Commercial Analyst, UKI Consulting Operations, London

Commercial Analyst, UKI Consulting Operations, London

The role of Commercial Analyst is to provide dedicated support for UKI Consulting’s largest engagements in accordance with the Firm’s policies and best practice procedures.  

The aim of the Commercial Analyst role is to ensure the management of the financial side of engagements, making sure a high standard of associated operational activities are achieved and projects are executed to maximise efficiency and profitability.  You will report to the Commercial Manager and work closely with the Engagement Teams and various stakeholders on a day to day basis. 

This is a forward thinking, challenging and varied role, in which the successful applicant will continuously search for improvement in all aspects of engagement financial management.  

The opportunity

The purpose of the Commercial Analyst role is to support the business in improving the profitability of the client engagement portfolio.  This focus on 3 key aspects

• Major engagement support: the team is embedding within the largest Consulting engagements providing hands on support to managing the commercial aspects of the projects, being key support to the engagement partners and managers. 
• Commercial support to key pursuits and bids: analysing potential profitability, working with pursuits and Consulting leadership to assess and construct bid commercials to maximise both win success and project profitability 
• A programme of profitability interventions: the team analyse the engagement portfolio commercials and run a programme of interventions to support improvements in key projects and/or deploy good practices from successful engagements to the broader population. 
• This role is suited to commercially minded individuals who have the relationships skills to influence senior stakeholders and can operate flexibility in challenging environments. 

Your key responsibilities 

Support and improve engagement profitability  

• Support one or more major multi £m revenue engagement. Work with the Engagement Partner and Manager in the financial/commercial management of the engagement to implement best practice financial and profit management procedures. 
• Act as a financial advisor and custodian of EY policies (escalating issues where required to the Finance team), whilst also building a position as a trusted advisor to the engagement team.
• Prepare engagement budgets, monitor budgets to actuals and reconcile estimates to complete.
• Run engagement revenue and margin forecasting and provide reporting & insight on commercial performance to engagement leadership, including recommendations to address issue and/or improve performance.  This includes both improving revenue/fees and making efficiency improvement to the cost of delivery
• Oversee and support the delivery of margin improvement actions. 
• Support pricing and commercial structuring of extensions and contract variations, advising the engagement leadership team on the best course of action. 
• Manage the working capital processes, including managing invoicing and cash collection for the engagements. Maximise invoicing performance (value and timeliness) and work closely the engagement and where relevant the client to ensure invoices are paid on a timely basis. This includes reporting on time charged to the engagement team /client and act as a point of contact for the UK&I Consulting Finance team on working matters. 
• Liaise with the UK&I Consulting Finance team to ensure the engagements adhere to EY financial policy and are tracked on a regular basis.

Pursuit and Bid Commercial Support 

• Provide support to major new bid teams during bid production assisting in the shaping of commercial propositions and assessing the profitability of the bids
• Organise and support deal approval with Consulting leadership and provide insight on the key assumptions and profitability improvement levers that could be deployed
• For supported engagements, work with the engagement team on sell ons to the existing engagements, specifically developing pricing of the commercial deal and assessing profitability (e.g. risk reward or contingent fee pricing).

Improve project performance

• With the EY Finance team, analyse the engagement portfolio performance and identify areas for potential improvement, including identification of themes and trends. 
• Perform deep dive reviews and impact assessments on lower margin projects/portfolios at the request of business leadership to identify margin improvement opportunities. And work with the engagement teams to put in place actions plans to deliver the profitability improvements identified
• Undertake reviews of deal pricing and engagement margins to identify good practices and determine action plans to support wider application

Skills and attributes for success

• Proactive, organised and able to prioritise and multitask
• Able to influence others and express opinions
• Professional, confident, credible team player
• Robust and resilient disposition
• An ability to be calm under pressure

To qualify for the role you must have

• At least 3 years’ experience within a professional environment in a financial/commercial capacity (actively studying for financial qualifications)
• Excellent and proven advanced Excel skills

Ideally you’ll also have

• Strong computer skills including basic business software MS Outlook, MS Word, PowerPoint, MS Office and Explorer
• Strong analytical skills with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail
• Proven ability to build strong relationships at all levels and stakeholder management
• Excellent interpersonal skills with an ability to build good team relationships
• Able to demonstrate project management capabilities - balance multiple priorities by considering risk, importance, level of urgency and other linkages.  
• Excellent communication skills – both written and oral
• Ability to use initiative and problem solve