Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

About This Role

The Director, IT Finance owns financial planning and analysis for Hearst Technology Services — the forecast, the annual budget cycle, the monthly close, the management reporting package, and the analysis that supports investment decisions across the technology division.

This is a leadership role for an experienced FP&A professional. The Director manages the Manager, FP&A and the analyst team beneath that role, and partners directly with technology department heads and with the Sourcing, Technology Business Management, and corporate accounting teams — translating technology cost into decisions about investment and run-rate reduction. Success is measured by forecast accuracy, a clean and on-time close, and the quality of the insight delivered to senior management.

What You'll Do

Planning, Forecasting & Budgeting

• Own the monthly forecast for operating expense, project expense, and capital, consolidating inputs from technology department heads into a single defensible view.

• Lead the annual budget cycle for assigned technology towers: build the calendar, set assumptions, challenge submissions, and deliver a board-ready plan.

• Drive the capital planning process — validate business cases, build financial models, quantify ROI and payback, and make funding recommendations to senior management.

• Model the financial impact of organizational, vendor, and architecture changes, including multi-year run-rate savings and one-time transition costs.

Reporting & Analysis

• Deliver monthly P&L, G&A, and budgetary status reporting to IT senior management with variance analysis against budget and forecast, root-cause explanation, and recommended remediation.

• Build and maintain the recurring management reporting package — reducing manual preparation through automation and standardization rather than headcount.

• Surface budgetary inconsistencies, control gaps, or improprieties to senior management promptly and with supporting analysis.

• Develop the analytics that answer forward-looking questions from leadership, not only what was spent but what is likely to be spent and what should change.

Business Partnership & Operations

• Serve as the finance partner to assigned technology department heads — understand their roadmap, align forecast to delivery, and flag risk before it materializes in the actuals.

• Work with Technology Sourcing & Vendor Management on the financial analysis supporting contract negotiations, renewals, and consolidation decisions.

• Support the Technology Business Management team on intercompany assessments — reconcile differences against the general ledger and supply the financial inputs the cost model depends on.

• Anticipate risk, adjust plans, and keep leadership informed early — no surprises at month end.

Month-End Close & Financial Operations

• Own the monthly close for the technology division — accruals, journal entries, and reclasses — working with the corporate accountant to close the books accurately and on schedule.

• Manage the IT invoice process: review and approve invoices, confirm general ledger coding and cost center assignment, and resolve exceptions before they reach the close.

• Oversee purchase requisitions and purchase orders — validate budget availability and coding at request, and keep open commitments and aged POs current.

• Maintain the close calendar and hold the division to it; drive down the number of post-close adjustments period over period.

Leadership

• Manage the Manager, FP&A — set priorities, review output, and develop the role toward broader financial leadership; oversee the analyst team through that position.

• Set standards for analytical rigor, documentation, and turnaround across the FP&A function.

• Improve how the team works: standardize recurring deliverables, eliminate low-value manual effort, and raise the baseline quality of financial output.

• Represent IT Finance in cross-functional initiatives and senior management forums.

What You'll Bring

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a closely related business discipline.

• CPA, CFA, or CMA.

• Seven or more years of progressive FP&A experience, with demonstrated depth in budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and management reporting.

• Experience owning a full planning cycle end to end — assumptions, consolidation, review, and presentation to senior management.

• Strong financial statement analysis, projection, and financial modeling skills.

• Experience managing people, including managing a manager or team lead.

• Hands-on experience owning or supporting a monthly close, including accruals and reconciliation with an accounting team.

• Working knowledge of business operations, cost structures, and cost drivers, with a fundamental understanding of accounting principles.

• Proven success as a business partner in a client-service environment spanning multiple business units and stakeholder levels.

• Excel proficiency.

• Excellent listening and communication skills, with the ability to deliver clear, well-organized presentations and written correspondence to executive audiences.

• Strong personal time management and the ability to run several projects simultaneously against fixed close and planning deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Technology Business Management experience, or familiarity with a technology chargeback, showback, or cost allocation model.

• Working knowledge of Oracle ERP.

• Practical experience applying AI tools such as Claude or ChatGPT to financial analysis, reporting, and workflow automation.

• Familiarity with cloud cost management or FinOps practices.

• IT finance or shared-services finance experience.

• Strong interest in working within technology.

What Success Looks Like in Year One

• Forecast variance is narrow, explainable, and trusted by both HTS leadership and business unit finance.

• The monthly reporting package is faster to produce and more useful to the people who receive it.

• Capital and project funding decisions are supported by models leadership trusts without re-checking.

• Technology department heads treat this role as their first call on any decision with a financial consequence.

Benefits

• Hearst provides a competitive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, 401(k), paid holidays and paid time off, employee assistance programs, and more.

• Compensation

• The base salary range below is the Company's good-faith estimate for this position in the posted work location at the time of posting. Final starting salary will be based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors, including but not limited to skills, experience, training, certifications, education, location and market considerations.

• Base

Salary

Range:

$190,000—$220,000 USD