Financial Modelling Lead for Strategy & Forecasting

At Grant Thornton we do things differently - looking to the future, driving ambitious growth and pioneering positive change in our industry. Providing audit, tax and advisory services, we empower clients through strategic insight, curiosity, and genuine partnership. And we empower our people with real opportunity, an inclusive culture and work life balance.

With over 5,000 people in the UK, and a presence in 150 global markets, we're on an ambitious journey, from great to exceptional, and we need the best people to help us achieve our potential.

Every day our teams help people in businesses and communities to do what is right and achieve their goals. Our Modelling team supports clients with financial modelling across the whole umbrella of Advisory services, with four main focus areas:

• Transactions and fundraising – sell-side or buy-side modelling to tell the story of a business, quantify risks, opportunities, and returns, and support fundraising.
• Strategic planning and decision support – modelling to support ongoing business planning and to quantify the impact of strategic and routine decisions on a company’s results.
• Restructuring and insolvency – turnaround planning to rebuild lender confidence, short-term cash flow forecasting, and insolvency outcome analysis.
• Funds and valuations – asset and fund models to support initial transactions and ongoing valuation and reporting requirements, with a particular focus on the infrastructure sector.

Financial models underpin almost all business decisions and all corporate transactions. We build, review and amend models across all sectors, and our tools and analysis help our clients understand the impact of their decisions before they make them. Our priority is delivering tools that are easy to understand, as well as flexible and robust in the face of change. Most of our work is executed in Microsoft Excel, with some use of other programming languages. We work as part of the firm's wider modelling community, sharing knowledge and best practice with other modelling experts.

We’re happy to talk flexible working and consider reduced hours, we’ll support you to balance your work and life.

As an Assistant Manager within our team, you will:

• Develop financial models and other tools for clients to use for forecasting and business planning.
• Review financial models built by clients and their advisers and compile initial views and findings.
• Update and run financial models to provide analysis to support the firm’s wider deliverables (e.g. in Valuations, Insolvency, or Forensics situations).
• Contribute to model design discussions and preparing drafts of model specification documents.
• Use and adapt models to perform sensitivity and scenario analysis for deals and restructuring.
• Understand the results of models and engage with clients and colleagues in meaningful dialogue about the implications.
• Contribute to reports being prepared by other Advisory teams (e.g. Due Diligence, Corporate Finance, Restructuring).
• Coach and share technical knowledge with colleagues.
• Attend meetings with clients, build rapport and develop lasting relationships based on trust and quality work.
• Take an active role in supporting the growth of the team by pro-actively building your own network of internal and external contacts.
• Take responsibility for your career and personal development, supported by your people manager, the Financial Modelling team, and the broader firm.
• Manage your time and deliver work in line with agreed budgets and timetables, including managing conflicting workloads and deadlines when necessary.

Joining us as an Assistant Manager, the minimum criteria you’ll need is to have:

• ACA or CA qualified (or equivalent) with a strong track record in professional exams.
• Excellent Excel proficiency and a keen interest in learning more.

It would be great if you had some of the following skills, but don’t worry if you don’t tick every box, we’ll help you develop along the way:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent, preferably in a numerate degree subject.
• Interest in business issues and corporate finance.
• Highly numerate with strong communication skills, and able to explain complex and technical matters to others in plain language.
• Strong accounting skills and understanding of cash and working capital cycles.
• Logical approach to problem-solving, attention to detail.
• Any proficiency or experience with VBA programming or Power BI.
• Prior experience of working with complex financial models or transactional work.

Embracing uniqueness, the culture at Grant Thornton thrives on the contributions of all our people. Building an inclusive culture, where we value difference and respect our colleagues helps our people to perform at the best of their ability and realise their potential.

Our open and accessible culture means you’ll interact with leaders who are interested in you and everything you bring to our firm. The things that set you apart, we value them. That’s why we give you the freedom to bring your whole self to work and pursue your passions inside and outside of work.

Life is more than work. The things you do, and the people you’re with outside of work matter, that’s why we’re happy to look at flexible working options for all our roles, and we’ll always do our best to keep your work and life in balance.

The impact you can make here will go far beyond your day job. From secondments, to fundraising for local charities, or investing in entrepreneurs in the developing world, you’ll be giving back to society. It’s that drive to do the right thing that runs through our every move, grounded in our firm’s values – purposefully driven, actively curious and candid but kind.

We’re looking for people who want to contribute, spark fresh ideas and go beyond expectations. People who want to be able to proudly do what’s right, for the firm, our clients, our people and themselves.