Senior Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Analyst

At American Equity we offer leading annuity products that help empower our clients to fulfill their needs and wants in retirement. Our success comes from hiring high-energy individuals who embody the beliefs that drive our unique culture. We currently fund over half a million retirements nationwide, and have been headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa, for over twenty-five years with satellite offices in Charlotte, NC and New York, NY.

GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE JOB:

The Senior FP&A Analyst is responsible for analyzing operational activity, commercial production, strategic initiatives and potential transactions, and financial data/metrics to provide analysis that drives senior management decision making to achieve strategic goals. The Senior FP&A Analyst has ownership for developing short-term and long-term financial projections, updating and maintaining Corporate Operating and Strategic Plan models, including both GAAP and Statutory financial projections for AEL, as well as additions and improvements to models. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:   

• Engages business partners to create detailed short-term and long-term financial plans and influences strategic business actions and decisions to improve financial performance, including the identification of opportunities to grow earnings, increase efficiency and optimize capital.
• Owns and builds on current models to forecast financials and operational KPIs/OKRs; owns and builds holding company liquidity projections; applies business, product and financial knowledge to help explain results of forecasts and projections.
• Analyzes financial performance, identifies areas of risk and opportunity and makes recommendations to Treasury, Accounting, Actuarial, Operations, Legal, Audit, Product Development, Enterprise Metrics, Investments and Senior Leadership for improvements.
• Regularly engages in strategic, financial, and technical conversations with the Treasurer and other team FP&A members to provide financial outcomes and set key performance indicators measuring the financial health of the organization. Works closely with Actuarial FP&A team to understand and incorporate actuarial forecasts and data for purposes of developing financial projections.
• Develops and automates processes and procedures related to financial planning and analysis and ensures that all financial planning and analysis is performed in line with AEL corporate goals and drives earnings and capital optimization.
• Leads the development of FP&A plans and programs; provides strategic financial input and leadership on decision making.
• Consolidates the business unit forecast/plans into the overall corporate reporting to build a composite view of the company.
• Prepares and maintains financial models and tools; learns and masters the corporate plan, making enhancements for accuracy, relevance, changing business, changing markets, etc.
• Completes analysis of capital expenditures and investments using common corporate finance approaches (i.e., discounted cash flows, internal rate of return, net present value, etc.).
• Formulates questions and analyses for the FP&A team to research.
• Gathers, manages and manipulates data from multiple sources for analysis; identifies trends, extracts insights and delivers actionable presentations of findings to key internal and external stakeholders, including ratings agencies, lenders, senior leadership and the Board of Directors
• Monitors and reports on market changes including macroeconomics and peers/competitors within the annuity industry.
• Applies financial and economic concepts including financial modeling, economic analysis, cash flow (DCF), profitability, earnings, balance sheet, taxes, and financial ratios; Utilizes common statistical concepts to perform analysis (i.e., standard deviation, expected value, correlation regression, etc.)
• Leverages analytical tools and methodologies including visualizations to present findings.
• Collaborates on processes and projects while representing the goals of the Finance group.
• Demonstrates finance, business and industry expertise; learns the strategy, drivers, metrics and data elements of the company.
• Establishes credibility through respectful, thoughtful interactions, attention to detail, professional integrity, and excellent financial insight.
• Actively upgrades expertise through professional development, feedback and mentoring.
• Identifies opportunities for process improvement, team members or potentially leading the effort.
• Provides expertise and guidance to other Analysts.
• Prepares analyses, presentations, and forward-looking financial projections and pro-forma financials for senior leadership, the Board, investor community and rating agencies and other key constituencies.
• Performs other related work as assigned. 

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: 

Direct Reports: None 

General Description of Indirect Reports (2 and 3-downs):  None 

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE:  

Bachelor’s degree (B.A.) from four-year college or university in accounting, finance or business; plus five (5) years of related financial planning and analysis/reporting experience and/or equivalent combination of training and/or experience. 

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS: 

Certified Financial Planning and Analysis Professional (FP&A), or Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation preferred. 

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:    

• Strong math, Accounting and Finance skills as well as reasoning, language and communication skills; demonstrated attention to detail.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills.
• Sound reasoning ability and problem solving skills are very important to this position, including analytical capabilities.
• Strong customer service orientation.
• Solid quantitative capabilities.
• Strong analytical and substantial spreadsheet aptitude.
• Ability to complete tasks daily that are under specific deadlines with no exceptions.
• Ability to maintain relationships with brokers, custodians, and banking organization; as well as co-workers including accounting staff, auditors and Senior Investment personnel.
• Ability to work cooperatively and successfully with employees, customers, and other outside third parties.
• Strong organizational and planning skills.
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office Suite.
• Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.
• Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions.
• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals and technical/operational procedures.
• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
• Ability to successfully handle pressure and meet deadlines in a fast-paced work environment.

#LI-SD1

____

This description covers the major purpose and essential functions of the job.  It is not intended to give all details or a step-by-step account of the way each task is to be performed.  Employees may receive other job related instructions and be required to perform other job related work requested by their manager.  All requirements are subject to possible modification to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities.