The MMFA Strategic Finance Lead will work with business partners in MMFA and Corporate Finance to provide high quality information and analysis to facilitate assessment and reporting of business performance, identification of options and decision-making. The role reports to the Head of MMFA Strategic Finance within CFO.

As a Strategic Finance Lead, you'll have an opportunity to contribute to helping our businesses grow and become more profitable. You will develop and maintain strong knowledge of products, markets, competitors and key industry metrics. You will utilize your understanding of the business' challenges and priorities to help drive decision-making. You will partner across Finance to understand the financials, leveraging data platforms to identify key information that will help to tell the story. You will provide support to CFO customers on performance, opportunities for cost efficiencies, benchmarking comparisons, sales, profitability results and considerations for decision-making. You will contribute to engagement for change, innovation and value creation. 

The Team

In this role, you will join our Strategic Finance Business Partner team primarily supporting our MassMutual Financial Advisors (MMFA) business, which sells protection and annuity products as well as wealth management solutions. The Strategic Finance Business Partner team is a collaborative team whose members demonstrate accountability, agility, a dedication to be inclusive, strong business acumen, and show courage, even in the most difficult situations. Effective communication skills are key to successful relationship-building and the ability to articulate the reasoning and bases for recommendations and conclusions are imperative. Our team demonstrates an inquisitive approach, asking probing questions to identify issues with specificity.

The Impact:

As a Strategic Finance Lead your work will impact strategic decisions made by your business partners; enabling better strategic decisions utilizing the financial data and tools. You will accomplish that through the responsibilities listed below:

Monitor and Communicate Business Drivers and Results

• Identify and monitor key performance drivers and risks with timely communications of trends and observations. This supports decision making and internal management reporting and external reporting.
• Analyze sales, expenses, cash flows, AUM, unit costs and other financial business drivers, used by business partners and the CFO organization
• Influence, lead and educate on financial-related elements of the strategic and tactical success of the businesses

Model and Analyze:

• Prepare high quality analysis to influence key financial decisions, including developing and employing analytical models. This analysis is also used both with the business and within CFO for management reporting and external reporting.
• Contribute to the development of driver-based forecasts, reviewing P&L assumption elements for reasonableness and assessing overall reasonableness of earnings forecasts. Ensure that key forecast business driver assumptions are developed in collaboration with business partners

Drive and Support Strategic Initiatives:

• Actively participate in driving business financial projects/initiatives. Be a respected thought partner in the development and execution of strategies and initiatives to achieve the enterprise's strategic aspirations and goals, including active, ongoing involvement in pursuing the Strategic Planning and Delivery revenue enhancement and efficiency goals.
• Review forecast and initiative assumptions and contribute to cost-benefit analyses to support decision making, including prioritization, in order to pursue the most beneficial initiatives and maximize benefits.
• Inspire, lead and execute on CFO transformation initiatives, including data driven financial analysis, automated reporting, advanced analytics, data governance, and talent strategy.

Collaborate, Communicate and Influence:

• Develop and maintain strong working relationships and collaborate with business partners and CFO co-workers to, among other outcomes, continuously improve CFO processes.
• Use business acumen and communication skills to draft and contribute to commentary which enables readers to quickly understand why and how performance is impacting financial results. Communicate complex information and analysis in clear, understandable terms with appropriate context, focused on actionable content.
• Address and drive solutions for financial-related issues and opportunities, including influencing cross-functional actions and collaboration.

Qualifications

• Experience using data and information to analyze and communicate (in writing, orally and visually) the implications of business unit activity, leveraging business intelligence applications (Alation, Microstrategy, SQL queries etc.)
• Intellectual curiosity to continue learning and adding breadth and depth to understanding. Ability to partner with and influence business leaders and peers in using financial information and tools to identify options and make decisions
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to convey complex information in readily understandable terms
• Exceptional relationship building and influencing skills
• 10+ years experience with life insurance, annuity products and wealth management solutions
• FSA, CFA or MBA designation a plus
• Knowledge of U.S. GAAP and statutory financial reporting requirements relating to life insurance products a plus
• Experience with financial forecasting and quarter closes
• Ability to work well under pressure and manage multiple deliverables

MassMutual is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer Minority/Female/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/Individual with Disability/Protected Veteran. We welcome all persons to apply. Note: Veterans are welcome to apply, regardless of their discharge status.
If you need an accommodation to complete the application process, please contact us and share the specifics of the assistance you need.