Financial Analyst III

This role will be responsible for executing key tasks related to vendor budget and commercial operations, including but not limited to: End-to-end ownership of initiating, processing, tracking, and maintenance of purchase orders in the ERP system, structured to match each agreement's payment shape (upfront, milestone, or per-delivery). We expect this person to actively use AI tooling in their daily work and to treat the operational processes they inherit as candidates for improvement identifying manual, repetitive, or error-prone steps and partnering with the team to automate them rather than simply absorbing the volume.

Description: Onsite ( hybrid) - US - CA- Sunnyvale
Max BR ***/hr

Budget & Commercial Operations Analyst

We are seeking a highly organized and detail-oriented Contingent Worker to support vendor budget and commercial operations. This role is crucial in supporting the day-to-day financial management of vendor engagements ensuring budget accuracy, timely purchase order setup, reliable tracking of vendor deliverables, and clean invoice and accrual treatment. The ideal candidate is a self-starter with a strong understanding of foundational financial processes, sound judgment on accounting treatment, and a commitment to meticulous record-keeping across a growing portfolio of vendor agreements. We expect this person to actively use AI tooling in their daily work and to treat the operational processes they inherit as candidates for improvement identifying manual, repetitive, or error-prone steps and partnering with the team to automate them rather than simply absorbing the volume.



Key Responsibilities
This role will be responsible for executing key tasks related to vendor budget and commercial operations, including but not limited to:
End-to-end ownership of initiating, processing, tracking, and maintenance of purchase orders in the ERP system, structured to match each agreement's payment shape (upfront, milestone, or per-delivery)
Monitoring PO funding status and proactively following up on outstanding invoices and related exceptions, initiating top-ups before shortfalls block vendor payment
Maintaining the running view of the approved budget envelope approved, committed, executed, and remaining and flagging when the pipeline approaches the ceiling
Validating pricing on incoming vendor deals against the approved rate card taxonomy and escalating off-taxonomy pricing for sign-off
Serving as day-to-day operational contact for vendors on delivery reporting, PO references, invoice format, service periods, and required reporting metadata
Owning the delivery tracking log capturing vendor, scope, delivery date, volume, and supporting detail for every reported delivery
Driving deliveries through the review and acceptance workflow, chasing pending items and preventing backlog accumulation, and confirming acceptance before invoices are submitted for payment
Validation of invoices against contract terms and approved parameters, ensuring accuracy of scope, volume delivered, rates charged, service period, and purchase order billed
Route invoices for internal approvals and ensure timely processing for payment
Reconciling and resolving discrepancies between invoices and delivery records by coordinating with vendors and internal teams, including handling credit memos and adjustment lines
Owning the monthly accrual position for vendor spend recognizing delivered-but-uninvoiced work, applying the correct accrual input type, and reconciling accrued vs. invoiced vs. paid
Supporting quarterly forecast inputs for vendor spend, including timing of upfront versus delivery-linked payments
Support the preparation of documentation and reports required for month-end close processes
Tracking contract renewal and expiry dates and surfacing them ahead of decision deadlines
Liaising with S2P, FP&A, Accounting, Sourcing, and Legal to ensure PO accuracy, alignment with approved budgets, and correct accounting treatment
Maintain organized and accessible financial records and process documentation
Assist with ad-hoc reporting and analysis requests from the finance and program teams
Use approved AI and automation tooling to accelerate routine work reconciliation, data extraction from vendor submissions and invoices, summarization, and drafting vendor correspondence while retaining human review and accountability for any number or commitment that leaves the team
Proactively identify manual, repetitive, or error-prone steps in the operational workflow and propose automation or process redesign opportunities, with a clear view of the time saved and the risk reduced
Partner with the workforce planning and program teams to scope and test automations end to end, and support migration of manual trackers into supported systems as tooling matures
Document processes clearly enough that they can be automated or handed over, and maintain that documentation as workflows change
Ensure adherence to internal financial controls and company policies





Qualifications


Required
4+ years of experience in a finance, accounting, procurement, or vendor operations role with a focus on transactional processing
Demonstrated working knowledge of accruals able to explain and apply the difference between accrued, invoiced, and paid, and build a defensible month-end position where delivery and invoicing are out of sync
Solid understanding of OpEx versus CapEx treatment able to reason about how a given engagement should be classified, what drives capitalization versus expensing, and when to escalate to Accounting rather than deciding alone
Strong cashflow literacy understands the timing gap between contract execution, upfront payment, delivery, acceptance, invoice, and cash out, and how PO structure and payment terms drive it
Proficiency with financial management systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle, NetSuite) and MS Office Suite / Google Suite (particularly advanced Excel/Sheets skills)
Strong understanding of fundamental accounting principles (AP/AR, general ledger) and financial workflows (PO-to-Pay)
Comfortable working with large datasets and operating in ambiguous environments
Excellent organizational skills and a high degree of attention to detail
Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with internal and external stakeholders, including holding a firm line on data quality and approval gates
Works with a sense of urgency for critical business requests
Customer service oriented person, focused on quality communication with a bias for action
Demonstrated use of AI tooling in a finance or operations context, with sound judgment about where AI output can be trusted and where it must be verified particularly for financial figures, vendor-facing communication, and anything entering a system of record
Track record of identifying inefficiencies in an existing process and driving a concrete improvement, with evidence of the impact
Comfortable working in spreadsheets and workflow tools at a level beyond basic data entry building repeatable reconciliations, validations, and checks rather than re-performing them manually each cycle

Preferred
Experience working in a fast-paced corporate or technology environment
Experience using Anaplan, AppSheet, Oracle, Airtable
Past experience in managing procurement and finance operations for a specific line of business
Comfort working alongside technical or research stakeholders who act as delivery reviewers
Hands-on experience building lightweight automations scripting, low-code or workflow automation platforms, or AI-assisted workflows to replace manual operational steps
Experience contributing to an automation or process-transformation initiative in a finance, procurement, or vendor operations function

Custom Fields:
Name: Top 3 must-have HARD skills
Value: See RSD notes

Name: Typical Day in the Role
Value: See RSD notes

Name: Does this role deal with graphic and/or objectionable content to any extent?
Value: No

Name: Good to have skills
Value: See RSD notes

Name: Story Behind the Need Business Group & Key Projects
Value: See RSD notes

Name: Compelling Story & Candidate Value Proposition
Value: See RSD notes

Name: Team Name
Value: None

Name: If yes, approximately how often might CW s engaged by your team encounter graphic or objectionable content (imagery, video, or written) in the course of their work with your team?
Value: None

Name: How will performance be measured
Value: See RSD notes