Finance Lead

PerkinElmer is seeking a Finance Lead to own the financial relationship with a major strategic account from a fully remote location. In this high-autonomy role, you will shape budgets, forecasts, and the commercial decisions that drive account performance, partnering with operations, commercial teams, and client finance leaders to translate complex delivery into clear financial guidance and serve as the go-to finance partner in client discussions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of annual client budgets and in‑year forecasts in collaboration with operational leaders and client finance teams.
• Own rolling forecasts, including monthly reforecasts, variance analysis, and identification of financial risks and opportunities.
• Maintain visibility of forecast versus actuals across all spend categories and client locations.
• Ensure financial plans align with contractual scope, pricing models, and operational delivery plans.
• Ensure timely receipt, validation, and tracking of client purchase orders against approved budgets and contractual entitlements.
• Reconcile purchase orders to forecasts, invoices, and contracts, proactively resolving discrepancies.
• Maintain auditable linkages between budgets, contracts, purchase orders, and invoices.
• Own monthly financial close activities for assigned client sites, including accruals and cost allocations.
• Ensure journals are complete, accurate, and compliant with internal controls and external accounting standards.
• Partner with central finance and accounting teams to resolve close issues efficiently and within deadlines.
• Manage and report on financial performance across multiple spend categories, including contracted services, headcount and labor, ad hoc time and materials, and parts and pass-through costs.
• Provide clear cost drivers, trend analysis, and forward-looking insights to support financial and operational decisions.
• Act as the primary finance contact for the client account, engaging directly with senior operations and finance stakeholders.
• Present financial performance, forecasts, risks, and opportunities in client reviews, governance forums, and ad hoc discussions.
• Build trusted client relationships that balance commercial rigor with a partnership mindset.
• Support pricing, costing, and margin analysis for new business, scope changes, and contract amendments.
• Assess the financial impact of operational changes, service model adjustments, and productivity initiatives.
• Ensure commercial decisions are supported by robust financial analysis and appropriate governance approvals.
• Provide financial insight to operations teams to support workforce planning, service delivery trade-offs, and productivity analysis.
• Translate operational metrics into clear financial implications to enable evidence-based decision-making.
• Partner with sourcing and procurement teams to deliver spend analysis, vendor comparisons, and cost models.
• Support identification, validation, and tracking of savings against baseline budgets and forecasts.
• Perform weekly and monthly billing reviews to ensure invoices are accurate, timely, and contractually compliant.
• Ensure billing aligns with agreed pricing models, contracts, and purchase orders; resolve billing discrepancies efficiently while maintaining client confidence.
• Define, document, and implement financial processes and SOPs where gaps exist.
• Ensure adherence to internal forecasting, approval, and financial governance frameworks; maintain audit readiness in a regulated services environment.
• Lead, coach, and develop a small team of finance analysts supporting the account; set clear expectations and build capability in forecasting, analysis, and stakeholder engagement.

Requirements

• Significant finance experience in a client-facing or account-based role, including budgets, forecasts, billing, and commercial support for sizeable accounts or portfolios.
• Background in services, managed services, or professional services with complex delivery and billing models.
• Comfort working across multiple stakeholders—operations, commercial, sourcing, and client finance—and translating between them.
• Strong judgment, a partnership mindset, and the ability to engage in senior client conversations.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.

Core Competencies

• Financial governance and control in complex services environments
• Executive-level client communication and stakeholder management
• Forecasting, variance analysis, and financial risk management
• Commercial acumen and margin optimization
• Process definition, SOP development, and governance discipline
• Leadership and development of high-performing finance teams
• High attention to detail combined with a strategic perspective