Managing Director, Commercial Finance

Financial Strategy Leader

This role is responsible for shaping financial strategy, ensuring operational discipline, and overseeing performance delivery across revenue, margin, and cost targets for a business unit within US Media, dentsu. Overarching accountability for the quality and accuracy of forecasts and budgets, providing leadership and delivering timely, reliable insight and analysis to support business decision-making. This role will report directly into the CFO of Media.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development of the brand's strategic financial plans, including long term revenue and margin outlooks, scenario planning, and investment priorities.
• Collaborated with CEO, Chief Client Officer, Ops Lead, HR Lead, Chief Growth Officer, and Portfolio leads to maintain and grow a high-performing business unit
• Own the annual budgeting, monthly close, and quarterly forecasting cycles, ensuring precision, transparency, and timely insight into performance.
• Reviews and provides strategic financial plans in partnership with business leaders
• Partners to provide insight and challenge through financial analysis to enable business partners to make key decisions and achieve targets
• Supports client and vendor negotiations by providing analytical insight and ensuring optimal balance of pricing, early payment discounts, rebates and volume commitments (where applicable)
• Provide proactive financial guidance to the CEO, CFO Media, and brand leadership, challenging assumptions and reinforcing fiscal responsibility.
• Establish financial guardrails for pricing, discounts, rebate structures, and volume based commitments.
• Lead and mentor a high performing financial operations team, fostering analytical rigor, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Identifies and drives operational improvement through analysis of financial plans, management information and performance
• Works with business leaders to understand short, medium and long-term resource requirements and impact on forecasts and budgets
• Supports analysis of client profitability and identifies and supports initiatives to improve profitability/margin
• Lead brand level weekly/monthly business reviews, articulating trends, risks,
• Strengthen visibility and control of staff and non-staff costs, ensuring strong discipline and accountability across the brand.
• Supports the various Group initiatives to improve OP % margin delivery through the markets / LoBs by offering timely analysis and support, providing valuable insight and costed options to improve performance and deep analysis of client/revenue trends.
• Lead operational improvement initiatives to optimize processes, reduce inefficiencies, and ensure scalable operations.
• Improves visibility and analysis around cost management processes (staff and non-staff costs), facilitates target setting and help to drive efficiencies in partnership with CEO, CFO-Media. Improves quality of analysis and forecasting of staff cost by using workday, time sheet and utilization data and working with business leaders/HR to ensure business has a solid framework for managing staff costs

Experience/Knowledge Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Finance or Accounting
• 15+ years in finance, client finance, or commercial finance roles, ideally within media, advertising, or marketing services.
• Exceptional communication skills, able to translate complex financial matters for executive audiences.
• Independent, self-starter with problem solving skills
• Superior organization abilities and the ability to multi-task in a fast-paced environment
• Strong team collaborator with all levels of employees, management, and external agencies
• Attention to detail
• Team leadership experience and skills
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel
• Working knowledge of Microsoft D365 preferred but not required

At dentsu, we believe great work happens when we're connected. Our way of working combines flexibility with in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currently located in Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, are required and expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu may designate other Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may be designated as remote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office.

Actual salary will be based on a variety of factors including relevant experience, knowledge, skills and other factors permitted by law. A range of medical, dental, vision, 401(k) matching, paid time off, and/or other benefits also are available. For more information regarding dentsu benefits, please visit dentsubenefitsplus.com

Dentsu is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees. We do this without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religious practices and observances, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.

Dentsu is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to, among others, individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to search and apply for a career opportunity with us, please send an e-mail to View email address on click.appcast.io by clicking on the link to let us know the nature of your accommodation request and your contact information. We are here to support you.