Financial Analyst

About ANN INC.:
At ANN INC., WE GET WOMEN. Real women live ever more complicated lives. They juggle more activities, play more roles and carry more expectations. But what women value is what they have always valued: connecting with others, making smart choices, looking and feeling great. Living life fully means women choose to play all their roles with confidence and style.That is why we’re here.For more than half a century, we have evolved with the needs of real women who live full, active lives. Our values are her values. We get that a woman expresses herself through what she wears – at work, at home and at play. To meet her needs, we design pieces for her life and her changing roles to help her look and feel confident and beautiful. We create rich experiences that connect with her wherever she is, inspire her style and simplify her choices.
About the Position:
The Corporate Financial Analyst of FP&A will be a key member of the Corporate Finance team, focused on supporting sound decision-making and improved efficiency, at Corporate and among the Ann Brands. Playing a generalist “go-to” support role for the FP&A team, the Financial Analyst will be expected to be involved in many activities, and will be independently responsible for several workstreams. The ability to think strategically, provide thought leadership and seek opportunities for continuous improvement is highly preferred. Responsibilities:

• Daily/ Weekly Reporting and Trend Analysis: Daily Sales reporting and appropriate trend analysis (as needed) to monitor sales performance against plan/forecast and identify key risk/opportunities. Prepare weekly reporting summarizing performance across multiple operating metrics, with accompanying Executive summary.
• Corporate Expenses: Support the Shared Service Home Office organization with expense planning and forecasts. Trend expenses and meet with functional cost center leaders to build out expense projections. Identify forecast risk and opportunities on these expenses throughout the year by working closely with ~20 cross functional leaders. Prepare variance analysis each month to understand key drivers of change.
• Board of Directors Materials: Quarterly presentation to the BOD summarizing Corporate and Brand financial performance. Work closely with Brands to develop data templates, verify all data submissions, ensure formulas are checked against alternate sources, format and edit submissions, and coordinate print/copy/bind for meeting.
• Budget Support: Assist with the development of templates and analysis of data submissions. Ensure that all financial submissions are accurate, functioning properly, and are verified against alternative sources.
• Data Management: Work with Brands for data submissions, and trouble-shoot with Corporate data SME’s, any process issues (fields not loading correctly, hierarchy questions, reporting assistance).
• Data Retrieval and Data Analysis: Serve as the expert resource within the Corp FP&A team for retrieving and presenting data for ad hoc requests.
• Comp Sales Analysis: Prepare periodic reporting on “comp sales” against industry benchmarks.
• Business Reporting: Prepare and administer new reporting, as developed, that supports senior management decision-making needs.
• Administration: Development and management of activity calendars. Activities that support and improve team efficiency and communication.
• Create ad-hoc analyses and various other reporting across brands and channels as needed.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Business Administration, Accounting or Economics required. Strong logic, math, reasoning skills essential.
• 1-3 years of business experience in corporate finance/financial planning and analysis role, or related finance/analytical role.
• Advanced MS Excel skills are mandatory for this role, must be an MS Excel power user with advanced spreadsheet management/financial model building skills and ability to easily manipulate large volumes of data, build and use advanced macros/pivot tables/v- and h-lookups, etc.
• Strong knowledge of basic accounting processes, income statement/balance sheet/cash flow impact of financial decisions, as well as discounted cash flow and return on invested capital analyses.
• Motivated, creative and conscientious self-starter who appreciates challenges and takes ownership to improve the status quo.
• Must exhibit an interest in the business and seek opportunities to initiate (without being instructed) new analysis, reporting or projects to support the company. Must be focused on continuous improvement with an ability to add value and efficiencies across all current practices.
• Knowledge and experience in SAP and Cognos preferred
• Demonstrated capability of working with large complex Excel models.
• Experience with forecast / planning systems, such as Oracle and Hyperion (Planning/Essbase) considered a strong plus.
• Superior technical aptitude, with an ability to become an “expert user” of data systems and financial analysis tools.
• Maintains high quality standards for all work products, and continuously drives for efficiency and improved performance. Asks clarifying questions, seeks deep fundamental understanding of how things work, and gets invested in the details.
• Possesses high standards and ensures work is error free by performing multiple quality control process checks as a routine for all work activities. Assumes that s(he) is the final arbiter of quality.
• In support capacity, works with a high degree of urgency and responsiveness, taking responsibility for seeing that all deadlines are met, and that colleagues receive prompt responses.
• Manages multiple priorities, competing deadlines, and shifting degrees of urgency, with calm diligence and a positive attitude.
• Communicates proactively, not just when activities are completed, acknowledging requests from colleagues.
• Builds strong working relationships, based on professionalism, respect and honesty. Brings a “can do” spirit to all activities and requests, and is seen by colleagues as courteous, helpful, responsive, professional and reliable.
• Proficiency with MS Office (PowerPoint, Word, Outlook). Experience creating professional documents, including charts, graphs, linked files, etc.