Manager Financial Planning & Analysis - Information Technology

At FHLBank Chicago, we prioritize our employees by offering a highly competitive compensation and bonus package, along with a comprehensive benefits program designed to meet their needs. Our collaborative, in-office operating model fosters teamwork and innovation.

About Us

Our mission at FHLBank Chicago is to partner with our members in Illinois and Wisconsin to provide competitively priced funding, a reasonable return on their investment, and support for their community investment activities. We are a bank for banks and other financial institutions, focused on being a strategic partner for our members to reinvest in communities across urban and rural areas.

Created by Congress in 1932, FHLBank Chicago is one of 11 Federal Home Loan Banks, a government-sponsored enterprise supporting mortgage lending and community investment.

Work Environment

At FHLBank Chicago, we bring people together through a high-performing, engaged workforce and support the communities we serve. Our Buddy Program pairs new hires with tenured employees to guide their onboarding. We offer professional development and training opportunities, including upskilling, mentorship programs, and tuition reimbursement, to help employees grow their careers.

Our collaborative, in-office operating model fosters innovation, connection, and shared success. To support work-life balance, employees receive an allocation of remote days to use as needed throughout the year.

Responsibilities

• Drive informed IT investment decisions by delivering clear budget-to-actual and forecast variance analysis, identifying key cost drivers, trends, and emerging risks across technology spend.
• Provide forward-looking insights through scenario and sensitivity analysis to support prioritization of IT initiatives, capacity planning, and funding trade-offs.
• Act as a trusted finance partner to IT leadership, advising on cost management, vendor spend, project timing, and investments in "run the bank" versus "change the bank" initiatives.
• Strengthen accountability by linking financial results to IT operational drivers, project delivery milestones, and service outcomes.
• Enable executive and Board visibility into IT financial performance through consistent, high-quality management and executive reporting.
• Improve financial discipline and transparency by standardizing IT budgeting and forecasting assumptions, methodologies, and documentation.
• Ensure alignment across Finance by partnering with Accounting on capitalization, expense treatment, and reconciliation between planning outputs and financial reporting.
• Enhance efficiency and control by identifying automation opportunities and improving FP&A processes supporting IT.
• Lead the annual budget and planning process, including timeline management, assumption development, and cost center inputs, with a focus on establishing a framework for in-year funding decisions through quarterly reviews and scenario-based trade-off analysis.
• Conduct regular technology spend and funding reviews with IT, leveraging actuals, forecasts, and prioritization discussions to inform ongoing investment decisions and reallocation.
• Partner with initiative owners to define measures of success associated with business case definitions for cost-benefit evaluation and assess return on investment actuals.
• Develop and maintain IT forecasts, incorporating actual performance, project delivery timing, vendor billing patterns, and emerging risks.
• Partner with IT cost center owners to challenge assumptions, identify risks and opportunities, and align technology spend with strategic priorities, adjusting cost center budgets to evolving resource and contract assumptions that support quarterly capacity allocation decisions.
• Monitor and explain variances related to software, cloud services, infrastructure, cybersecurity, vendors, and IT labor.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Information Systems, or a related field (MBA, CPA, or CFA preferred).
• 5–10 years of experience in FP&A, finance, or accounting, including direct support of an IT or technology organization.
• Hands-on experience leading budgets and forecasts.
• Experience supporting technology spend, including software, cloud services, vendor contracts, and IT projects.
• Strong financial modeling, Excel, and analytical skills.
• Ability to communicate financial concepts clearly to non-finance stakeholders, particularly IT leaders and project managers.
• Strong understanding of IT financial concepts, including rolling forecasting practices, workforce and project cost planning, and the economic drivers of IT labor and vendor spend.
• Evaluates and leverages AI capabilities to strengthen FP&A decision support, scenario analysis, and investment planning for Information Technology initiatives.
• Strategic thinker with strong attention to detail and data integrity.
• Ability to challenge assumptions constructively and translate technical activity into financial insights.
• Strong collaboration and stakeholder management skills, enabling effective partnership and influence with senior IT leadership.
• Comfort managing competing priorities and supporting fast-moving initiatives.
• High accountability for deadlines, accuracy, and quality of deliverables.
• Proven ability using various BI tools.

Benefits

• Retirement program (401k and Pension).
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Lifestyle Spending Account for wellbeing activities.
• Competitive PTO plan providing five weeks of vacation for new employees.
• 11 paid holidays per year.
• Central downtown location at the Old Post Office with easy access to public transportation and award-winning rooftop views.

Pay

Salary Range: $125,825.00 - $221,275.00