Financial Manager

Join a Challenger

Being a traditional bank just isn’t our thing. We are big believers in innovating the banking experience because we believe Canadians deserve better options, and we challenge ourselves and our teams to creatively transform what’s possible in banking. Our team is made up of inquisitive and agile minds that find smarter ways of doing things. If you’re not afraid of taking on big challenges and redefining the future, you belong with us. You’ll get to work with people who will encourage you to reach new heights. We like to keep things fun, ask questions and learn together.

We are a big (and growing!) family. Overall we serve more than 670,000 people across Canada through Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank, and have been around for more than 50 years. Equitable Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, Concentra Bank, supports credit unions across Canada that serve more than six million members. Together we have over $125 billion in combined assets under management and administration, with a clear mandate to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. Our customers have named our EQ Bank digital platform (eqbank.ca) one of the top banks in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks list since 2021.

The Work

This opportunity will play a highly visible and crucial role within the Finance team to ensure the efficient and effective management of essential financial functions supporting Technology and other business units across the Bank. The Financial Manager will be responsible for tracking project and agile development spend against funding envelopes; recording capitalized expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX) for Bank-wide projects and Agile sprints and releases related to product development within EQB’s Technology department (mainly Digital Bank and Digital Lending). In addition, the Financial Manager will be responsible for Project and Agile spend reporting, and other financial reporting as applicable, to senior management.

This role will work closely with cross-functional teams, including Project Management, Personal Banking Product Management, Technology leaders, Finance, and Accounting to establish and ensure both accurate financial analysis and reporting, as well as compliance with accounting policies and procedures. The Manager will also play a key role in envelope-based forecasting and portfolio-level budgeting for Agile product development initiatives and other Bank-wide projects. In addition to traditional processes for project reporting, this role offers an exciting shift to a sprint-focused format and as such an understanding of agile and associated mindsets will be a key success factor.

The Core Responsibilities Of The Job:

• Agile development spend – Data sourcing, Financial Analysis and Reporting (45%)
• Work with product owners to review costs and analyze productivity data.
• Provide financial insights, analyzing monthly/ quarterly variances outside accepted thresholds. Manage funding envelopes for quarterly planning cycles with Team or Sprint-Level Tracking.
• Responsible for the establishment of common understanding with stakeholders re: CAPEX and OPEX of agile initiative costs in accordance with relevant accounting standards.
• Required to have a solid understanding of the capabilities and features being developed and maintained by technology and other business units so that accurate & knowledgeable delineations can be made on how to treat costs accurately.
• Preparation of monthly/ quarterly accounting entries to be recorded by Accounting Team.
• Expected to work with product managers and Accounting Team to establish a governing process to capture software lifecycles in order to apply appropriate amortization schedules.
• Employ and review advanced Excel skills such as Pivot Tables, Nested “IF” Statements, VLOOKUP, OFFSET, SUMIFS, MATCH-INDEX, etc. to build efficient and accurate financial models.
• Development of Power BI (or other reporting tools) for Agile spend reporting to senior management.

• Other Business Unit Project spend – Data sourcing, Financial Analysis and Reporting (25%)
• Work with D&P (Delivery & Productivity) Team and other stakeholders across the Bank to facilitate monthly Business unit project spend recording to the general ledger.
• Work with Senior Analyst to ensure the most efficient process is in operation.
• Maintain data related to monthly project expenditure (including CAPEX/ OPEX nature of spend) according to accounting and compliance requirements.
• Employ and review advanced Excel skills such as Pivot Tables, Nested “IF” Statements, VLOOKUP, OFFSET, SUMIFS, MATCH-INDEX, etc. to build efficient and accurate financial models.
• Development of Power BI (or other reporting tools) for Project spend reporting to senior management.

• Budgeting and Forecasting Models (15%)
• Participate in the preparation of quarterly forecasts/ annual Business Plans/ Budgets for agile product development pods and other business unit projects and initiatives.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to understand business process requirements, provide financial guidance, and support decision-making related to budgeting and forecasting.

• Other Financial Reporting (15%)
• Other standard financial reporting involvement on a monthly/ quarterly basis.

Let's Talk About You!

• Four-year post-secondary degree; Accounting, Finance, Economics, or Business preferred.
• CFA/CPA designation completed.
• Proven experience (minimum 7 years) in project accounting, preferably with exposure to an Agile product development environment.
• Demonstrated ability using MS Office (Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Word).
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including developing/running macros.
• Ability to work extensively with formulas, numbers, and spreadsheets.
• Experience utilizing technology to gather and manipulate data.
• Experience using database query tools (i.e. SQL) is considered an asset.
• Knowledge of financial statements and reporting is required.
• Knowledge of financial modeling concepts is required.
• Possess strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Ability to clearly communicate technical, analytical/quantitative or conceptual information and ideas using language that is appropriate to the target audience.
• Strong two-way communication and leadership skills.
• Ability to handle multiple competing priorities (multi-tasking).
• Enjoys working in both team and individual environments.

What we offer [For full-time permanent roles]

Competitive discretionary bonus

Market leading RRSP match program

Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits

Employee Share Purchase Plan

Maternity/Parental top-up while you care for your little one

Generous vacation policy and personal days

Virtual events to connect with your fellow colleagues

Annual professional development allowance and a comprehensive Career Development program

A fulfilling opportunity to join one of the top FinTechs and help create a new kind of banking experience.

The incumbent will be working hybrid and in office time will be spent working from Equitable Bank’s additional office space located at 351 King Street East, Toronto, ON.

Equitable Bank is deeply committed to inclusion. Our organization is stronger and our employees thrive when we honour and celebrate everyone’s diverse experiences and perspectives. In tandem with that commitment, we support and encourage our staff to grow not just in their career path, but personally as well.

We commit to providing a barrier-free recruitment process and work environment for all applicants. Please let us know of any accommodations needed so that you can bring your best self to the application process and beyond. All candidates considered for hire must successfully pass a criminal background check and credit check to qualify for hire. While we appreciate your interest in applying, an Equitable recruiter will only contact leading candidates whose skills and qualifications closely match the requirements of the position.

We can’t wait to get to know you!