Commercial Manager

The role

THE OPPORTUNITY

DLA Piper understands that you’re building a future. Which is why we encourage you to reach your full potential. To explore the opportunities and choices that shape your individual career journey. Here, personal growth goes hand in hand with professional development.  

That’s our commitment. This is your opportunity.

We are looking for a Commercial Manager to join either our Brisbane or Sydney office. The Commercial Manager will be the nexus between the finance team and the broader business, supporting the Practice Groups to achieve their commercial goals by providing timely, useful financial insight and information. The Commercial Manager role is new to the firm in Australia, which means there is scope for you to develop and grow the role into your own. Your main focus will be building trusted relationships with key stakeholders to enable you to inform their actions and to ultimately improve the profit of the firm.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Business partner with the Practice Group Heads, Head of Finance and Head of Operations to drive financial performance
• Build and maintain strong relationships across the firm and embed yourself in the Practice Groups
• Understand the strategy of the firm and the Practice Groups, the operating model, key drivers of performance and the levers available to improve performance
• Provide financial insight and analysis to the Practice Group Heads and Partners, including monthly and ad-hoc reporting alongside analysis of KPI management and control to support business decision making 
• Work closely with the Head of Pricing & Partners to prepare pricing proposals that meet both client and business requirements
• Actively seek out questions and answers in the data that could lead to improved financial outcomes
• Continually strive to improve processes to increase efficiency and effectiveness 
• Identify and escalate potential financial risks, working with key stakeholders to mitigate 
• Assist in the budget and forecast processes and provide other ad-hoc support to finance 
• Assist with the management and administration of working capital, including matter partner lock-up test 
• Provide Commercial Management support in any of the DLA Piper offices as required 
• Constantly work to minimise missing timesheets through the month and at month end 

ABOUT YOU

• To be successful in this position you will have:
• A minimum of 3 years’ experience in a financial / commercial role 
• Bachelor’s degree and professional qualification (CA, CIMA, CPA etc) 
• Preferably experience of working in a large international organisation 
• Exposure to professional services culture would be advantageous but not essential 
• Analytical and strategic mind set 
• Financially aware and numerate 
• Strong computer skills and experience in using MS Office tools (in particular Word, Excel, Outlook; PowerPoint) 
• High level communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to influence 

You will also be:

• Self-starting and confident with a high tolerance for ambiguity and a ‘can do’ approach 
• Results driven and demonstrates imitative 
• Able to grasp tasks quickly and work autonomously 
• Flexible to adapt to different activities 
• Highly attentive to detail 
• Collegiate and team-based approach 
• Customer focussed with desire to improve working practices 
• Able to quickly prioritise between competing demands and multi-task 
• Poised and patient under pressure 

ABOUT US
DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers and business service professionals located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Our global reach ensures that we can help businesses with their legal needs anywhere in the world. We strive to be the leading global business law firm by delivering quality, service excellence and value to our clients and offering practical and innovative legal solutions to help them succeed. Our clients range from multinational, Global 1000, and Fortune 500 enterprises to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies, as well as government and public sector bodies.

OUR VALUES
In everything we do connected with our People, our Clients and our Communities, we live by these values:

• Be Supportive – we are compassionate and inclusive, valuing diversity and acting thoughtfully
• Be Collaborative – we are proactive, passionate team players investing in our relationships
• Be Bold – we are fearless and inquisitive, challenging ourselves to think big and find creative new solutions
• Be Exceptional – we are strategic and driven, exceeding standards and expectations

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
At DLA Piper, diversity and inclusion underpins how we live our values and everything we do. We believe that everyone has a voice, and that everyone’s voice counts. We know that the rich diversity across our firm makes us stronger, more innovative and creative, which helps us to better serve our clients and communities. We are committed to providing an inclusive working environment and culture across our global firm, where everyone can bring their authentic self to work.

Diversity of perspective, thought, background and culture combine to make us the leading global law firm; that’s why we actively seek to build balanced teams. We welcome the unique contribution that you will bring to our firm and actively encourage applications from all talented people – however your talent is packaged, whatever your background or circumstance and regardless of how you identify.

HYBRID WORKING
We recognise that people have responsibilities and interests outside of their career and that as a business, we all benefit from working flexibly. That’s why we are open to discussing with candidates the different ways in which we are able to support requests for agile working arrangements.

PRE-ENGAGEMENT SCREENING
In the event that we make an offer to you, and where local legislation permits and where relevant, we will conduct pre-engagement screening checks that may include but are not limited to your professional and academic qualifications, your eligibility to work in the relevant jurisdiction, any criminal records, your financial stability and work-related references.