Sr Director Finance

First Student is North America's largest student transportation provider —   nearly   $5 billion   in revenue, 45,000 buses, and 60,000+ employees across the US and Canada, backed by EQT's infrastructure investment thesis. Recognized by TIME as one of the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2026 and by Fast Company as one of the World's Most Innovative Companies in 2025 (#6 in Transportation), we move the most precious cargo in the world safely to school every day.   The Senior Finance Director, FP&A is the VP of Finance's primary partner in leading the enterprise FP&A function — owning day-to-day execution across planning, forecasting, reporting, and analysis; consolidating financial performance across all seven regions; and producing the financial intelligence the VP, CFO, and CEO use to run the business.   First   Student   operates   with a flat leadership culture, and this role carries regular direct exposure to the CFO and CEO through financial reporting, planning discuss ions, and strategic reviews.   Beyond execution, this leader drives two transformation priorities: evolving enterprise forecasting into a system-driven, AI-enabled process, and shifting the finance team's output from financial variance reporting to KPI-based business driver analysis that connects financial outcomes to the operational decisions behind them.   REPORTING & TEAM STRUCTURE   Reports to the VP, Head of Finance, who holds enterprise accountability for FP&A, Pricing, Regional Finance,   CapEx , and Leveraged Cash Flow. Leads a team of six across three functions:   Director, FP&A   — primary analytical partner, with one Analyst and one indirect Analyst.   Finance Manager, SG&A   — HQ SG&A planning and monitoring, with one Analyst.   Finance Manager, Systems & Planning   — FP&A systems, tools, and process infrastructure, with one Analyst.   Works alongside seven Senior Regional Finance Directors and the Senior Finance Director, Pricing in a peer-level consolidation partnership.   KEY RESPONSIBILITIES   Enterprise Budgeting, Forecasting & LCF   Lead the enterprise annual budget and rolling forecast, coordinating submissions across all seven regions and HQ into a coherent plan aligned with corporate and EQT objectives.   Lead enterprise Leveraged Cash Flow (LCF) planning and forecasting in alignment with EQT's infrastructure investment framework.   Drive forecast accuracy by challenging assumptions and working with regional and HQ finance leaders to close gaps.   Forecasting Transformation   Transform First Student's forecasting into a system-driven, AI-enabled process. The contract portfolio's natural rhythm — ~two-thirds stable, one-third in active renewal — enables a two-speed approach:   System-driven, light-touch rolling forecast for the stable portfolio,   leveraging   automation and AI with minimal manual effort.   Semi-annual, human-intensive cycles during renewal season, where finance, pricing, and regional teams collaborate on assumptions, risk, and opportunity.   Shift the team's primary output from forecast maintenance to insight generation — proactively surfacing risks, opportunities, and recommendations for leadership.   Variance Analysis & KPI-Based Driver Reporting   Deliver routine P&L,   CapEx , and LCF performance reports to the VP, CFO, and CEO, and prepare Board and EQT reporting packages with driver-based executive narratives.   Lead the transition from variance-to-plan reporting to a KPI-driver framework — connecting financial outcomes to the operational metrics (retention, renewal rates, ridership, cost per bus) that caused them.   Develop and   maintain   standardized reporting templates, dashboards, and KPI frameworks across all reporting cycles.   CapEx   Planning   Lead enterprise   CapEx   planning, budgeting, and monitoring — including EV fleet expansion —   consolidating   regional submissions and tracking actuals versus plan for executive and investor reporting.   Regional Consolidation, SG&A, STIP & Pricing   Consolidate   regional P&L,   CapEx , and LCF submissions into enterprise-level views; serve as the primary HQ FP&A point of contact for planning assumptions and reporting standards.   Oversee HQ SG&A planning and monitoring; partner with functional leaders on bottom-up budgets and flag risks to plan early.   Lead STIP financial planning — target-setting, accrual modeling, and payout projections — and   maintain   accurate   accruals through forecast cycles.   Partner with the Senior Finance Director, Pricing to incorporate contract pricing and renewal retention assumptions into enterprise financial plans.   QUALIFICATIONS   The ideal candidate runs a disciplined planning and reporting cadence while improving the systems and analytics behind it — combining executive presence, technical finance judgment, and the ability to build trust across regional finance, pricing, operations, HR, and senior leadership.   Bachelor's in Finance , Accounting, Economics, or related field; MBA or CPA   strongly   preferred.   10+ years of progressive FP&A experience in a corporate or enterprise finance role within multi-site, service, contract, or transportation industries.   Proven   expertise   in enterprise financial consolidation, budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis across P&L,   CapEx , and Cash Flow.   Experience modernizing FP&A through system-driven forecasting or advanced analytics; familiarity with Anaplan, Pigment, OneStream, or similar AI-enabled planning platforms is a strong plus.   Proficiency   in SAP, Oracle, or equivalent ERP; Hyperion or comparable CPM platform; advanced Excel and financial modeling   required .   Experience with KPI-based driver variance frameworks; familiarity with SG&A planning,   CapEx , LCF modeling, and STIP financial planning.   Proven executive communication — synthesizing complex multi-region financials into clear narratives for C-suite,