Director, Business Management

Company Description

CoLab is a fully integrated, cross-discipline team that provides best-in-class services in a fluid and modular way. With our clients at the center, we create brand movement at the speed of people’s lives by connecting real-time data with world-class creative, content, and media in service of growth and ROI.

CoLab is a “power of one” solution, encompassing data, media, and production. By drawing from across the vast Publicis Groupe network, we are uniquely positioned to deliver innovation and specialized skills to our clients, as well as enriching opportunities and inclusive benefits to our employees. We pride ourselves on combining the energetic atmosphere of a startup company with the stability and experience of a global leader.

Job Description

Reporting into the Head of Business Management, the Director is responsible for leading business and financial operations and analysis for a product specialty track within a large, complex pharmaceutical client account. This is a client-facing role that will require a combination of business operations, project management, account management, and client relationship management skill within the broader framework of financial operations. In this role, you will serve as a key business partner and work closely with client account leads, agency finance and account leads, and other CoLab stakeholders.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a hybrid position requiring onsite collaboration an average of 3 days/week. The role is based out of our New York City office located at 375 Hudson Street; all candidates must be local to the NYC metro area and willing to commute into that office on a regular basis.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic financial guidance and support to client services teams.
• Establish and maintain a successful workflow between multiple cross-functional teams including Creative, Finance, Accounts, Project Management, Resource Management, and Marketing.
• Work directly with client to explain and interpret the financial health of individual projects and overall track of work including reconciliations, budgeting, staffing, billings, and other financial metrics.
• Interpret financial data, update monthly client accruals, and report on client profitability.
• Manage, monitor, track, update, reconcile, and report on internal and client budgets and rolling revenue forecasts.
• Review estimates and Statements of Work, high-level cost assumptions, and analysis of spend data.
• Approve vendor POs and manage client POs as needed.
• Support overall client account planning, scoping, and strategy including driving difficult, complex business discussions with client and facilitating resolution of any issues that arise.
• Build trust and credibility with clients by ensuring audit compliance and prompt billing reconciliation.
• Support financial analysis and reporting including reporting monthly revenue variances.
• Foster internal and external client relations in collaboration with Account, Project Managers, and Finance team leads.
• Serve as the Business Management lead for new business pitches and identify opportunities for upselling or other potential areas of support.
• Identify opportunities for revenue and profit growth and areas of improvement.
• Lead, manage, mentor, and develop more junior members of the team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Finance, Accounting, Project Management, Business, or a related field.
• 5+ years of prior professional experience supporting financial and/or business operations, analysis, budgets, and P&L for large, complex client accounts, preferably within an advertising agency or consultancy. Experience within the healthcare or pharmaceutical industries STRONGLY preferred.
• Prior experience working alongside creative and marketing teams and an in-depth understanding of the different components of the delivery process including business, finance, creative, marketing, staffing, etc.
• Experience working in a client-facing capacity including delivering presentations, leading meetings, and collaborating to identify and resolve issues.
• Experience independently leading multiple complex concurrent projects in various stages of completion within a portfolio of large accounts.
• Experience owning P&L responsibility for client accounts.
• Ability to independently own conversations and drive success within responsible client accounts.
• Advanced data analysis and reporting skills in Microsoft Excel (including creating and manipulating pivot tables, V/H/XLookups, etc).
• Experience building presentations using Microsoft PowerPoint.
• Familiarity with specialized financial and CRM tools (such as Salesforce, Oracle, SAP, etc.) strongly preferred.
• An ability to concisely and clearly communica