company and candidate information during the course of an assignment is always available for colleagues, by leveraging technology and information from the firm’s state-of-the-art, proprietary database. Collaborate, and coordinate, with colleagues who may be working in similar talent pools.

• Contribute to responses to inquiries for new business, as well as business development initiatives.

• Be willing and proactive about contributing to local, practice or firm-wide initiatives.  Coordinate and share practice related information with colleagues for potentially broader distribution.

Ideal Experience

• 4+ years of business experience in executive search, strategy consulting, private equity or a relevant professional services environment with significant time spent in client service where there are competi