Senior Financial Systems Analyst at Covista in Chicago, IL

Job description

Opportunity at a Glance The Senior Financial Systems Analyst is a highly skilled individual contributor who leads technical process improvement across the Finance systems landscape supporting Accounting and FP&A. This role serves as the primary owner of automation, data transformation, and solution design initiatives, with a strong focus on improving efficiency, reliability, and scalability across financial processes and reporting. The analyst partners closely with Accounting, FP&A, IT, and other stakeholders to identify opportunities to simplify work, reduce manual effort, and strengthen controls through better system and process design. A core philosophy for this role is Eliminate → Automate → Optimize: challenge existing processes, remove non-value-added work, automate recurring and manual activities, and continuously improve performance and user experience. This role is expected to operate with a high degree of independence, resolve ambiguity, and apply strong technical judgment to deliver practical, scalable solutions. Responsibilities Process Improvement and Automation Identify opportunities to eliminate, simplify, automate, and optimize Finance and Accounting processes across the financial systems ecosystem. Lead the design, development, and maintenance of automated workflows to support journal entries, reporting, reconciliations, and data transformation activities. Apply structured problem-solving and technical analysis to improve process efficiency, reduce manual effort, and increase solution reliability. Establish and promote development standards, documentation practices, and sustainable automation approaches that support long-term maintainability. Data Engineering and Technical Development Write, troubleshoot, and optimize SQL queries across financial systems and data sources, including Lawson SQL Server and Google BigQuery. Analyze, reverse engineer, document, and validate data structures, business logic, and reporting outputs where source processes or models are not well defined. Support report rebuilds, data validation, and analytical reporting needs across Power BI and other reporting tools. Maintain and enhance existing VBA-based solutions where appropriate, while introducing more scalable tools such as Python for data extraction, transformation, file handling, automation, API integration, and controls-related processes. Evaluate and apply emerging AI-enabled development tools and coding assistants, where appropriate, to accelerate development, improve documentation, and enhance solution delivery. Solution Design and Governance Translate business requests into well-defined technical solutions that balance user needs, control requirements, and long-term supportability. Assess request complexity, dependencies, and technical feasibility to help prioritize automation and process improvement efforts. Maintain technical documentation, solution designs, runbooks, dependencies, and change logs to support knowledge transfer and operational continuity. Partner with IT, external vendors, and business stakeholders to troubleshoot system and data issues, support implementation efforts, and resolve technical challenges. Operational Support and Backup Coverage Provide backup support for critical financial systems administration and operational activities as needed, including user access changes, month-end journal processing, key master data updates, and actuals refresh support. Help strengthen operational resilience by ensuring recurring processes are documented, scalable, and not dependent on a single resource. Performs other duties as assigned Complies with all policies and standards Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field. 5+ years experience in Financial Systems, Finance Technology, Accounting Systems, FP&A Systems, or a related technical finance support role. Hands-on experience with workflow automation tools such as Alteryx or similar platforms used for data p