What is a senior finance analyst and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted expert

Erik Johnson Ph.D.

A senior finance analyst specializes in financial analysis, reporting, forecasting, and budgeting. They are responsible for analyzing financial data to identify trends and make recommendations to management. A senior finance analyst typically has several years of experience in finance or accounting and holds a bachelor's or master's degree in finance, accounting, or a related field. They work closely with other departments, such as sales, marketing, and operations, to provide financial insights and support decision-making.

What general advice would you give to a senior finance analyst?

Erik Johnson Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Economics, Carthage College

Economics gives you a set of tools to analyze a variety of policy and business problems. However, determining which tools to apply in which situation requires that you learn the industry, you are working from top to bottom. When you begin a new job in a new field, be sure to do everything you can to understand how the organization and the industry work to understand the primary incentives that everyone faces. One right way to do this is to make as many connections within the company you are working for as possible, and always be on the lookout for new opportunities within the company and how they can help you learn more. Moreover, do your best to ensure that a significant portion of your job involves some creative endeavors, such as economic modeling or building tools for yourself or others to use. As computing power continues to become cheaper, and artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, relatively repetitive tasks become more comfortable and easier to automate. Therefore, you will have less job security. Creative tasks, such as modeling and tool building, are difficult to automate and are more likely to provide you with more satisfaction.

ScoreSenior Finance AnalystUS Average

Salary

6.5

Avg. Salary $83,222

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.8

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.10%

Asian 14.09%

Black or African American 5.64%

Hispanic or Latino 7.67%

Unknown 4.50%

White 68.00%

Gender

female 38.25%

male 61.75%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

5.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a senior finance analyst?

Pros

Exposure to senior management and decision-making
Opportunity to work with a diverse range of stakeholders
Opportunities for networking and professional development
Potential to work in various industries and sectors
Possibility of working remotely or having flexible working hours

Cons

Constant need to stay up-to-date with industry developments and regulations
Potential for conflicts with other departments or stakeholders
Need to maintain a high level of accuracy in financial analysis and reporting
Responsibility for making important financial decisions with potential risks involved
Possibility of facing ethical dilemmas or conflicts of interest

Key steps to become a senior finance analyst

Explore senior finance analyst education requirements

Most common senior finance analyst degrees

Bachelor's

73.9 %

Master's

21.6 %

Associate

3.2 %

Start to develop specific senior finance analyst skills

Skills	Percentages
Financial Analysis	11.77%
Hyperion	5.24%
Financial Models	5.03%
Strong Analytical	4.29%
Variance Analysis	3.82%

Complete relevant senior finance analyst training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior finance analysts learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior finance analyst based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior finance analyst resumes.

Research senior finance analyst duties and responsibilities

Used SharePoint repository to manage all project documents.
Manage deployment of SQL databases across multiple platforms within a secure environment focusing on security and data integrity.
Leverage and improve key performance indicators to drive portfolio management to core business team leads and executive sponsors.
Develop, maintain financial models/applications (VBA Excel/Access) to automate and streamline business processes and perform financial analysis.

Get senior finance analyst experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior finance analyst. The most common roles before becoming a senior finance analyst include finance analyst, senior accountant team lead and staff accountant.

Prepare your senior finance analyst resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior finance analyst resume.

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