What are some job titles under the umbrella of FP&A?

I am very interested in working in FP&A at a corporation, but it seems some companies don't clearly list a job as FP&A. For example, one job I found is "Project Controls Analyst", with such job functions as " Assist in the performance of the Cost Estimating and Pricing functions", and "Perform Request for Proposal (RFP) and Statement of Work (SOW) analysis, and compliance related to cost, schedule and proposal submittal."

These aren't topics which have been directly covered in my MS Finance program, so I am unsure if these types of roles fall under the umbrella of FP&A, or if they're considered a different category. What are some job titles which are definitely under the umbrella of FP&A?

 

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The role you mentioned- project controls- sounds like it's from a defense company. Project controls is very loosely tied to FP&A- it is more closely tied to accounting than anything else. My conspiracy theory is that defense companies just call these roles "finance" to attract a broader group of people. If the same or similar work was at a commercial company, it would fall to the accounting department.

From what I've seen, the FP&A title is sometimes used to describe only corporate FP&A- developing a 5 year plan, an annual operating plan, collecting variances, giving guidance that gets ultimately sent to The Street.

FP&A is also sometimes used simply to differentiate finance from accounting- so it could mean supply chain finance, IT finance, operations finance, etc etc. Those roles are mostly developing forecasts and budgets for cost centers within your group and tracking the performance to those forecasts, adjusting as necessary, providing variance analysis, and evaluating recommendations for cost savings initiatives.

Hope this helps!

 

Neither - you should read the job description. Like the above poster said, there are many types of jobs that can be labeled FP&A.

Example titles could be Financial Analyst, FP&A Analyst, Corporate Finance Analyst or Strategic Finance Analyst. Just know that without reading the job description, those jobs could all be the exact same or very, very different (i.e. corp fp&a vs. cost forecasting).

 

If you want traditional corporate FP&A, then you'll want to look for roles that mention annual operating plan, 5 year plan, taking inputs from business units/groups/other teams. Anything that relates to quarterly earnings calls, etc.

If you want just general finance roles and don't want any cloaked accounting roles in there, just avoid most defense finance and avoid roles that say "Financial systems analyst". In that title, the key word is "systems"- you'll be maintaining the data in the financial system and not really doing any of the business/analysis side.

If you are questioning the responsibilities of a job description feel free to post it to get advice!

 

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