Senior Commercial Finance Manager

CMS are recruiting for a Senior Commercial Finance Manager to join our London team. 

This is a senior role with the Commercial Finance team – a growing team of finance and pricing professionals which supports the CMS leadership and the firm to deliver its overall strategy, improve profitability & recovery, and give pricing support on key client engagements. 
The role will play two very important functions – providing strategic support to the Head of Commercial Finance and managing and developing a team of Commercial Finance Managers to deliver the team’s objectives, support practice, sector and regional group initiatives, develop and promote best practice, and train and develop our fee earning body in commercial skills. 
The Commercial Finance function sits alongside colleagues in the Finance Business Partnering team to form the Financial Planning and Decision Support function. Alongside colleagues in Operations and Tax forming the Group Finance and Accounting division. 
The nature of our work means that the team works extremely closely with a number of teams outside of Finance including our Strategic Pitch and Strategic Client Management teams, Legal Operations and Project Management, Senior Management Team, and the sector, region and practice management teams.  
 

About CMS

CMS is a Future Facing firm. With 75 offices in 43 countries and 4,800+ lawyers worldwide, we combine deep sector understanding with a global overview, giving us the ability not only to see what's coming, but to shape it.

CMS is well equipped to help our clients face the future with confidence. We are driven by technology and readily embrace the possibilities it opens up for developing new and better ways of delivering legal services. Our bold approach to a changing future ensures that we nurture our employees and recruit top talent.

About the Role

The role of the Senior Commercial Finance Manager is to assist the Head of Commercial Finance in developing the team and in delivering the team’s key objectives and driving forward overall strategy as outlined below: 

Pricing support
•    Working closely with the Business Development Team and Partners to ensure pitch responses are profitable, commercially sound, and that fee proposals are both innovative and flexible. 
•    Building relationships with other support teams and stakeholders to ensure the wider business context is considered, appreciated, and represented in pricing and profitability decisions. 
•    Ensuring proposals meet both the firm’s and the client’s values, and that proposals help to build on the firm’s strategy
Education and training
•    Working closely with Finance Business Partners, Sector Leaders, Practice Group Leaders, business support teams and the general partnership to identify gaps in training and provide outreach and support across the entire firm. 
•    Designing and creating targeted, effective, and collaborative training solutions to upskill stakeholders in pricing, commerciality, confidence, value, profitability and recovery improvement. 
•    Promoting and developing current and new tools to educate and empower the firm’s partners and associates, to gain greater confidence and price smaller, less complex matters independently. 
•    Being a role model to the Commercial Finance Managers and analysts, embodying commercial best practice to help shape the team’s development. 
Commercial insight
•    Working with partners and the Client Management Team to maximise the value of client relationships, those within our Strategic Client and Sector growth client programmes. 
•    Preparing regular financial analysis and commentary for key sectors and clients, and providing advice in relation to potential areas of improvement. 
•    Business partnering with Sector Heads and Client Relationship Partners to provide financial support and drive profitability. 
•    Working with practice group and team leaders and other practice support teams. 
•    Supporting the Head of Commercial Finance and Senior Commercial Finance Manager as needed. 
Governance, guidance and policy
•    Working with Business Development leads and legal staff to develop fee structure options (pricing, discounts, commercial terms, etc.) to support pitching for and winning new work.
•    Creating new, and developing existing, guidance and governance policies to ensure best practice in areas of work delivery, profitability management, pricing, fee structures and other associated areas. 
•    Model the financial impact and viability of proposed pricing arrangements, and present to partners and management personnel as required. Evaluating options and challenging key decision makers when appropriate.
•    Provide post-matter financial analysis and associated pricing and business insight to partners, Commercial Finance, and Business Development teams as required. 

About You

Essential: Skills & Experience

•    Pricing and commercial experience within legal services but will consider broader professional services. 
•    Proven people management and people development skills. 
•    Excellent analytical skills
•    Proven strategic thought leadership. 
•    Excellent written and verbal communication. Emotionally resilient and has strength of personality to ensure the perspective of Commercial Finance is clearly communicated.
•    The ability to remain calm and focussed under pressure. 
•    Strong presentation skills, with the ability to confidently present to small or large groups of senior partners and staff. 
•    Excellent soft skills including the ability to influence senior stakeholders. 
•    Ability to make strong relationships with other teams. 
•    Good commercial acumen and exceptional analysis and financial modelling skills.
•    A collaborative team-player who is transparent and has a straight-forward approach.
•    ACCA / ACA / CIMA or similar qualified with a minimum of 4 years PQE or demonstrable relevant QBE.

Equal Opportunities

At CMS, a next-generation mindset is woven into all we do. We're diverse, supportive and inclusive, embracing our corporate social responsibility and creating a culture of sustainability in which every one of our people, whatever their background, can maximise their potential and thrive. For further information about CMS' diversity initiatives and programmes, please view the Diversity & Inclusion pages on our website.

Please apply online or contact a member of the Talent Acquisition team if you have any questions. For information regarding our competitive range of benefits please visit our Rewards & Benefits page on our website.

Please note that CMS have a preferred agency panel in place. Only applications submitted via the portal at the point of instruction will be accepted.

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