Senior Finance Analysts have a lot of responsibility on their hands. They're in charge of budgeting, helping with financial planning, prepping reports, and building financial models. But on top of all of that, they're also in charge of running a team. We're exhausted just thinking about it.
Like any other leadership position, senior finance analysts have to be able to communicate to their team in order to get goals accomplished. But you also will need these skills when working alongside executive-level team members. It'll come in handy when you assist with determining the company's investment direction and other company-wide policies.
This isn't a job that you can just walk in off the street and get. You'll have to put in the time and work to get here. Experience is the key to being a senior finance analyst. Not only will you need experience as a junior-level finance analyst, but you'll also need experience as a leader.
Senior Finance Analyst Overview
Working as a Senior Finance Analyst
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior finance analyst. For example, did you know that they make an average of $42.08 an hour? That's $87,536 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 20,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Senior Finance Analyst Do
There are certain skills that many senior finance analysts have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed computer skills, analytical skills and communication skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a senior finance analyst, we found that a lot of resumes listed 23.0% of senior finance analysts included financial statements, while 5.4% of resumes included financial models, and 4.5% of resumes included business partners. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the senior finance analyst job title. But what industry to start with? Most senior finance analysts actually find jobs in the technology and finance industries.
How To Become a Senior Finance Analyst
If you're interested in becoming a senior finance analyst, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.6% of senior finance analysts have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 52.7% of senior finance analysts have master's degrees. Even though most senior finance analysts have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a senior finance analyst. When we researched the most common majors for a senior finance analyst, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on senior finance analyst resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a senior finance analyst. In fact, many senior finance analyst jobs require experience in a role such as finance analyst. Meanwhile, many senior finance analysts also have previous career experience in roles such as senior accountant or staff accountant.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Senior Finance Analyst Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of finance manager you might progress to a role such as controller eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title regional controller.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Senior Finance Analyst
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Robert Half Senior Financial Analyst Senior Financial Analyst | Robert Half Robert Half | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $83,48001/29/2021 $83,480 |
Robert Half SR. Financial Analyst SR. Financial Analyst | Robert Half Robert Half | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $90,00001/28/2021 $90,000 |
Robert Half SR. Financial Analyst SR. Financial Analyst | Robert Half Robert Half | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $90,00001/28/2021 $90,000 |
American Red Cross Senior Financial Analyst, Grant COE * Work From Home Senior Financial Analyst, Grant COE * Work From Home | American Red Cross American Red Cross | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $68,00001/28/2021 $68,000 |
Robert Half SR. Financial Analyst SR. Financial Analyst | Robert Half Robert Half | 01/26/2021 01/26/2021 | $73,04501/26/2021 $73,045 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Senior Finance Analyst Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Senior Finance Analyst. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Senior Finance Analyst Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Senior Finance Analyst resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Senior Finance Analysts
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
4. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Public
5. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
6. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Public
7. New York University
New York, NY • Private
8. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
9. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Public
10. University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN • Private
Top Skills For a Senior Finance Analyst
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 23.0% of senior finance analysts listed financial statements on their resume, but soft skills such as computer skills and analytical skills are important as well.
- Financial Statements, 23.0%
- Financial Models, 5.4%
- Business Partners, 4.5%
- Variance Analysis, 4.5%
- Special Projects, 4.3%
- Other Skills, 58.3% See All Senior Finance Analyst Skills
Best States For a Senior Finance Analyst
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior finance analyst. The best states for people in this position are New York, California, Washington, and Connecticut. Senior finance analysts make the most in New York with an average salary of $97,039. Whereas in California and Washington, they would average $95,801 and $91,164, respectively. While senior finance analysts would only make an average of $88,307 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New York
$97,040
Avg. Salary
2. California
$95,801
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$88,307
Avg. Salary
How Do Senior Finance Analyst Rate Their Jobs?
Top Senior Finance Analyst Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ senior finance analysts and discovered their number of senior finance analyst opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Amazon.com was the best, especially with an average salary of $94,952. Robert Half International follows up with an average salary of $88,812, and then comes Bank of America with an average of $96,492. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a senior finance analyst. The employers include Stryker, Molina Healthcare, and Edward Jones
Senior Finance Analyst Videos
