Finance Specialist -Medical

Public Library of Science; Illinois; Remote; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Paid vacation

Public holidays

Sick leave

Disability insurance

Remote stipend for home office

Job summary

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) is seeking a Senior Financial Analyst to drive annual budgets and forecasts, create dashboards, and provide variance analysis. This fully remote role supports a global nonprofit undergoing transformation, with opportunities to act as a business partner across teams and present insights to executive leadership.

Ideal candidates will have 4–7 years in FP&A or accounting, strong Excel skills, GAAP literacy, and experience with budgeting systems such as Netsuite,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or related field is highly preferred.
• 4–7 years of progressive experience in Financial Planning & Analysis, Finance, or Accounting.
• Experience with budgeting systems (Netsuite Planning and Budgeting, Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning).
• Expert level proficiency in Microsoft Excel
• Strong communication skills translating financial information to non-financial stakeholders.
• GAAP knowledge and general ledger understanding.

Responsibilities

• Prepare and present clear, concise financial dashboards and commentary for executive leadership and stakeholders.
• Drive process improvements.
• Build and maintain financial models and support scenario planning.
• Ensure the highest level of accuracy and data integrity in all reports, dashboards, and commentaries.
• Partner with stakeholders across the organization to gather and validate financial and operational information supporting budgets, forecasts, and management reporting.
• Support ad hoc financial analysis and reporting requests as needed.
• FP&A Principles – understanding of financial planning, rolling forecasts, budgets, and variance analysis.
• Accounting Literacy – understanding of GAAP, general ledger structures, and how debits and credits become financial statements.
• Expert level proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
• Experience with budgeting systems (Netsuite Planning and Budgeting, Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning).
• Judgment and Prioritization – proven abilities to exercise sound business judgment, prioritize competing responsibilities, and discernment when handling confidential data.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate financial information into meaningful business insights for non-financial stakeholders.

Skills

Excel proficiency

GAAP knowledge

Forecasting

Financial modeling

Variance analysis

Cross-functional communication

Business partnering

Analytical thinking

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business

Tools

Netsuite Planning & Budgeting

Anaplan

Workday Adaptive Planning

Job description

This position is fully remote/home based. Applications will be accepted from candidates based in the UK and the following US states:

Role Summary

PLOS is a nonprofit, Open Access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication. The Senior Financial Analyst plays a critical role in interpreting, translating, and communicating complex financial data to internal stakeholders. The role will drive annual budgets and financial forecasts, monitor key financial metrics, provide variance analysis, identify cost savings and efficiency opportunities, while functioning as a key business partner to teams across the organization. FP&A leadership will provide oversight and support in validating analyses, reporting, and business commentary to ensure alignment with organizational activities and priorities. This role requires a self-starter who can shift seamlessly back and forth from their regular workload and ad‑hoc requests, without sacrificing analytical accuracy. The role also supports a period of significant organizational transformation and requires flexibility in balancing recurring responsibilities with evolving business needs. Perform actual to budget variance analysis while highlighting risks & opportunities to plan.

• Prepare and present clear, concise financial dashboards and commentary for executive leadership and stakeholders
• Drive process improvements
• Build and maintain financial models and support scenario planning
• Ensure the highest level of accuracy and data integrity in all reports, dashboards, and commentaries.
• Partner with stakeholders across the organization to gather and validate financial and operational information supporting budgets, forecasts, and management reporting.
• Support ad hoc financial analysis and reporting requests as needed.
• FP&A Principles – understanding of financial planning, rolling forecasts, budgets, and variance analysis.
• Accounting Literacy – understanding of GAAP, general ledger structures, and how debits and credits become financial statements
• Expert level proficiency in Microsoft Excel
• Experience with budgeting systems (Netsuite Planning and Budgeting, Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning, etc)
• Judgment and Prioritization – proven abilities to exercise sound business judgment, prioritize competing responsibilities, and discernment when handling confidential data.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate financial information into meaningful business insights for non‑financial stakeholders.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or related field is highly preferred.
• ~4-7 years of progressive experience in Financial Planning & Analysis, Finance, or Accounting

Prolonged periods stationary at a desk and working on a computer.

Some national and international travel may be required.

• Employee sponsored health, dental and vision insurance (Dental and Vision 100% employer paid)
• ~ Paid Vacation, 11 public holidays and sick leave
• ~ Birthday and three winter holidays days off
• ~ Short term and long term disability insurance
• ~Fully remote work environment with stipend on joining for home office

About PLOS

Building on a strong legacy of pioneering innovation, PLOS continues to be a catalyst in open science, reimagining models to meet open science principles, removing barriers and promoting inclusion in knowledge creation and sharing, and publishing research outputs that enable everyone to learn from, reuse and build upon scientific knowledge. Our work is supported by a highly skilled global in‑house team, partnerships with local scholarly organizations, and the valued contributions of a diverse, international community of scientific researchers. We’re committed to equal opportunity

We’re working to create a more equitable system of scientific knowledge and understanding. Removing barriers to inclusion and facilitating broad participation of voices is core to our success, inside and out. Beyond accepting distinct perspectives, we seek and support divergent backgrounds among our staff because we know differences strengthen our teams, our work, and our communities.