Manager, Media Finance

The Media Finance Manager serves as the primary point of contact for clients on all financial and billing-related matters across media campaigns. This role requires a strong foundation in Media Finance and Budget Project Management (BPM) fundamentals, with a focus on delivering financial accuracy, operational excellence, and proactive client support.

The Manager is responsible for overseeing daily financial operations across assigned accounts, including budget management, forecasting, reconciliations, client billing, accounts receivable management, vendor payments, financial reporting, accrual management, and audit support. This individual partners closely with media teams, finance leadership, vendors, offshore support teams, and clients to ensure all financial deliverables are completed accurately and on time.

The ideal candidate is highly analytical, detail-oriented, collaborative, and capable of managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced agency environment. This role also plays a critical part in identifying process improvements, mentoring Analysts, and ensuring compliance with agency and client financial procedure

Responsibilities

End-to-End Billing & Financial Management

• Oversee the full media billing lifecycle, ensuring all executed media spend is accurately reconciled, validated, approved, and billed in a timely manner
• Review and approve billing prior to client submission to ensure accuracy, compliance, and alignment with client requirements
• Pull live billing data and prepare client billing packets, reconciliations, accruals, and supporting documentation within established deadlines
• Ensure all media activity is accurately entered and reconciled within financial systems including DDS, D365, Mediaocean, PlanIt, and related platforms, while performing variance checks and validating data integrity prior to client billing submission
• Review and approve priority vendor insertion orders (IOs), ensuring alignment with approved budgets, contractual terms, and timely processing to support vendor payment and campaign execution timelines
• Manage client accruals and support month-end close deliverables
• Monitor and manage uncleared and unbilled balances, proactively identifying and resolving discrepancies prior to billing deadlines
• Coordinate with offshore support teams to manage billing workflows, reconciliations, and reporting deliverables
• Troubleshoot billing and financial system issues as they arise and escalate risks when necessary

Client Financial Management & Reporting

• Serve as the primary finance point of contact for assigned clients across all billing and financial matters
• Prepare and present weekly and monthly budget reports, variance analyses, spend projections, cash flow forecasts, and financial summaries for internal leadership and clients
• Coordinate and lead monthly client finance meetings to review billing packets, accruals, AR aging, budget pacing, and financial risks
• Partner with the OM team to analyze and review client balances

Media Reconciliation & Billing

• Oversee the end-to-end media billing and reconciliation process, ensuring all media activity is accurately matched to insertion orders and reconciled within financial systems
• Ensure invoices, accruals, reconciliations, and billing deliverables are completed accurately and submitted within established deadlines
• Monitor accounts receivable aging and partner with Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable teams to resolve billing, vendor payment, and client receipt discrepancies
• Troubleshoot billing and financial system issues as they arise and escalate concerns when necessary

Process Improvement & Compliance

• Identify workflow inefficiencies and partner with leadership to implement process improvements and operational enhancements
• Ensure compliance with agency financial policies, client procedures, system controls, and billing requirements
• Serve as a key resource for financial processes, billing compliance, and system usage across account teams

Team Leadership & Collaboration

• Manage and support Analysts by assigning priorities, reviewing work for accuracy and completeness, and ensuring deliverables are completed on time
• Partner cross-functionally with media teams, finance teams, vendors, and leadership to ensure seamless financial operations and communication
• Provide training and guidance to team members on financial procedures, reporting standards, and system processes
• Serve as the primary financial liaison to account management, media planning, and buying teams to resolve budget and billing-related issues

Audit Support

• Support client and third-party media audits by preparing documentation, reconciliations, and detailed financial support materials as needed

Qualifications

•  2+ years Media/Finance experience at a media agency is preferred
•  College Degree in Finance, Business, Accounting, or Marketing required or equivalent work experience
•  Familiarity with finance reporting tools, such as MediaOcean, DDS, PRISMA, CONTACTS, SAP, and MediaTools/Planit
•  Experience in a fast paced, client service environment; a high sense of urgency, and a positive attitude.
•  Exceptional written and oral communication skills required; with the ability to articulate clear, and concise narratives for a variety of audiences
•  Advanced use of Microsoft Excel (i.e., pivot tables, macros, vlookups, etc.)
•  Ability to work with scaled excel spreadsheets
•  Strong attention to detail focusing on accuracy of data sets, data classification, and association numerical information
•  Ability to cross-check formulas & related numbers across systems and reports
•  Ability to problem solve to develop solutions; Highly analytical
•  Strong project management skills and deadline management with reliance on collaboration across multiple teams
•  Ability to work effectively with others in a team environment as well as work effectively autonomously
•  Take ownership, communicate clearly and always look for ways to make processes more efficient
•  Experience with Media billing and/or buying/strategy is a plus