Executive Director, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
Guidehouse · Chicago, United States +2 · 1d ago
Job Family:
Finance Planning & Analysis
Travel Required:
Clearance Required:
What You Will Do:
The Head of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) will lead enterprise-wide financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, and strategic decision support for a complex professional services organization serving both federal and commercial markets. This highly visible leader will partner with the Chief Financial Officer, executive leadership, segment leaders, and functional stakeholders to translate business performance into actionable insights, strengthen financial discipline, and support profitable growth.
The Head of FP&A will build and lead a high-performing team, establish scalable planning and reporting processes, and provide forward-looking analysis across revenue, backlog, pipeline, labor, utilization, indirect costs, margins, cash flow, and capital allocation. The successful candidate will bring strong professional services experience, fluency in both federal contracting and commercial business models, and the energy, collaboration skills, and performance orientation required to influence leaders across the organization. An appetite to innovate and leverage modern means and methods to accomplish desired outcomes is critical. The ability to simultaneously manage the details and understand the big picture is a key requirement for success in the role. Experience leading the function in a publicly traded company is required. Guidehouse is seeking a high-energy, hardworking leader who is deeply committed to and passionate about our mission, approaches colleagues and clients with humility and integrity, and thrives in a collaborative environment.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead the company’s annual budgeting, quarterly forecasting, monthly outlook, and long-range planning processes across federal, commercial, corporate, and shared-service operations.
- Own executive, Board, and management reporting, delivering clear analysis of financial results, key performance drivers, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions.
- Partner with segment and functional leaders to translate operational plans, sales pipeline, backlog, staffing, utilization, pricing, and investment decisions into integrated financial forecasts.
- Provide strategic financial modeling, scenario analysis, and decision support for growth initiatives, acquisitions, integrations, investments, and cost optimization opportunities.
- Strengthen forecasting accuracy and accountability through driver-based planning, disciplined variance analysis, and consistent performance metrics.
- Oversee financial analysis for federal government contracting, including revenue recognition, indirect rates, project economics, backlog, funded and unfunded work, and relevant compliance considerations.
- Develop reporting and insights for commercial professional services operations, including bookings, pipeline conversion, pricing, utilization, realization, revenue, margin, and client profitability.
- Collaborate closely with Accounting, Treasury, Tax, Corporate Development, Human Capital, Operations, and business leadership to align planning assumptions and financial outcomes.
- Advance FP&A systems, dashboards, data governance, automation, and reporting processes to improve timeliness, accuracy, and decision usefulness.
- Recruit, develop, mentor, and retain a high-performing FP&A team with strong analytical, business-partnering, and communication capabilities.
Role Expectations:
- Operate as a high-energy, hands-on leader who combines strategic perspective with a willingness to engage deeply in the details.
- Build trusted relationships and collaborate effectively with senior executives, business leaders, and cross-functional partners.
- Communicate complex financial information clearly and concisely, tailoring insights and recommendations for executive, Board, and operational audiences.
- Challenge assumptions constructively, influence decisions, and drive accountability while maintaining a strong partnership mindset.
- Demonstrate a consistent record of high performance, sound judgment, urgency, and execution in a fast-paced, complex environment.
- Anticipate business risks and opportunities and mobilize stakeholders around timely, practical actions.
- Model integrity, curiosity, resilience, collaboration, and an energetic commitment to business results and team success.
What You Will Need:
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field.
- 15+ years of progressive finance experience, including significant leadership responsibility in FP&A, strategic finance, corporate planning, or a closely related function.
- Demonstrated success leading enterprise or large business-unit budgeting, forecasting, long-range planning, management reporting, and performance management.
- Required experience in professional services, consulting, government contracting, managed services, or another people-based, project-driven services business.
- Strong understanding of both federal and commercial environments, including their distinct revenue models, contracting structures, pricing dynamics, performance drivers, and risk profiles.
- Expertise in services-industry economics, including backlog, pipeline, bookings, headcount, labor mix, utilization, realization, indirect costs, project margins, and client profitability.
- Advanced financial modeling, scenario planning, data analysis, and executive presentation skills.
- Proven ability to lead, develop, and motivate a high-performing finance team while building strong partnerships across the business.
- Experience improving FP&A processes, systems, reporting, data quality, governance, and forecasting accuracy.
- Exceptional business acumen, executive presence, communication, influence, and change leadership skills.
What Would Be Nice to Have:
- Experience within a large, publicly traded professional services, consulting, technology-enabled services, or government contracting organization.
- Knowledge of public-company reporting expectations, including quarterly earnings support, Board materials, investor-facing metrics, SEC reporting dependencies, and Sarbanes-Oxley controls.
- Experience partnering with private-equity sponsors, public-company executives, or Boards in a growth-oriented environment.
- MBA or advanced degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or Business.
- CPA, CMA, CFA, or other relevant professional credential.
- Experience with enterprise planning, ERP, analytics, and visualization platforms such as Workday Adaptive Planning, OneStream, Anaplan, Oracle, SAP, Power BI, or comparable tools.
- Experience leading finance transformation, post-merger integration, planning-system implementation, or FP&A operating-model redesign.
What We Offer:
Guidehouse offers a comprehensive, total rewards package that includes competitive compensation and a flexible benefits package that reflects our commitment to creating a diverse and supportive workplace.
Benefits include:
Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
Parental Leave and Adoption Assistance
401(k) Retirement Plan
Basic Life & Supplemental Life
Health Savings Account, Dental/Vision & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
Student Loan PayDown
Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
Skills Development & Certifications
Employee Referral Program
Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
Emergency Back-Up Childcare Program
Mobility Stipend
About Guidehouse
Guidehouse is an Equal Opportunity Employer–Protected Veterans, Individuals with Disabilities or any other basis protected by law, ordinance, or regulation.
Guidehouse will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable law or ordinance including the Fair Chance Ordinance of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
If you have visited our website for information about employment opportunities, or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Guidehouse Recruiting at 1-571-633-1711 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@guidehouse.com. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodation.
All communication regarding recruitment for a Guidehouse position will be sent from Guidehouse email domains including @guidehouse.com or guidehouse@myworkday.com. Correspondence received by an applicant from any other domain should be considered unauthorized and will not be honored by Guidehouse. Note that Guidehouse will never charge a fee or require a money transfer at any stage of the recruitment process and does not collect fees from educational institutions for participation in a recruitment event. Never provide your banking information to a third party purporting to need that information to proceed in the hiring process.
If any person or organization demands money related to a job opportunity with Guidehouse, please report the matter to Guidehouse’s Ethics Hotline. If you want to check the validity of correspondence you have received, please contact recruiting@guidehouse.com. Guidehouse is not responsible for losses incurred (monetary or otherwise) from an applicant’s dealings with unauthorized third parties.
Guidehouse does not accept unsolicited resumes through or from search firms or staffing agencies. All unsolicited resumes will be considered the property of Guidehouse and Guidehouse will not be obligated to pay a placement fee.