Finance Data Analyst

About Unity Advisory

Unity Advisory is a pragmatic, outcome-focused advisory firm that bridges strategy and execution, supporting CFOs and finance leaders through transformation, transactions, and scaling journeys. This is a client-facing role within our AI Advisory team, embedded in engagements to build the data foundations that make AI and analytics work reliably in real client environments.

The Role

We are looking for a hands-on Finance Data Analyst to analyse finance data and turn it into insight that underpins our client-facing AI and analytics work. This is primarily an analysis role. You will spend most of your time working with data — querying, modelling, and building the reporting and analysis that turn messy, real-world finance data into clear, decision-ready insight that CFOs and finance teams can depend on. As a Manager, you will run your own workstreams, make pragmatic analytical decisions under delivery pressure, and take ownership of quality from raw data through to insight and handover.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyse and interrogate finance and operational data to answer client questions, producing clear, reliable reporting and analysis across client engagements.
• Model and analyse finance datasets — including data for close, reporting, FP&A, and valuation — with clear lineage from raw inputs through to analysis-ready outputs.
• Prepare and structure the data that supports applied AI and analytics delivery: retrieval sources, context datasets, and the inputs that keep analysis current.
• Extract and combine data pragmatically from client systems (ERP, databases, SaaS, and legacy sources), working with the access control and sensitivity that client data demands.
• Work to good analytical standards in day-to-day work: version control, reproducible and well-tested analysis, peer review, and clear documentation.
• Build clear, reliable dashboards and reporting that stakeholders can trust, understand, and reuse.
• Use AI-assisted tools (e.g. Claude, Cursor) to accelerate analysis, reporting, and insight work.
• Translate ambiguous client questions into scoped, deliverable analysis on compressed timelines, then deliver it.
• Collaborate closely with data engineers, data scientists, and non-technical client stakeholders, and present findings others can act on.

What We're Looking For

Essential

• Several years of hands-on data analysis experience with evidence of delivered analysis and reporting that informed real decisions — not just proofs of concept.
• Strong SQL and Python for data analysis, plus a BI/visualisation tool (e.g. Power BI, Tableau, or Looker), with clean, reproducible work.
• Practical experience with modern data warehouse and analytics platforms (e.g. Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, or equivalent) and transformation tooling (e.g. dbt).
• Comfortable working with messy, inconsistent real-world data and finding the signal in it.
• Demonstrated experience preparing and structuring data for LLM-based or analytics systems — retrieval sources and structured context datasets — rather than theoretical familiarity.
• Track record delivering under time constraints in fast-paced, high-ownership settings.

Strong Preference

• Experience delivering the analysis and reporting behind AI or analytics products, with a practical understanding of how data quality, freshness, and structure affect the reliability of insight.
• Solid grasp of data modelling, finance metrics, and data governance.
• Familiarity with version control (e.g. Git) and reproducible analysis workflows.
• Working awareness of context window economics and when retrieval, long-context, or fine-tuning approaches change what the analysis needs to draw on.
• Client-facing experience: able to engage stakeholders directly and explain trade-offs clearly.

Nice to Have

• Evidence of self-directed building — side projects, internal tools, or startups — as a signal of genuine capability over CV keywords.
• Background in professional services, advisory, or project-based delivery.
• Exposure to finance datasets or PE/M&A environments.
• Relevant certifications (e.g. Power BI, dbt, or cloud analytics credentials).

We assess AI fluency on what you have built and the judgement behind it, not tool name-dropping.

Additional Information

At Unity Advisory, we are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. In line with the Equality Act 2010, we will accommodate any suitable candidate requiring assistance to attend or conduct an interview. If you need any adjustments or support, please let us know when scheduling your interview or in your application cover letter. We are dedicated to ensuring everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed and are here to support you throughout the process.

PLEASE NOTE: We do not accept unsolicited CVs from third-party agencies.