Job Description

First Water is looking for the next finance professional to join our team and play an important role in expanding our operational capabilities. This role is particularly attractive for a candidate looking to expand his/her finance skill set (financial modeling, data structuring, business intelligence, due diligence), gain exposure to multiple finance disciplines (FP&A, M&A, capital raising, etc.), and work with a variety of companies across industries and life-cycle (e.g. growth vs. exit).

We have found that traditional Corporate FP&A and Financial Analyst roles run a high risk of pigeon-holing, as professionals become more and more versed in a single company, industry, system environment, and set of processes. At First Water, we believe that finance career development should leverage a core set of capabilities to open exposure to other disciplines and perspectives, not just the next rung on ladder. The rise of big data and tech-enabled solutions related to the finance function requires new age finance professionals to be “adept adapters” – quickly getting up the curve on new tools while engaging an always fresh lens to craft efficient solutions. Our mentality is that every finance process can be constantly improved upon, and that all team members should contribute to this growth.

The skill set base we covet and seek to nurture is three-pronged:

1. GENERAL FINANCE KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE (FP&A and Corporate Finance): The “why” about finance’s role in business management and decision-making remains critical, and always will be as it is centered upon people, goal setting, accountability, and risk tolerance. Why are certain capabilities important, how are they leveraged, in what situations, and to what short- and long-term goals.

2. FINANCIAL MODELING AND ANALYTICAL PROCESS DEVELOPMENT: Excel is still king and is in fact enjoying a renaissance with additional functionality and the integration of the Power Suite, integrated software solutions, and improved data connectivity. Finance professionals arguably need to be the best spreadsheeters in any business organization.

3. DATA ORGANIZATION, TRANSFORMATION, AND VISUALIZATION (including data querying and use of BI tools): The finance function has become a core data hub of businesses. The natural evolution of finance professionals is to combine general finance knowledge and modeling capabilities with aspects of data science.

Candidates for this role need not be experts in all three areas - we are looking for decathletes with a desire to expand their skill sets, who have coach-ability and a willingness to put in self-directed time as part of their development.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Support partner company relationships and execution of client engagements.
• Build-up flexible and granular financial models, perform various financial analyses, drill-downs, sensitivity analyses, and other analyses to drive operational and transactional insights.
• Aggregate, structure, and synthesize actionable insights from data sets and information from multiple information sources and systems.
• Efficiently maintain recurring partner company processes across reporting and forecasting, including rolling projections, 13-week cash flow, etc.
• Prepare impactful reports, dashboards, and presentations, including stakeholder reporting packages, transaction marketing materials, and other presentations as required.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• A bachelor's degree in business, finance, accounting, economics, data science, or related field.
• 3-8 years in corporate FP&A (transaction or M&A experience a plus), investment banking, finance-related consulting, or other finance/analysis role.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team-oriented environment.
• Ability to work independently/remotely with limited oversight in the completion of projects.
• Extreme attention to detail.
• Advanced Excel skills.
• Experience with BI tools such as Microsoft Power BI a plus; interest in developing expertise in the Microsoft Power Suite (Pivot/Query/BI) an absolute must.
• CANDIDATES WITH OVER 5 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE ARE EXPECTED TO HAVE HAD EXPOSURE TO DATA QUERY, TRANSFORMATION, AND BI TOOLS IN SOME CAPACITY. TO THE EXTENT A CANDIDATE HAS NOT HAD DIRECT EXPERIENCE WITH THE MICROSOFT POWER SUITE, IT IS EXPECTED THAT THE FIRST 1-2 MONTHS IN THE ROLE WILL INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT SELF-DIRECTED (E-LEARNING) TRAINING TO BUILD COMPETENCY.
• Strong PowerPoint and presentation building skills.
• Some travel required (though not currently due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

ADDITIONAL DETAILS – FINANCIAL MODELING:

• A strong financial modeling skill set is integral to the position, with a preference for experience in: three-statement financial analysis, corporate finance/capitalization analysis, budgeting/forecasting, reporting/KPI dashboard templates, financial projections, working capital analysis, profitability/performance analysis, and manipulation of non-financial/operational data sets.
• Experience in creating automated processes for recurring financial and data management processes (e.g. rolling forecasts) is a plus; not required, but must be an area of interest.
• A FINANCIAL MODELING ASSESSMENT WILL BE CONDUCTED AS PART OF THE INTERVIEW PROCESS.

NOTE ON REMOTE WORK / WORK-FROM-HOME

• We are headquartered in Houston, TX. Many of our relationships are Texas-based, though we serve partner companies across the United States and Canada.
• Although we value face-to-face collaboration for process design, troubleshooting, and general team camaraderie, we are open to fully remote/work-from-home setups for the right candidates located anywhere within the continental US.
• To the extent desired, a WeWork membership is also included for workspace and meeting space needs.

Company Description

First Water is a finance advisory firm connecting teams with data and companies with capital through Relational Finance. We provide access to finance function capabilities including reporting/business intelligence, budgeting and forecasting, debt and equity capital raising, and transaction execution (including M&A and sale). Our strength lies in a “mutt culture” based on diversified financial disciplines: private equity, investment banking, financial planning & analysis (FP&A), commercial lending, consulting, and small business leadership. As a result, we are uniquely positioned to support immediate and future business initiatives through our Relational Finance model that offers flexibility and the potential for long-term relationship development, versus the rigid engagement frameworks and/or transaction-driven catalysts of traditional finance models. Learn more about First Water and Relational Finance at www.firstwateradvisors.com.