IT Financial Manager

Position: IT Financial Manager
Location: Houston TX (Local Preferred)
The IT Financial Manager is responsible for overseeing the financial operations of the IT department, ensuring cost-effective delivery of IT services that align with organizational goals and drive business value. This role involves developing and managing IT budgets, forecasting financial needs, working cross-functionally to optimize costs, analyzing financial performance, and ensuring compliance with financial policies and regulations. The IT Financial Manager collaborates with IT leadership, business units, and vendors to support strategic decision-making, and promote transparency in IT spending. Additionally, the Manager provides guidance, training, and consultation to employees and finance team members regarding their specific financial services and recruitment of staff as needed.

Job Duties/Roles
General

• Provide in-depth analysis and reporting of financial information to senior management for purposes of making informed decisions and evaluating performance.
• Maintain relationships with important vendors, service providers and business partners.
• Participate in cross-functional and/or multi-jurisdictional teams and projects across the organization as needed.
• Train, supervise, provide guidance, and coordinate the work of the financial staff while assuming accountability for service delivery.
• Collaborate within the organization to identify and resolve business issues.
• Drive value and efficiency in assigned processes while minimizing risk and cost.
• Maintain an effective internal controls environment by ensuring that FSG Policy and Procedural Statements are adhered to in the assigned area. Drive the FSG strategy by identifying and implementing innovative solutions and services to improve and simplify processes.
• Collaborate with procurement and vendor management when negotiating IT contracts, ensuring cost-effective terms and alignment with service level agreements (SLAs).
• Partner with IT leadership to align financial plans with enterprise IT strategies, including digital transformation and innovation initiatives.
• Support IT portfolio management by providing financial insights for project prioritization and resource allocation

Budget Development and Management

• Develop and manage the annual IT budget, including operational expenses (OpEx), capital expenditures (CapEx), and project funding, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities.
• Forecast short- and long-term financial needs based on IT strategies, demand forecasts, and technology roadmaps.
• Monitor budget performance, track variances, and provide regular financial reports to IT leadership and stakeholders.

Cost Optimization and Analysis

• Analyze IT costs (e.g., hardware, software, cloud services, personnel) to identify savings opportunities and improve cost efficiency.
• Implement cost allocation and chargeback/showback models to promote accountability and transparency in IT spending across business units.
• Evaluate the financial impact of emerging technologies (e.g., cloud migration, SaaS adoption) and recommend cost-effective solutions.

Financial Governance and Compliance

• Ensure compliance with organizational financial policies, accounting standards, and regulatory requirements (e.g., GAAP, SOX)
• Establish and enforce IT financial governance processes, including approval workflows for expenditures and vendor contracts.
• Support internal and external financial audits and risk assessments to safeguard IT investments and mitigate financial risks.

Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities Required (KSAR)
Technical (Financial and Data Acumen)

• Disciplined in relevant accounting and financial concepts and principles, with experience in IT-specific financial management (e.g., cloud costs, software licensing).
• Technically proficient with financial and accounting systems/software.
• Capacity to analyze, interpret, and report financial data.

Accountability / Reliability / Quality / Service Delivery

• Ability to demonstrate independent, objective, open-minded thinking with strong attention to detail and sound judgment.
• Take responsibility for his/her actions, behaviors, decisions, and results while holding self and team members accountable.
• Ensures high quality of work delivered by the team to keep commitments and achieve departmental goals.
• Focus on cost control while carrying out day-to-day activities

Communication

• Exceptional oral and written communication skills.  Must be able to communicate complex financial information clearly and concisely to various levels of personnel including senior management and external providers.
• Persuasive negotiating skills.

Employee Development

• Develop team members and self through effective delegation of appropriate tasks.
• Innovation / Problem Solving
• Propensity to continually improve existing processes and systems to add value to the organization.
• Ability to identify risk and determine mitigation strategy.
• Innovative, proactive solution provider and organizational partner.
• Forward thinker who can adapt to and manage change.

Leadership

• Excellent managerial skills in team development, organization, planning and implementation.
• Proven leadership ability to guide others, accomplish goals, and achieve department objectives.

People /Teamwork

• Team player who can establish and maximize the value of key business and financial partners.

Minimum Years Of Experience
Minimum 7 years in Finance, with at least 3-5 years in IT financial management or a related role overseeing technology budgets and costs at a granular level. Also, experience distilling detailed budgets into easy-to-understand information and actions for leadership.

Required/Preferred Education Requirements
Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, experience, and/or certifications.

Extensive experience with IT Financial management and preferably ownership of IT financials for an entire company alongside experience with tools like Microsoft Excel, Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Financial Management (HFM), SmartView Excel plugin, Kofax Markview, Concur expense management, and Oracle EBS/Fusion.