Commercial Finance Manager

Dillon Consulting Limited; Kingston; Hybrid; CAD 95,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

Dillon Consulting Limited is seeking a Commercial Finance Manager to act as a unified business advisor across assigned Business Units and Practices, evaluating performance across revenue, profitability, and risk.

The role reports to the Director, Business Performance and influences day-to-day decisions on pricing, budgeting, and growth. Flexible hours and hybrid work options are available across 25+ offices in Canada.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business/finance or related field; professional certification is an asset.
• 5–8+ years in commercial finance, FP&A, or related roles.
• Experience with ERP and BI tools is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide financial planning and strategic oversight for budgeting and investment evaluation.
• Drive annual budgets and quarterly forecasts for portfolios and practices.
• Assist with headcount budgets, loaded labour rates, utilization targets, and portfolio spend budgets.
• Support BU sales targets, adjusted contribution margins, variance improvement, and forecasting.
• Bridge PMs and Finance for early variance reporting, cost-to-completion estimates, and year forecasts.
• Analyze results, offer forward-looking guidance, and advise leadership to meet revenue goals.

Skills

Communication

Interpersonal skills

Leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Economics

CPA / MBA asset

Tools

ERP systems (Deltek Vision/Vantagepoint, BST, Unanet, Infor)

Power BI

Tableau

Job description

The Commercial Finance Manager (CFM) serves as a consolidated Business Advisor and strategic partner across assigned Business Units (BUs) and Practices. Reporting to the Director, Business Performance, the CFM moves beyond traditional financial analysis to evaluate the business holistically across market opportunities, client relationships, risk, and profitability. Rather than acting as a passive financial analyst, the CFM operates as a confident, decisive advisor who influences day-to-day operational, pricing, and growth decisions. Technical expertise in the assigned Practice or BU is not required; the ideal candidate is an agile business generalist capable of evaluating performance objectively without internal or client bias.

CFMs will be the first point of contact for questions related to their respective business’ project profitability and will be constantly aware of their respective business team’s ability to meet fiscal targets for revenue and profitability.

This is a new position and can be based at any one of our 25+ offices across Canada. We offer flexible work hours and hybrid work arrangement options to help balance the competing demands of work and personal life.

About Dillon

Dillon Consulting Limited (Dillon) is a proudly Canadian, 100% employee-owned professional consulting firm specializing in planning, engineering, environmental science, and management. With over 25 offices and more than 1100 employees across Canada, we offer a wide range of services related to building and improving facilities and infrastructure, protecting the environment, and developing communities.

At Dillon, we strive to remain at the forefront of technology and innovation and thrive on interdisciplinary collaboration, empowering our people to challenge conventional thinking and build careers focused on creating a lasting impact in our communities. We are committed to ongoing professional development and celebrate the unique perspectives that each team member brings to the table.

Employee ownership is available to all Dillon team members, and over 60% of our employees own shares in Dillon. Through employee ownership, we return the financial benefit created by our project work to the very people who created that value. Because we are an employee-owned firm, your voice will be an essential part of our shared success.

Responsibilities

• Financial Planning and Strategic Oversight Support: To ensure standardized performance tracking and enable long-term financial health through disciplined budgeting and investment evaluation. CFMs drive annual budget and quarterly forecasting processes within their assigned portfolios. In Practices, they support setting annual headcount budgets, loaded labour rates, utilization targets, and portfolio spend budgets. In BUs, they support BU sales targets, adjusted contribution margins, variance improvement targets, client tracking, and sales function budgets/forecasts (including headcount and costs). Additionally, CFMs enforce centrally defined Finance performance metrics to ensure standardized score-keeping across teams, while serving as a strategic check on Practice hiring by evaluating the long-term ROI and financial upside of high-salary recruits.
• Pipeline, Backlog and Client Strategy Support: To maintain clear visibility into revenue health and focus business development efforts on sustainable, high-value client relationships rather than short-term projects. CFMs support business leads in keeping a clear line of sight on project revenue fill rates (budgeted sales less current fiscal year portion of backlog and pipeline), project profitability, and early variance identification. They reorient sales tracking to prioritize repeat business and core client accounts meeting high-value benchmarks (i.e., $500,000 net revenue over three years) rather than chasing isolated, one-off projects.
• Pricing Guidance and Business Optimization: To maximize margins by enforcing standard pricing protocols and proactively refining the service portfolio based on profitability. CFMs lead pricing strategy execution, enforcing official guidance on subcontractor/expense markups and administrative fees to maximize gross margins. They continuously evaluate operational efficiency and staff utilization to identify non-strategic or unprofitable lines of business, actively advising leadership on whether to adjust pricing or exit unviable services.
• Project Financials Support: To facilitate accurate and timely financial reporting by bridging the communication gap between project managers and accounting teams. CFMs act as the prime interface between Project Managers (PMs) and Finance regarding early recognition and reporting of variances (both favourable and unfavourable), cost to completion estimates, and fiscal year estimates.
• Results Analysis and Performance Advisory: To drive accountability and help teams achieve profitability goals through collaborative, forward-looking business guidance. CFMs serve as the primary point of contact for analyzing operational results, summarizing business reasons for missed targets, and co-creating action plans with business partners. They monitor key projects, sales targets, accounts receivable (AR) issues, and work-in-progress (WIP) variances. Functioning as a trusted business advisor, the CFM provides firm, forward-looking guidance to ensure teams meet total project revenue and profitability goals.
• Interface with Project Performance and Accounting: To ensure the integrity of organizational data and support the efficient production of consistent, company-wide financial communication. CFMs provide key inputs into Project Performance and Accounting regarding key projects, WIP variances, AR, and other key indicators, ensuring and supporting the timely production of corporate-wide monthly results communication.

Learning & Development

• Commit to self-development, ongoing learning, and professional development.
• Drive continuous learning and mentor junior staff in data science and digital project delivery methodologies, developing the next generation of tech-forward leaders.
• Contribute to Dillon’s corporate profile through active participation in professional associations and committees.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field. CPA, MBA, or relevant industry experience is an asset.
• Organizational Integration: Demonstrated track record of acting as a commercial partner to business leaders, driving pricing strategies, margin oversight, and operational accountability.
• Technical Exposure: Deep literacy in project financial management: WIP/AR cycles, labor utilization, pricing markups, estimate at completion forecasting, and contribution margin analysis.

Experience

• 5–8+ years of progressive experience in commercial finance, operational FP&A, business management, or management consulting, ideally within professional services, engineering, architecture, or project-based corporate environments.
• Systems Literacy: Experience navigating enterprise ERP environments (e.g., Deltek Vision/Vantagepoint, BST, Unanet, Infor) and business intelligence tools (Power BI, Tableau).
• Communication: Exceptional interpersonal and influential skills with the confidence to challenge, guide, and advise senior operational leaders without bias.

Compensation

$95,000 - $135,000

Dillon is including the salary range that we in good faith believe may offer for this position. It will be dependent on the successful applicant’s education, experience, and skills, in addition to internal equity and geographic region. Dillon reserves the right to pay outside of the posted range, contingent on factors unrelated to an applicant’s gender or other status protected by provincial and/or federal law.

Why choose Dillon

Dillon is powered by people who are technically proficient, passionate about socially important projects, and motivated to deliver superior, tangible results. We strive to remain at the forefront of technology and innovation, and are empowered to continually grow and develop.

• Achievement: do the work to hit the target;
• Continuous Development: always learning; always adapting; always growing;
• Creativity: discover new possibilities;
• Courage: do the things that matter, especially when it’s hard;
• Inclusiveness: enabling belonging to draw strength from our differences;
• Reliability: words result in actions that build trust.

In addition, we offer:

• Employee share purchase plan
  • Dillon is 100% employee owned and share ownership is open to all employees.
• A competitive compensation package
  • Comprehensive health benefits
  • Generous retirement savings plan
  • Student loan repayment assistance with matching employer contributions
• Flexible work hours and hybrid working options
  • Dillon values its staff and the contributions that are made each day and understands that work arrangements can differ based on personal needs and business needs. We are taking a trust-based approach to offer a variety of flexible and hybrid work options to help balance the competing demands of work and personal life.
• Learning and Development opportunities
  • As a knowledge-based business, we use a composite approach to development including coaching to build the how, mentoring to share lessons, advising to round out perspectives, and co-creation of knowledge through internal learning opportunities.
• Focus on Innovation
  • The ability to anticipate, examine, and adopt new and innovative solutions is a crucial driver for the continual and progressive advancement of our business performance. In our culture, people are empowered to reflect and question current practices and seek forward looking solutions to today’s problems and tomorrow’s opportunities.