Commercial Finance Business Partner

Company Description

Dentsu is a modern marketing solutions company. Our mission is to help clients navigate, progress and thrive in a world of change. Businesses rely on our integrated network of agencies and specialized practices to champion meaningful progress through creative, media, commerce, data and technology. Part of Dentsu Group, our global network comprises 66,000 diverse people in 143 countries, who are dedicated to teaming for growth and good. Some of our award-winning agencies include 360i, Carat, dentsumcgarrybowen, DEG, dentsuX, iProspect and Merkle. Follow us on Twitter @DentsuUSA and visit dentsu.com/us.

We are champions for meaningful progress and we strive to be a force for good—for our people, for our clients, for the industry and for our society. We keep our people at the center, creating space for growth, understanding and learning so they can thrive. We embed diversity, in our mindset, in our solutions and in our teams to empower an inclusive, equitable and culturally fluent environment. Building this culture within our teams makes us better collaborators with each other and with our clients, driving better outcomes for all.

Job Description

Dentsu is looking for an enthusiastic self-motivated Commercial Finance Business Partner who thrives in a fast-paced environment. The successful candidate is comfortable having direct and thoughtful dialogue with both internal and external clients, understands the basics of revenue and expense accounting to effectively advise the business on favorable commercial terms, and the attention to detail to review and redline complex legal contracts, including master agreements and statements of work. 

Primary responsibilities include (1) performing commercial review and negotiation of our client contracts and (2) acting as a commercial advisor to the business and sales teams on revenue recognition, margin improvement, client disputes, and other ad hoc financial issues.

Activities include:

• Understand Merkle’s primary service offerings and understand IFRS revenue principles to related revenue streams.
• Review material client contracts for overall earnings and risk management considerations and act as the primary escalation point for risk considerations identified by team members.
• Act as the primary point of escalation for review of client related vendor contracts for alignment with client contracts and related risk management considerations.
• Collaborate with legal and the commercial contracts team on corporate risk management
• Escalate economic risk issues to senior and executive management as they arise.
• Build deep, trusted relationships with sales, client team, and capability leaders to ensure honest and efficient conversations occur regarding revenue recognition and contract management.
• Regularly identify opportunities to improve current processes, policies, procedures and controls to enhance delivery of world-class service to both internal and external customers.
• Ensure the identification of opportunities to minimize contract risk and coordinate commercial risk mitigation measures.
• Prepare contract/commercial risk assessments and deliver contract briefings to business unit/service line leadership, as required.
• Responsible for timely processing of contract activities against established service levels through Salesforce tool and manage dashboard metrics.
• Develop, implement, and ensure compliance with appropriate strategic commercial approach, based on contract type (i.e. Retainer, Deliverables, T&M).

Qualifications

Qualifications:

• BA/BS from a four-year college or university and 5 – 10 years of Finance, Accounting, and / or Contract related responsibilities
• Experience managing financial and business operations in a customer-focused service firm
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, specifically with Word and Excel.
• Ability to build strong relationships and earn respect quickly across the organization.
• Ability to collaborate with other groups such as Legal, Accounting, Sales Support, as well as to motivate and negotiate effectively with key employees, top management, and external clients
• Ability to comprehend, analyze, and interpret complex business documents and respond effectively to the sensitive issues
• Ability to prioritize and complete daily workload and projects with minimal supervision and in accordance with deadlines and shifting priorities
• Ability to interact professionally with all levels of m