Business Analyst II

Job Description: Business Analyst II
Job Location: Cary, NC.
Job Duration: 12 Months

Job Description:
Serves as a liaison between the business community and the IT organization in order to provide technical solutions to meet user needs. Possesses expertise in the business unit(s) they support, as well as, an understanding of the IT organization's systems and capabilities. Analyzes business partner's operations to understand their strengths and weaknesses to determine opportunities to automate processes and functions. Assists in the business process redesign and documentation as needed for new technology. Translates high level business requirements into functional specifications for the IT organization and manages changes to such specifications. Educates the IT organization on the direction of the business. Negotiates agreements and commitments by facilitating communication between business unit(s) and IT from initial requirements to final implementation. Possesses an understanding of technological trends and uses this knowledge to bring solutions to business units supported to enhance the enterprise's competitive edge. May make recommendations for buy versus build decision. Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or other related field. Or equivalent work experience. Typically has 5 to 10 years of relevant technical or business work experience.

Client's Global Technology Services (GTS), Portfolio Planning & Management PPM team is growing and requires a Financial Analyst to support Project Approval Requests (PAR) processing. This position will be responsible for interpreting customer needs and transfer that into a coherent Business Case for executive review and approval. The scope of this group for 2017 was 130 Approved Business cases with a total investment of $421M. We partner with multiple IT organizations domestically and internationally, including: Engineering, Service Operations, Global Infrastructure Services, Application Maintenance & Support, IT Risk and Security, Enterprise Architecture, and Corporate Real Estate.

The ideal candidate for this position will have thorough knowledge of Financial Concepts such as NPV and IRR. It is imperative that the candidate be able to manage multiple requests at any given time with tight deadlines. They will also be responsible for understanding and managing PAR from inception to execution. They will support the Reporting processing such as Portfolio, Commodity and other Month end reporting.

Summary of Position Responsibilities:
Financial Analyst will be responsible for the consolidation of IT Infrastructure actuals, budgets, and forecasts. Establishes implements, maintains and monitors processes to ensure alignment with industry best practices. Manage against key deliverables as defined by corporate finance and senior leadership. The candidate must also have strong Financial Acumen, Excel skills and GAAP Accounting.

Portfolio Financial Management
• Maintain Financial rules documentation for creation and approval of PARs
• Understand Depreciation, Amortization
• Understand Budget impact
• Cash vs P&L impact

Principal Accountabilities of Position
• Work with Client's technology owners and leadership in preparing financial analysis and capital budgeting to be included in written proposals for domestic & foreign IT initiatives and projects to be reviewed and approved by Executive leadership.
• Assist technology owners through diligence in capturing and identifying all costs associated with the related proposal, and placing them in the appropriate expense category with the appropriate accounting treatment.
• Create custom Excel workbooks to capture and organize complex financial data associated with IT initiatives and projects
• Regularly meet and communicate with IT Leaders and Portfolio Managers in managing the pipeline of initiatives being prepared for approval. As well as provide high level guidance on an as needed basis on discoveries and/or business cases.
• Regularly meet with expense management experts in order to stay current with expense/purchasing pipeline associated with proposals being presented for approval and support development of associated forecasts.
• Assist management with consolidated financial reporting packages and presentations for senior leadership.
• Strong relationship, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and analytical skills, and ability to work independently as well as within a team environment

Required Experience:
• 5+ years' experience in Financial Planning & Analysis, to include expense management, financial reporting and general finance practices, including accruals, depreciation, accounting and financial rules that govern expense reporting, billing and chargeback practices
• 5+ years of experience in general accounting principals
• 5+ years in MS EXCEL (including pivot tables), Word and PowerPoint
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented and dynamic environment
• Ability to read and interpret expense implications of IT sourcing documents (contracts, SOWS, proposals, POs)
• Self-starter with excellent organizational skills and proactive approach to deliverables
• Ability to collaborate effectively and transparently and work as part of a team
• Ability to manage multiple deliverables

Preferred Experience:
• Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Accounting or Finance

• Ability to read and interpret expense implications of IT sourcing documents (Ex: contracts, SOWS, proposals, Pos, etc.)
• Ability to provide financial tracking and control for expense transactions and ensure proper cost center and general ledger classifications in coordination with Procurement and Finance Teams
• Ability to regularly meet with technology owners, Project Office, Procurement and other stakeholders in order to stay current with expense pipeline and register related P&L impacts
• Ability to proactively identify cost savings opportunities makes recommendations/ implements solutions to streamline operations while reducing overall risk to
• Strong Analytical skills
• Strong attention to detail as well as simplifying portfolio data for data-driven decision making