The Senior Manager, Finance (FP&A) will play a key role within the Agency Finance organization, serving as the primary Finance Business Partner to the Film Sales division while owning the Agency's revenue planning and forecasting processes.
This role combines financial planning and analysis with strategic business partnership. The ideal candidate will partner closely with Film Sales leadership to provide financial insights, support business decision-making, and evaluate commercial opportunities, while leading Agency-wide revenue forecasting, budgeting, financial modeling, reporting, and analysis.
Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Finance, this individual will help drive accurate revenue planning, improve financial visibility, and provide meaningful insights that support executive decision-making. The role offers the opportunity to partner closely with senior Finance leadership and Film Sales executives, contributing to both divisional performance and the Agency's overall revenue planning process.
Success in this role requires strong analytical skills, financial modeling expertise, business acumen, and the ability to build trusted relationships across Finance and business teams. The successful candidate will be comfortable operating independently, owning key financial processes, and providing recommendations that support business decisions.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Finance Business Partner
- Serve as the primary Finance Business Partner to the Film Sales division, acting as a trusted advisor to department leadership.
- Partner with business leaders to evaluate financial performance, support strategic initiatives, and provide financial guidance on key operational and commercial decisions.
- Develop a deep understanding of the Film Sales business, including the sales pipeline, deal activity, revenue drivers, client trends, and overall business performance.
- Provide financial modeling, scenario analysis, and actionable insights to support deal evaluations, business planning, and resource allocation.
- Partner with department leadership to develop annual budgets, quarterly forecasts, and long-range financial plans aligned with business objectives.
- Monitor business performance against forecast, identify risks and opportunities, and recommend actions to improve financial results.
- Prepare financial analyses and presentation materials to support business reviews and executive decision-making.
Agency Revenue Planning & Analysis
- Own the Agency's end-to-end revenue planning process, including annual budgeting, quarterly forecasting, long-range planning, and monthly forecast updates.
- Develop and maintain the Agency revenue forecast by partnering with business leaders to evaluate sales pipeline activity, deal flow, booking trends, and key revenue assumptions.
- Lead the forecasting process by validating assumptions, challenging forecast inputs, and driving improved forecast accuracy across Agency business units.
- Build, maintain, and enhance complex financial models supporting forecasting, budgeting, strategic planning, and ad hoc analyses.
- Prepare monthly and quarterly financial reporting packages, executive presentations, variance analyses, and performance reporting.
- Analyze revenue trends, commissions, forecast variances, and key business drivers to identify risks, opportunities, and actionable insights.
- Lead the consolidation and review of revenue forecasts across the Agency, ensuring assumptions are aligned, risks and opportunities are identified, and recommendations are provided to senior Finance leadership.
Revenue Operations & Cross Functional Partnership
- Partner closely with Accounting to support revenue recognition and ensure alignment between Film Sales division operational activity and financial reporting.
- Collaborate with Business Affairs, Legal, Sales, Operations, and Corporate Finance to support deal modeling, revenue planning, and reporting.
- Provide financial analysis to support commercial opportunities, new business initiatives, and strategic projects.
- Ensure consistency, accuracy, and transparency in Agency revenue reporting and forecasting.
- Serve as a key liaison between Finance and business teams to support informed decision-making and operational execution.
Process Improvement
- Identify opportunities to improve forecasting methodologies, financial models, reporting processes, and overall planning effectiveness.
- Develop scalable reporting tools, dashboards, and KPI reporting that improve visibility into revenue performance.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance reporting efficiency, forecasting accuracy, and financial insights.
- Recommend and implement best practices that strengthen the Agency's FP&A processes and capabilities.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or a related field. MBA preferred.
- 7+ years of progressive experience in Finance, FP&A, Corporate Finance, or related financial planning roles.
- Must be able to work on-site at our Los Angeles office on a hybrid schedule.
- Experience supporting revenue-focused businesses within the film, television, media, entertainment, or agency industry.
- Demonstrated experience with forecasting, budgeting, financial modeling, waterfall modeling, variance analysis, and management reporting.
- Strong understanding of sales pipeline analysis, deal modeling, revenue drivers, and financial performance measurement.
- Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including complex financial modeling, data analysis, and reporting.
- Excellent analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills with exceptional attention to detail.
- Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to build relationships and influence business partners across multiple levels of the organization.
- Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, and thrive in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
- Experience with ERP and financial planning systems such as SAP, Workday, Adaptive Planning, Anaplan, Hyperion, or similar platforms.
- Experience with business intelligence and reporting tools such as Power BI or Tableau.
Core Competencies
- Financial Planning & Analysis
- Revenue Forecasting & Planning
- Financial Modeling and Waterfall Modeling
- Strategic Business Partnership
- Sales Pipeline & Deal Analysis
- Executive Reporting
- Cross Functional Collaboration
- Business & Financial Acumen
- Process Improvement
- Communication & Presentation Skills
Per local requirements and in the interest of transparency, the rate shown below reflects the prevalent current hiring range for this position. Hiring pay rates are based on a number of factors, including location and may vary depending on job-related qualifications, knowledge, skills and experience. The company strives to provide locally competitive rewards packages, which include base rate along with, as applicable, short- and long-term incentives, growth and developmental opportunities, and robust benefits, such as health care, retirement, vacation and other paid time off, and additional offerings.
Hiring Rate Minimum:
$120,000 annually (minimum will not fall below the applicable state/local minimum salary thresholds)
Hiring Rate Maximum:
$160,000 annually
WME is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, or religion or belief.
