Director of Financial Planning and Analysis

Want to hear something crazy? Cars only spend 5% of their time driving. Where do they spend the other 95%? PARKED!

LAZ Parking is one of the largest and fastest growing parking companies in the country. LAZ operates hundreds of thousands of parking spaces across the country. When it comes to parking, we’re the experts!

We are also a PEOPLE FIRST company. We often say “parking is our industry but people are our passion.” Our mission is to “create opportunities for our employees and value for our clients”. If you’re looking to join a growing company led by passionate people committed to being the best – contact us today! The Spirit of the Position:

Based in our Hartford, CT Home Office, the FP&A Director will work closely with the FP&A team to produce financial reporting, business analyses, budgets and long-term business plans. This position will play an active role in the design of key charts, reports, scorecards, dashboards, and KPI’s and aid in the production of presentations to the company board, C-level executives, Presidents and Vice Presidents.

The Financial Director will also provide support and guidance to the regions during each annual forecast process for over 3,500 operating locations.

The position will offer a great opportunity to provide information to executives and VP’s that can drive business decisions and truly make a difference in the profitability of the company while contributing to our FP&A initiatives.

The LAZ Parking FP&A department drives value by delivering accurate, timely and focused business insights and guidance.

Responsibilities:

Business & Financial Analytics – BI-Finance

• Lead a team of several FP&A analysts and managers
• Take the initiative to identify department needs, create solutions proactively, and effectively manage team bandwidth and skills to deliver department tasks excellently and timely
• Select and implement new budget/reporting software, collaborating with other departments and operations budget process users to ensure new tool meets all expectations
• Participate in production of board, partner, and VP meeting financial presentations
• Optimize financial presentation production striving for 100% accuracy of outputs and continuously improving efficiency
• Oversee FP&A team maintenance of company data model, collaborating with other departments as necessary to recommend any changes needed to create accurate and well-structured analyses
• Develop and maintain reports, dashboards, and budget data entry forms that are accurate, concise and easy to digest
• Serve as the subject matter expert for the company’s key performance indicators (KPI’s), being able to translate them effectively and speak to the business trends and goals
• Play an active role in business intelligence projects to recommend and develop metrics, KPIs, dashboards, and reports that provide great insights and fuel decisions
• Participate in developing on-going engagement of regional management use of BI tools
• Oversee maintenance of department procedures and training materials to guide FP&A team and other budget software users
• Produce ad hoc analyses and projects as necessary

Budgeting

• Optimize company budget process focuses on efficiency gains while still prioritizing accuracy. Consider implementing a rolling reforecast process to spread out budget input work.
• Build relationships with an assigned book of regions, to train and support users during each semi-annual budgeting exercise
• Thoroughly review each assigned regional budget for accuracy. Review inputs from many different angles such as location P&L’s, specific reports focused on revenue, OPEX, CAPEX, and several managed location revenue streams and costs, G&A, new business, retention and claims, plus comparison to long-term business plan and more
• Flag budget items that deviate from history or prior budget expectations
• Lead a preliminary review call or meeting with each assigned region to ask questions about flagged budget items. Take clear and thorough notes to document the story behind budget variances.
• Maintain budget review checklists to ensure consistency of FP&A involvement in regional budget preparation
• Develop and maintain budget review charts and presentations to provide CFO and other executives with a quick, accurate, and thorough summary as well as details on regional forecasts.
• Maintain budget finalization and consolidation tools and serve as a key team member involved with closing out the budget process.

Recipe for Success:

• One who embodies the LAZ values: trust, respect, honesty and integrity, and commitment to people
• Someone who exudes the qualities of a good leader and who is able to create an environment where employees feel empowered, heard, supported, and valued and is able to create resolutions if ever those employee needs are not met
• Someone who has a vision for where the department needs to go and can effectively establish a roadmap to get us there
• One who is able and willing to “roll up” their sleeves to help teammates so everyone can be successful. Someone who enjoys working in a fun, collaborative environment where all ideas are respected and equally considered
• Someone who can be trusted to work with confidential information with discretion
• One who is eager to learn and gain a quick understanding of new processes and applications
• A self-starter that can troubleshoot issues on their own and find solutions
• Expert at prioritizing and managing many deliverables at once to ensure that critical deadlines are met
• Someone who is confident and who can eloquently and respectfully communicate with employees at many different company levels. Expert at sharing the right message at the right time, in a way that it's well-received and fosters collaboration.
• Someone who can articulate complex concepts succinctly and clearly especially when delivering information to executives and VP’s
• Who is detail oriented, proactive, patient, and persevering with strong analytical skills

Requirements:

• BS/BA in Finance or Accounting required. Master’s degree preferred
• 5 years of FP&A experience analyzing data and interpreting findings into concise summaries, building reports and analyses, and having an integral role in company forecasting.
• 5 years managing a team
• Expertise in month-end close processes and financial statement preparation
• Highly proficient with MS Office, especially with strong PPT and Excel skills (charts, advanced formulas, pivot tables, macros, add-ins)
• Experience with SQL, Tagetik, Cognos TM1, Navision, Business Central, and/or Microsoft Power BI is a plus
• Experience working with and ideally implementing mainstream budget/reporting software. Experience with Microsoft FP&A software connected to Business Central is a plus.

Physical Demands

• Willingness to work in the elements – heat, wind, snow, rain, etc.

• Ability to lift, push and pull at least 10lbs.
• Ability to stand, walk and run for extended periods of time.
• Ability to bend, stoop, squat and lift frequently throughout a shift.
• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with qualified disabilities to perform the essential duties/functions.

FLSA Status: Exempt

LAZ Parking is an equal opportunity employer. In all our employment practices, including hiring, we are firmly committed to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, genetics, Vietnam era, special disabled, recently separated and other protected veterans, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. No question in our application process is used for the process of limiting or excluding any applicant's consideration for employment on such grounds.

This Employer participates in E-Verify.