Sr Financial Associate

Sr Financial Associate

Syneos Health® is a leading fully-integrated life sciences services organization built to accelerate customer success. We partner with innovators at every point across the drug development and commercialization continuum, helping them navigate complexity, anticipate change and accelerate progress.

Every day we perform better because of how we work together, as one team, each the best at what we do. We bring together talented experts across a broad spectrum of business critical corporate functions. Every role plays an essential part in enabling our customers to achieve their goals. Our teams are agile, collaborative, and committed to delivering—for each other, for our customers, and ultimately for the people who rely on the services we support.
Discover what your 25,000 future colleagues already know:

Why Syneos Health
• We are passionate about developing our people, through career development and progression; supportive and engaged line management; technical and therapeutic area training; peer recognition and total rewards program.
• We are committed to building an inclusive culture – where you can authentically be yourself. Central to this is our purpose – Driven to Deliver – which captures the passion of our colleagues to show up each day and shape solutions that have the ability to dramatically impact someone’s life. 
• We are continuously building the company we all want to work for and our customers want to work with. Why? Because we know that when we bring together smart colleagues from across the world, we can shape the future of healthcare, driving impact for customers and defining the pace of patient progress. 

Job Responsibilities

Position Summary

The Senior Financial Analyst serves as a key finance business partner to Business Unit Controllers and Associate Directors of Finance, providing financial leadership, analytical support, and operational insights across assigned business units, projects, and contracts. The role is responsible for revenue recognition, forecasting, budgeting, backlog management, profitability analysis, financial reporting, project financial oversight, and business performance reviews.

This position also provides guidance and mentoring to Financial Analysts and supports continuous improvement initiatives, financial controls, and system enhancements to drive operational excellence and business growth.

Key Responsibilities

1. Financial Planning, Reporting & Revenue Management

• Record and validate monthly revenue for Fee-for-Service, Fixed Price, and Unit-based contracts.
• Manage complex projects and contracts, ensuring compliance with revenue recognition policies.
• Prepare monthly project-level actual versus budget and forecast variance analyses.
• Generate and distribute monthly financial performance reports and dashboards.
• Coordinate monthly forecasting cycles, including backlog and revenue projections.
• Meet established deadlines for revenue and backlog submissions.
• Prepare project closeout reconciliations and resolve financial discrepancies.
• Monitor project financial performance, including revenue, gross profit, receivables, unbilled balances, and project profitability.

2. Project Financial Management

• Load and maintain project budgets, resource plans, key member lists, and project data within financial systems.
• Support financial setup of newly awarded projects and ensure accurate project initialization.
• Review project-level financial activity and investigate unusual trends, variances, or anomalies.
• Analyze project profitability and provide recommendations for performance improvement.

3. Contract & Backlog Management

• Review executed and proposed contracts, work orders, change orders, letter agreements, and amendments.
• Support approval processes for pending change orders and contract modifications.
• Assess financial implications of contractual changes and ensure proper revenue treatment.
• Maintain accurate backlog reporting and forecasting for assigned business units.

4. Business Performance Analysis

• Prepare and analyze:
  • Annual budgets
  • Financial forecasts
  • Cost and expense projections
  • Utilization metrics
  • Headcount planning
  • Resource requirements
  • Revenue backlog analyses
  • Gross profit and margin reports
• Support monthly business reviews with Business Unit Controllers and operational leaders.
• Deliver actionable insights on business growth trends, profitability, productivity, and operational performance.
• Develop ad hoc financial analyses and management reports as required.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in finance, Accounting, Commerce, Economics, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
• MBA or equivalent professional qualification preferred.

Experience

• 6–10 years of progressive experience in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), project finance, commercial finance, business finance, or contract accounting.
• Experience supporting project-based businesses, CROs, professional services, healthcare, consulting, technology, or similar industries preferred.
• Experience with revenue recognition, forecasting, budgeting, contract review, and profitability analysis.

Technical Skills

• Strong knowledge of financial accounting and revenue recognition principles.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills (Power Query, Pivot Tables,)
• Experience with ERP systems such as Oracle, Workday, or similar platforms.
• Knowledge of financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis.

Core Competencies

• Financial Analysis & Business Partnering
• Revenue Recognition & Contract Management
• Budgeting & Forecasting
• Problem Solving & Critical Thinking
• Stakeholder Management
• Process Improvement
• Project Management
• Team Leadership & Mentoring
• Communication & Presentation Skills

Get to know Syneos Health

Over the past 5 years, we have worked with 94% of all Novel FDA Approved Drugs, 95% of EMA Authorized Products and over 200 Studies across 73,000 Sites and 675,000+ Trial patients.

No matter what your role is, you’ll take the initiative and challenge the status quo with us in a highly competitive and ever-changing environment. Learn more about Syneos Health.

Additional Information

Tasks, duties, and responsibilities as listed in this job description are not exhaustive.  The Company, at its sole discretion and with no prior notice, may assign other tasks, duties, and job responsibilities. Equivalent experience, skills, and/or education will also be considered so qualifications of incumbents may differ from those listed in the Job Description. The Company, at its sole discretion, will determine what constitutes as equivalent to the qualifications described above.   Further, nothing contained herein should be construed to create an employment contract.  Occasionally, required skills/experiences for jobs are expressed in brief terms. Any language contained herein is intended to fully comply with all obligations imposed by the legislation of each country in which it operates, including the implementation of the EU Equality Directive, in relation to the recruitment and employment of its employees.  The Company is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the provision of reasonable accommodations, when appropriate, to assist employees or applicants to perform the essential functions of the job.

Summary

The Senior Financial Analyst serves as a key finance business partner to Business Unit Controllers and Associate Directors of Finance, providing financial leadership, analytical support, and operational insights across assigned business units, projects, and contracts. The role is responsible for revenue recognition, forecasting, budgeting, backlog management, profitability analysis, financial reporting, project financial oversight, and business performance reviews. This position also provides guidance and mentoring to Financial Analysts and supports continuous improvement initiatives, financial controls, and system enhancements to drive operational excellence and business growth.