Senior Vice President, Financial Business Partner

The Opportunity

WSP is seeking a highly strategic and commercially focused senior finance leader to serve as a trusted advisor to executive and operational leadership. This role provides financial leadership across a significant business portfolio and is accountable for translating business strategy into actionable financial and operational plans.

The role balances strategic finance partnership with operational diligence, financial discipline, and effective governance. The successful candidate will help drive profitable growth, operational excellence, effective capital and resource allocation, forecasting accuracy, cash performance, and long-term enterprise value creation.

Working closely with business leadership, Corporate Finance, Operations, Human Resources, Legal, Corporate Development, and other functional teams, the senior finance leader will provide insight, constructive challenge, and financial leadership in support of sound business decisions.

The position requires executive presence, commercial acumen, strong technical finance expertise, and the ability to influence decisions across a complex, matrixed organization. The role will also provide leadership and oversight to the finance team supporting the assigned portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Finance and Business Partnership

• Serve as the senior finance advisor to business and operational leaders.
• Partner with leadership teams to develop and execute growth, profitability, and performance strategies.
• Translate strategic priorities into actionable financial and operational plans.
• Provide financial insight and constructive challenge on investments, organizational changes, acquisitions, pricing, and growth initiatives.
• Build strong partnerships across Finance, Operations, HR, Legal, and Corporate Development.
• Promote financial literacy and sound business decision-making across leadership teams.

Financial Planning, Analysis, and Strategic Planning

• Lead long-range planning, annual operating plans, forecasting, scenario planning, and financial modeling.
• Ensure alignment between strategic priorities, business objectives, and financial plans.
• Monitor key financial and operational metrics including revenue growth, margin, utilization, backlog conversion, working capital, and cash flow.
• Deliver actionable analysis of performance, risks, opportunities, and market trends.
• Lead performance reviews and support executive decision-making through data-driven insights.
• Drive accountability for achieving financial and operational commitments.
• Establish and monitor key financial and operational performance indicators, including revenue growth, operating income, margin, utilization, backlog conversion, working capital, and cash flow.
• Identify emerging risks and opportunities and work with business leaders to develop appropriate mitigation or acceleration strategies.
• Ensure that complex financial matters are communicated clearly and translated into practical business actions.

Business and Operational Performance

• Partner with business leaders to maximize growth opportunities while managing risk.
• Support pricing strategies, margin optimization, commercial decision-making, and significant bids or business opportunities.
• Drive effective management of costs, resources, working capital, and cash performance.
• Identify emerging issues early and lead resolution efforts.

Transformation and Continuous Improvement

• Lead initiatives that improve financial performance, operational effectiveness, resource allocation, and decision support capabilities.
• Drive the adoption of finance best practices, standardized processes, automation, and digital finance solutions.
• Support enterprise and finance transformation initiatives, including organizational redesign, process improvement, and systems modernization.
• Partner with local, regional, and global finance teams to implement consistent, scalable finance systems and processes.
• Provide finance leadership for the enhancement of enterprise resource planning and enterprise transformation initiatives.
• Foster a culture of delivery excellence, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Integration

• Provide strategic financial insight regarding potential acquisitions, investments, partnerships, and other growth opportunities.
• Support the evaluation of acquisition opportunities, including strategic alignment, business case development, financial analysis, risk assessment, and value creation potential.
• Support due diligence, financial planning, integration readiness, and post-acquisition performance monitoring.
• Provide financial leadership for acquisition integrations, ensuring financial plans, controls, systems, reporting, and performance expectations are effectively established.

Controls, Compliance, and Financial Governance

• Maintain a strong financial control and governance environment.
• Ensure compliance with applicable accounting standards, regulatory requirements, corporate policies, and delegated authorities.
• Partner with controllership, audit, tax, treasury, and legal teams to ensure effective financial reporting and risk management.
• Continuously strengthen internal controls, processes, and compliance practices while enabling business performance.

Leadership and Talent Development

• Provide strategic direction, leadership, management, and oversight for the finance team supporting the assigned portfolio.
• Build and develop a high-performing finance organization with strong strategic, commercial, analytical, technical, and operational capabilities.
• Coach and mentor finance professionals, strengthening individual capability, team performance, and organizational capacity.
• Establish robust succession and talent development plans and promote career mobility across the broader finance organization.
• Promote effective collaboration across business units, countries, regions, and functional teams.
• Serve as a role model for WSP's values and leadership expectations.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Professional finance or accounting designation such as CPA, CA, ACA, ACCA, CMA, CFA, or equivalent.
• 17+ years of progressive finance leadership experience in a large, complex organization.
• Significant experience in finance business partnering, FP&A, strategic planning, commercial finance, or operational finance.
• Strong technical knowledge of financial planning, reporting, accounting, internal controls, and governance.
• Proven ability to influence executive-level decisions and work effectively in a matrixed organization.
• Exceptional analytical, communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or other relevant advanced degree.
• Experience in consulting, professional services, engineering, infrastructure, construction, or environmental services.
• Experience supporting growth, business transformation, acquisitions, and integration initiatives.
• Experience in a global organization and exposure to executive or board-level stakeholders.

Key Leadership Capabilities

• Strategic and commercial orientation
• Executive presence and influence
• Financial and operational discipline
• Constructive challenge and sound judgment
• Enterprise perspective
• Technical finance credibility
• Transformation leadership
• Stakeholder partnership
• Talent development
• Accountability for results
• Collaboration across organizational boundaries
• Clear and compelling communication

WSP Benefits

WSP provides a comprehensive suite of benefits focused on a providing health and financial stability throughout the employee’s career. These benefits include coverage related to medical, dental, vision, disability, and life; retirement savings; paid sick leave; paid vacation (or other personal time); paid parental leave; and paid time off for purposes of bereavement, voting, and/or attendance at naturalization proceedings.

Compensation

Expected Salary: $158,100 - $328,680

WSP USA is providing the compensation range that the company in good faith believes it might pay and offer for this position, based on the successful applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities in addition to internal equity and specific geographic location. WSP USA reserves the right to ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and offer additional benefits and other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant’s sex or other status protected by local, state, and/or federal law.