Senior Manager, CFO Advisory - Cost Optimization & Value Creation

Are you ready to make an impact? West Monroe is seeking a Senior Manager to lead cost optimization and value creation engagements within our growing CFO Advisory team in our Operations Excellence practice. This role is designed for a finance transformation leader who combines financial rigor, operating model expertise, analytical depth, and practical implementation experience to help CFOs and private equity sponsors deliver sustainable cost improvement. As a Senior Manager, you will lead complex cost optimization programs from diagnostic through implementation and benefits realization. You will establish defensible cost baselines, quantify opportunities, translate recommendations into executable initiatives, and build the governance required to ensure savings reach the income statement and cash flow. You will also develop our people, expand client relationships, and strengthen West Monroe's cost optimization and value creation capabilities. What you’ll do Client Delivery Lead end-to-end cost optimization and value creation engagements, including rapid diagnostics, opportunity validation, initiative design, implementation support, and benefits realization. Establish defensible cost baselines across labor, third-party spend, technology, facilities, and other operating expenses using general ledger, payroll, procurement, vendor, organizational, and operational data. Identify and quantify opportunities across workforce productivity, spans and layers, organizational simplification, shared services, outsourcing, process standardization, automation and AI, strategic sourcing, application rationalization, real estate, and discretionary spending. Distinguish sustainable structural savings from temporary reductions or timing shifts, and develop models that show gross and net savings, one-time costs, cash impact, recurring EBITDA improvement, stranded costs, and reinvestment. Translate opportunities into executable initiatives with clear owners, milestones, dependencies, decision rights, risks, and implementation requirements. Design transformation governance and benefits tracking that reconciles approved initiatives to the budget, forecast, income statement, cash flow, and management reporting. Connect cost optimization to broader finance transformation, transaction, operating model, planning, reporting, data, automation, control, and performance management priorities. Own engagement delivery across scope, budget, profitability, staffing, risk, quality, and client satisfaction while serving as a trusted advisor to CFOs, business leaders, and private equity operating partners. Apply AI, advanced analytics, process mining, and data visualization to accelerate analysis and improve outcomes while validating outputs and managing control, confidentiality, and business risk. Business Development and client growth Build and expand executive relationships with CFOs, finance leaders, transformation executives, business unit leaders, and private equity operating partners. Identify and shape follow-on opportunities across finance transformation, operating model redesign, shared services, automation, performance management, procurement, technology rationalization, and implementation support. Lead or support proposals, statements of work, solution design, pricing, and executive presentations that balance measurable client value with strong engagement economics. Contribute market-facing thought leadership on enterprise cost optimization, finance-led value creation, productivity, and the role of AI in reshaping the cost base. Practice and People Leadership Develop and maintain cost optimization methodologies, cost taxonomies, baseline models, benchmark interpretation guides, opportunity libraries, business case tools, benefits tracking models, and implementation playbooks. Lead, coach, and mentor Managers, Senior Consultants, and Consultants, providing hands-on quality review and clear feedback on analyses, deliverables, business cases, and client communications. Serve as a Career Advisor and actively participate in performance management, recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, and capability development. Collaborate across Operations Excellence, Technology and Experience, Mergers and Acquisitions, Organization and People, Data and AI, procurement, and industry teams to deliver integrated solutions. What you'll bring Required qualifications Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, business, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience. 10+ years of experience in cost optimization, performance improvement, finance transformation, restructuring, or value creation, including substantial client-facing consulting experience. Demonstrated leadership of multiple material cost optimization programs from baseline development and opportunity validation through implementation and benefits realization. Experience advising CFOs, finance executives, business leaders, or private equity operating partners on difficult cost, organization, service delivery, and investment decisions. Strong understanding of financial statements, budgeting, forecasting, cost accounting, and business cases that distinguish gross and net savings, one-time costs, cash impact, stranded costs, and reinvestment. Experience analyzing general ledger, payroll, procurement, vendor, organizational, and operational data, with fluency in cost and productivity benchmarks and the judgment to recognize when a benchmark is misleading. Practical experience in at least four areas such as workforce optimization, spans and layers, shared services, process automation, strategic sourcing, technology rationalization, zero-based budgeting, transaction support, and benefits realization. Experience advising mid-market and private equity-backed organizations, with the ability to scale solutions to businesses with approximately $200 million to $2 billion in revenue. Proven success leading complex eng