Head of Strategic Finance

Frontiers Media in Lausanne seeks a Head of Strategic Finance to lead financial planning, forecasting, and strategic decision support. The role requires 6–10 years in strategic finance, strong modelling skills, and experience collaborating with senior stakeholders in a fast-evolving environment.

Frontiers is enhancing its strategic finance function to support long-term decision-making and performance management. The Head of Strategic Finance will work closely with the CFO and leadership to drive financial planning, forecasting, and insights, focusing on forward-looking analysis and strategic support in a dynamic, global environment. The position requires regular on-site presence in Lausanne to enable close collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Lead budgeting, forecasting, and long-term planning aligned with business strategy, ensuring financial plans support strategic goals.
• Build and maintain financial models for business initiatives, investment cases, and scenario analysis, delivering insights through performance, variance, and trend analysis.
• Work with business leaders to turn strategy into measurable financial outcomes, supporting executive and board reporting with clear, actionable data.
• Contribute to value creation by analyzing capital allocation, cost efficiency, and profitability, while improving FP&A processes, tools, data quality, and planning systems.
• Coordinate with Finance Operations to ensure alignment between actuals, forecasts, and plans, and mentor team members as a hands-on expert.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field.
• 6–10 years of experience in strategic finance, FP&A, or similar roles within complex, international organizations.
• Proven expertise in budgeting, forecasting, and financial modelling, with advanced Excel skills and experience with planning tools and BI platforms, including emerging AI-driven methods.
• Track record of supporting executive, board, or external stakeholder reporting, with strong presentation skills for senior audiences.
• Experience guiding or managing team members in a matrixed structure.
• High integrity, discretion, and professional judgment.
• Strong collaboration skills and stakeholder focus, combined with a results-driven mindset.
• Ability to think strategically while taking a hands-on, proactive approach in a rapidly changing environment.

Nice to have

• MBA or professional qualification in finance or accounting.

What the company offers

• Opportunity to shape strategic finance practices and influence decisions at the senior leadership level.
• Work in a collaborative, low-hierarchy culture where initiative and ownership are valued.

About the company

Frontiers Media is a global, mission-driven publisher committed to open science, enabling the global research community to accelerate discovery and contribute to healthy lives on a healthy planet. As one of the world’s largest open-access publishers, Frontiers ensures peer-reviewed, quality-certified research is accessible to all, with over 4 billion article views demonstrating its real-world impact. The company fosters innovation at the intersection of science and technology, supported by passionate colleagues dedicated to advancing knowledge for society.

• Values initiative, ownership, curiosity, and continuous improvement in finance.
• Promotes a collaborative, low-hierarchy work environment.
• Committed to open science and advancing knowledge for societal benefit.