Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition, and distribution; television production, acquisition, and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services, and technologies.

SPE’s Motion Picture Group production organizations include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, 3000 Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 6 Films, AFFIRM Films, Sony Pictures International Productions, and Sony Pictures Classics. 

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) is one of the television industry’s leading content providers, producing, distributing, and carrying programming worldwide in every genre and for every platform. In addition to managing one of the industry’s largest libraries of award-winning feature films, television shows and formats, SPT is home to a thriving global content business, operating a robust portfolio of wholly-owned and joint-venture production companies across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, as well as linear and digital channels around the world. SPT is a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company.

Director, Domestic Distribution Finance

This is an exciting FP&A role leading innovation and insights within SPE for the domestic distribution FP&A team along with functional FP&A leader for a start-up type digital first network and production studio. If you are tech savvy, drive innovation, and have strong business acumen we would like to meet you!

Reporting into Senior Vice President of Finance, the Director will be part of FP&A Finance Group supporting Fandom Networks & Domestic Sales Operation Group to distribute all SPE contents / products. The individual will collaborate with commercial partners to understand business performance / direction and effectively articulate commercial drivers and context to senior management and finance stakeholders throughout the organization.  The ideal candidate will have a strong track record of process improvement, comfort working with multiple financial and planning systems, excellent analytical, collaboration, presentation, and communication skills. 

Domestic Sales Distribution is responsible for driving a significant portion of total US revenue and made up of home entertainment and US sales teams. The individual will work closely with internal teams to translate the incredible amount of data into financial decisions. Using dashboard tools to frame business drivers, creating insightful presentations for executive meetings, and providing insights to our commercial teams are some of the key deliverables you will work on. 

The Fandom Network is a digital network and production studio reaching over 8 billion viewers per month across YouTube, Meta, and TikTok. We are looking for solutions-oriented Director of Financial Planning & Analysis to join and support the commercial team behind our expanding network and increased investment into original content. Focusing on financial planning, strategy & analysis to evaluate business performance and partnering closely with the commercial team who depend heavily on the strategic financial insights to make critical business decisions.

Responsibilities and Duties:

• Lead the Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) function for the digital media networks “Fandom Networks”, overseeing budgeting, forecasting, and performance analysis to support strategic decision-making and drive financial growth
• Take the lead in developing analytical FP&A tools using PowerBI, Tableau, to automate data flows, create dashboards of important KPIs, develop new KPIs to support US Distribution teams
• Update, maintain, and evolve financial and commercial operating dashboards to ensure accurate and timely representation of key performance metrics, leveraging tools such as Excel, Power BI, and SAP Analytics Cloud to provide actionable insights for stakeholders
• Provide comprehensive FP&A support to commercial teams, including financial analysis, supporting sales forecasting, and performance reporting, to drive revenue growth and optimize commercial strategies
• Analyze flash, actual, budget and forecast information submitted by local operations and handle consolidation reporting and analysis
• Lead creation of insightful analyses, reports and presentations on relevant operating and financial metrics in an easy-to-understand format to senior executives to influence decision-making
• Provide financial leadership and strategic support to business development initiatives, including financial modeling, due diligence, and evaluation of potential growth opportunities to drive informed decision-making and business expansion
• Collaborate with SPE accounting team in monthly close process, including performing analysis, ensuring financial information is recorded accurately to reflect the business performance, provide insightful information to management and aligned with business & finance policies
• Collaborate, build and maintain strong relationships with commercial team, local finance and management teams, accounting group, global tax office and various internal/external groups
• Be an integral part of the Finance team and help structure/improve Finance processes
• Develop and oversee monthly financial and operational reporting deck for management
• Efficiently work with cross-functional teams to identify financial drivers & maintain the highest level of data quality
• Assess and evaluate financial performance of organization with regard to operational strategic goals, identification of opportunities and mitigate risks and collaborate with senior management to set KPIs
• Develop and maintain long-term company financial model, perform sensitivity analysis, build scenario cases for strategic planning
• Design, develop, implement and improve processes related to budgeting, forecasting, actual financial reporting and analysis in high growth business
• Conduct analysis of key business/financial drivers, performance indicators, internal development efforts, industry trends, competitive landscape and other defined assumptions to provide value-added inputs to help decision making in executing strategy.

Requirements:

• 7+ years of finance experience in public and/or private/management consulting/banking experience required
• Prior experience in Digital Media/Entertainment/technology/digital space is a plus, but not a prerequisite.
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance or other relevant field that demonstrates quantitative orientation
• MBA preferred, not required
• Strong understanding of accounting guidelines (IFRS)
• High proficiency with MS Excel & PowerPoint with excellent modeling skill
• Experience in ERP system (i.e. SAP) is a plus, but not a prerequisite
• Possess a “can-do” attitude for all situations, no task too big or too small to handle.
• Collaborative, team player and ability to flex style and approach
• Critical thinking & demonstrated experience in problem solving, making decisions influenced by data and business insights utilizing financial modeling
• Great judgement and decisiveness when dealing with deadline-driven, finance-related issues and concerns
• Think outside the box & challenge status quo when required by highlighting new trends, improving existing processes or are open to sourcing those ideas from others
• Excellent organization skills, thrive in a fast-paced environment, possess a high level of intellectual curiosity and ability to handle multiple tasks in a fast-paced and time sensitive environment
• A strong comfort level with analyzing large datasets and drawing meaningful conclusions/results that add value to the business
• Effective communicator - adept at writing, facilitating and presenting analyses
• Excellent relationship management abilities/strong interpersonal communication skills
• Excellent organization skills, acute attention to detail, ability
• Strong follow-through on all projects; ability to bring projects to timely completion with proven track record of meeting deadlines, and taking initiative to make confident and well-informed decisions

The anticipated base salary for this position is $140,000 - $185,000. This role may also qualify for annual incentive and/or comprehensive benefits. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors, including without limitation, the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location of the position.

Sony Pictures Entertainment is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other protected characteristics.

SPE will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records in accordance with applicable law.

To request an accommodation for purposes of participating in the hiring process, you may contact us at SPE_Accommodation_Assistance@spe.sony.com.