Mindshare Hiring for Commercial Finance Director – Mindshare UK Job at London, England Full Time

ROLE OBJECTIVE

This is a senior role as part of the leadership team of Mindshare UK, reporting to the CFO of GroupM and working closely with the CEO of Mindshare UK. This key partner role focuses on supporting and guiding the agency’s client teams, managing the commercial finance teams, and overseeing all aspects of commercial finance.

The role is a key position within the GroupM UK organisation, providing insight, management and refinement of the operational, structural and strategic direction of the business from a financial perspective.

An important aspect of the role is supporting the CEO of Mindshare, providing overall commercial and financial guidance, ensuring financial compliance and helping develop the ongoing growth and profitability of Mindshare. You are responsible for ensuring Mindshare meets all its contractual obligations to clients too.

KEY RESPONSIBILITES

Commercial negotiations & Client management

Your key responsibilities are to:

• Ensure client contracts align with global terms including detailed scope and associated pricing
• Review client contract terms periodically to identify associated risks and unsuitable commercial terms
• Liaise with Agency Client Teams regarding alignment and compliance with GroupM policy relating to data disclosure and data security including ensuring completeness of documentation
• Ensure client contracts follow the Commercial Approval Matrix
• Liaise with auditors and client commercial teams for ongoing audits including briefing local markets on the audit process and managing the output from the auditors before they are reported to client
• Provide periodic advice to client teams regarding FTE and demarcation of responsibilities, checking forecasts against actual utilisation

Client Reporting & incentive calculations

Your key responsibilities are to:

• Produce FTE utilisation reports showing actual against forecasts
• Ensure optimal usage of resources and fair remuneration including validity of contracts and timely renewals
• Produce internal and external profitability analysis
• Manage and track trading guarantees, client incentives and achievement of KPIs
• Perform ad-hoc internal and client analysis, as required

Net Working Capital and Treasury Management

Your key responsibilities are to:

• Ensure GroupM are informed of any client contractual EPD, Payment Terms obligations etc. in advance of vendor negotiations for the purposes of cash and foreign exchange management

Trading Management

Your key responsibilities are to:

• Provide advice on the impact of key clients, likely acceptance of trading products including support for upselling of value-added services including ensuring opt-ins are obtained

Working with Head of Operations

Your key responsibilities are to:

• Ensure billing for new and existing clients is carried out in line with appropriate GroupM processes
• Provide support resolution with the Client Market Teams on billing queries, unbilled media, aged receivables and accrued revenues
• Provide debt collection support to ensure information relating to agency credit and working capital data limits is provided, as appropriate
• Review and provide explanations/detailed commentary for non-compliance, accrued revenues, 180+ day debt and write offs
• Ensure best practices is applied across the business in respect to all financial processes

Financial, Planning and Analysis, working with Head of FP&A

Your key responsibilities are to:

• Preparation, submission and input of client revenues, actuals and budgets
• Preparation and maintenance of quarterly, agency staff plans including Client Teams FTE
• Prepare rationales for new hires, salary reviews, incentives, severances

Governance Compliance, Sox, audits, working with UK Director Risk and Controls

Your key responsibilities are to:

• working with GroupM and WPP compliance teams for areas of remediation
• providing support and input into GroupM and external statutory audits, including documentation related to specific clients and timely responses to inquiries
• ensuring agency remediation actions are completed within agreed timescales

Accounting and Tax, working with Head of Reporting

Your key responsibilities are to:

• Oversee the provision of support and information for accounting and tax purposes in relation to specific client information including:
  • Client incentive information
  • Monthly accrual and deferrals for revenues
  • Input for revenue recognition / accrual
  • Explanations for 180+ days past due and accrued revenue
• Perform regular reviews to ensure compliance with internal GroupM contractual obligations and guidelines eg media credits, rebate calculations etc.

Other

Your key responsibilities are to:

• Provide support for partnerships and alliances including negotiating terms relating to client specific needs
• Liaise with GroupM and WPP regarding Capex and property requirements

SKILLS & BEHAVIOURS

• Fully qualified accountant or equivalent (e.g. CIMA, ACA, ACCA)
• A clear financial understanding and a proven record in delivering financial benefit through actions/decision-making.
• Demonstrable experience of managing tough client negotiations to completion
• Clarity of approach that can be successfully communicated to – and influence – the company stakeholders
• A commercial partner to the business, able to address both the operational aspect of the business as well as the strategic direction, and ability to communicate and discuss these with colleagues and staff in a clear and articulate manner
• An ability to design clear process delivery and to facilitate effective change
• Strong analytical skills
• Above all, the successful candidate will desire the challenge of taking Mindshare UK forward as a business, leveraging opportunities to enhance the commercial activities of the business and to maximise financial return.

ABOUT MINDSHARE

Mindshare is a leading global marketing and media services network with billings in excess of £23billion worldwide. The network consists of 97 offices in 67 countries throughout the USA, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific; each dedicated to forging competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands.

OUR APPROACH

Technology is changing our lives in astonishing and unimaginable ways and, in media, we are lucky enough to be working at the very heart of this change. However, the way we think about media is vital to unlocking the greatest opportunities for our clients and producing our best work. We define media as the space where content, audiences, data and technology meet.

This media playground is an exciting, vibrant and fast evolving space – a space that’s buzzing with

innovation and creativity. A space where new people behaviours, habits and routines are fast emerging.

WORKING FOR MINDSHARE

COMMITTED TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Our aim is for Mindshare UK to be the most inclusive place to work in the country! We have a wide range of Employee Resource Groups available for our people to join and be a part of including, Roots, PrideM, Women in Business, Enable, Declassify, Mental Health Allies and Back in the Game. We have created the Collective who are a small group of people with representation from our employee resource groups who work collaboratively to shape a coherent, progressive and deliverable programme of activities that support our goal of complete inclusion.