Business Intelligence and Financial Analyst

Recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in Chicago by Fortune Magazine and Great Place to Work, Sasser prides itself on supporting an employee-driven, opportunity-based culture that empowers, recognizes, and rewards its employees. From highly competitive benefits to exciting employee events to organic, grassroots philanthropy and volunteerism, Sasser is an awesome place to begin and grow your career. We are a transportation asset services and management company with roots dating to 1928. Sasser’s subsidiary units are leaders in providing commercial- and industrial-focused rail, automotive, and containerized shipping solutions, including asset leasing, fleet administration management, asset repair and maintenance, and innovative technology services.

Sasser family of companies includes subsidiaries Chicago Freight Car Leasing, CF Rail Services, Moventum Fleet Management, Express 4x4 Truck Rental, and Falcon Lease. To learn more about what makes Sasser special, visit www.sasser.com.

This role supports our Express 4x4 Truck Rental team. Established in 1993 and acquired by Sasser in 2013, we offer flexible and affordable, mid- to long-term  ½-ton, ¾-ton and 1-ton pick-up truck rentals for or clients, with a commitment to on-time delivery, anywhere in North America.

The Business Intelligence and Financial Analyst is a hybrid role that combines data-driven business intelligence with core financial planning and analysis. On the intelligence side, the analyst surfaces insights from raw data across all aspects of our business by learning the nuances of our Truck Rental business, gathering and carefully analyzing information in critical business areas, building Power BI, SSRS and similar reports and dashboards, and leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to help the business make better and faster decisions. On the finance side, the analyst supports the planning, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes and responds to ad hoc financial requests, turning both operational and financial data into clear, actionable insight that guides decision-making across the organization.

As a Business Intelligence and Financial Analyst, Here's What You Will Do:

Business Intelligence and Analytics Responsibilities

• Assist in areas across the data science project lifecycle, including data cleaning, modeling, hypothesis testing, structured reporting, visualization, business analytics, and presentation.

• Assist in developing and implementing new metrics, models, and visualizations.

• Confirm requirements, brainstorm solutions, and clarify business rules with cross-functional teams.

• Manage the existing reporting repository of reports and dashboards (Power BI, SSRS / Report Manager and all other forms) for Express.

• Review the existing repository to determine which reports and dashboards are being used and which are not.

• Define and execute a strategy for better organizing the reporting repository — eliminating redundancy, ensuring metric values are consistent from report to report, and making it easier for users to quickly find the answers they are looking for.

• Work closely with all functional department managers to understand and meet their reporting needs.

• Help automate reports that are today generally developed manually in Excel, and plan and execute a roadmap for future report development.

• Leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to help the business make better and faster decisions, collaborating with cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into AI and ML models and using advanced analytics tools such as DataRobot to uncover trends, patterns, and correlations in the data.

• Work with the enterprise architecture team to integrate AI and ML solutions into existing Power BI workflows, and continuously evaluate and enhance models to improve accuracy, reliability, and performance while staying current on advancements in AI and ML.

• Assist with other related projects, as appropriate.

Financial Planning and Analysis Responsibilities

• Support the annual budgeting process by gathering input from department leaders, consolidating submissions, and helping build and maintain budget models.

• Assist in the development of periodic forecasts (monthly, quarterly, and rolling) and help track performance against budget and prior periods.

• Prepare and distribute recurring financial and management reports, including monthly results, variance analyses, and key performance indicators.

• Analyze actual results versus budget and forecast, investigate variances, and clearly communicate the drivers behind the numbers to finance and operational stakeholders.

• Partner with functional department managers to understand business drivers and translate them into financial plans and projections.

• Respond to ad hoc financial requests and analyses, building models and summaries that support decision-making across the business.

• Help develop and refine financial models, templates, and reporting packages, continually improving accuracy, efficiency, and consistency.

• Support month-end close activities as needed, ensuring reported financial results are accurate and reconciled to source systems.

• Contribute to the automation and streamlining of planning, budgeting, and reporting workflows, reducing manual effort and turnaround time.

Business Partnership

• Serve as a trusted partner to leaders across Accounting, Sales, and Operations by providing data-driven recommendations and insights. 

• Build strong working relationships across departments to understand business objectives, challenges, and opportunities. 

• Present findings and recommendations in a clear and concise manner to both technical and non-technical audiences. 

• Support strategic initiatives by providing analytical insight and decision-support tools.

Note: Responsibilities include the expectation to always act to support the interests of the department and organization and to perform other duties as assigned to ensure the successful achievement of departmental and company objectives.

Qualifications and Education Requirements                                     

• Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, Math, Business, or a related field.

• 2-5 years' experience in a financial analysis, business intelligence, or similar analytical role.

• Experience supporting planning, budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting processes.

• Experience with BI tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or other BI software.

• Experience with business systems analysis or data analytics / business intelligence requirements gathering.

Skills

• Strong analytical and quantitative skills, with the ability to interpret financial and operational data and translate it into actionable insight.

• Knowledge of financial planning and analysis concepts, including budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and management reporting.

• Knowledge of MS SQL and Power BI Desktop, Power BI Services, Azure Data Factory, and Azure Data Lake.

• Experience in data mining, modeling, hypotheses, and pattern identification (Azure Machine Learning and similar tools).

• Knowledge of the Microsoft Office Suite with strong Excel skills, including financial modeling.

• Ability to learn new software programs and apply software skills to solve business issues.

• Enjoys problem-solving utilizing analytical and mathematical skills.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to simplify complex concepts and messages to the essential components and deliver effective messages to a wide range of audiences.

• Project management and research skills.

• Able to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment.

• Strong desire to learn and continuously grow the impact of the role.

• Initiative-taker, well organized, extremely detail-oriented, and a highly collaborative team member.

Location & Work Schedule

This position is based in Oak Brook, IL, and follows a hybrid schedule.
 

Compensation/Benefits

The hiring range for this role is $85,000–$95,000 USD annually. This role is classified as exempt for purposes of applicable wage and hour laws, which means that the individual hired will not be eligible for overtime pay. This role is also eligible for an annual incentive bonus based on financial and personal performance throughout the plan year.

Sasser is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. Pay ranges are assigned to a job based on market data according to 3rd party salary benchmarking surveys. Actual base salary is dependent upon factors such as knowledge, skill level, and experience.

This role is also eligible for benefits. Sasser employees enjoy a competitive benefits program that:

• Includes comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance plans, including HSA and FSA accounts with employer contributions toward HSA

• Includes a 100% Company-paid disability and life insurance plans

• Includes a 401K plan with company match PLUS additional end-of-year funding

• Provides paid vacation time (tiered based on tenure), as well as personal time, sick days and summer half days for certain roles

• Provides 10 paid holidays annually

• Provides paid parental leave for new parents, as well as a monetary gift towards a 529 education account

• Provides a confidential Employee Assistance Program

• Provides training and tuition reimbursement

• Provides community service opportunities, charity match opportunities, employee recognition programs, and many celebrations!

#EX

The Company provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.