Desktop Engineer (Advanced Excel Performance Specialist)

Henderson Scott US; New York (NY); On-site; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Henderson Scott US is seeking an Excel Performance Optimization Specialist for a three-month contract in New York City. This role involves optimizing complex Excel workbooks used by Finance teams, diagnosing performance issues, and delivering tangible improvements. Ideal candidates will have deep expertise in Microsoft Excel, advanced formulas, and performance tuning. Responsibilities include analyzing workbooks, simplifying formulas, and documenting improvements. Candidates should be pragmatic problem solvers with a finance background.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in advanced Microsoft Excel, including large datasets and complex models.
• Strong understanding of common causes of Excel performance degradation in finance environments.
• Ability to work with poorly documented, legacy Excel files.

Responsibilities

• Analyze large, complex Excel workbooks used by FP&A and Finance teams.
• Identify root causes of Excel performance issues.
• Simplify and refactor Excel formulas without changing outputs.
• Document changes made and performance gains achieved.

Skills

Advanced Microsoft Excel

Excel performance tuning and troubleshooting

Power Query

Data modeling concepts

Problem-solving

Job description

**THREE MONTH CONTRACT IN NYC 4 DAYS ON SITE - NO C2C!**

Excel Performance & End‑User Compute Optimization Specialist

(Desktop Engineering)

Job Summary:

We are seeking a highly hands‑on Excel Performance Optimization Specialist to help stabilize and improve Microsoft Excel performance for our Finance teams. These users rely on extremely large, complex, and business‑critical Excel workbooks that frequently freeze or hang due to volume, formulas, legacy links, and undocumented "tribal knowledge" logic.

The ideal candidate will rapidly diagnose, reproduce, and remediate Excel performance issues, determine whether problems stem from workbook design, data quality, formulas, add‑ins, or hardware limitations, and deliver tangible improvements in stability and usability in a short period of time.

This role is critical to maintaining business continuity until legacy Excel models are replaced by industrialized planning applications.

Key Responsibilities:

• Analyze large, complex Excel workbooks used by FP&A and Finance teams
• Identify root causes of Excel freezing, hanging, or crashing (e.g.:
• Inefficient lookups or array formulas
• Broken or legacy external links
• Unused named ranges, hidden sheets, or circular references
• Reproduce reported issues reliably and document findings clearly

Optimization & Cleanup

• Simplify and refactor Excel formulas without changing outputs
• Clean up obsolete logic, links, and unused objects
• Optimize data models and calculation chains for performance
• Recommend where Power Query, Power Pivot, or structured tables should replace legacy approaches
• Improve workbook stability while preserving business intent and outcomes

Environment & Hardware Assessment

• Determine whether issues are workbook-related or tied to:
• Laptop hardware constraints (CPU, RAM, storage)
• Excel version or add-ins
• Partner with Desktop Engineering to validate hardware recommendations if needed

Knowledge Transfer & Documentation

• Document changes made and performance gains achieved
• Translate "tribal knowledge" logic into understandable documentation
• Provide practical recommendations for:
• Reducing long‑term risk until formal planning tools are implemented

AI & Automation (Nice to Have)

• Leverage AI tools (e.g., Microsoft Copilot, Claude, or similar) to:
• Analyze formulas and dependencies
• Suggest simplifications
• Accelerate cleanup and refactoring where appropriate

Required Qualifications

• Deep expertise in advanced Microsoft Excel, including:
• Large datasets and complex financial models
• Advanced formulas and calculation chains
• Excel performance tuning and troubleshooting
• Strong understanding of:
• Power Query, Power Pivot, and data modeling concepts
• Common causes of Excel performance degradation in finance environments
• Proven experience supporting Finance with mission‑critical workbooks
• Ability to work with poorly documented, legacy Excel files and rapidly make sense of them
• Hands‑on, pragmatic problem solver who can deliver improvements quickly

Preferred

• Background in Desktop Engineering or End‑User Computing
• Experience assessing hardware vs. application performance constraints
• Familiarity with enterprise‑scale Excel governance or model‑risk mitigation
• Experience using AI tools to analyze or refactor Excel models

Success Criteria (What "Good" Looks Like)

• Observable reduction in Excel freezing/hanging incidents
• Measurable performance improvements in high‑impact FP&A workbooks
• Clear root cause identification (workbook vs. hardware vs. environment)Cleaned, simplified, and more stable Excel files with documented chang
• Finance users regain confidence in Excel while long‑term solutions are implemented