About Careertakes

👉 Important disclosure: Careertakes is a third-party recruiting platform supporting this hiring process. If selected, you will be employed directly by our client, Law Practice.

Applicants for this role may also receive access to additional matched opportunities through the Careertakes platform.

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Role Summary

Confidential Client is seeking a Financial Data Analyst based in Chicago, IL. This full-time, early-career role blends foundational accounting and financial analysis with hands-on data work. You will support financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and the development and maintenance of technical reporting solutions (SQL, Power BI, Excel) used by Finance & Accounting.

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What You’ll Do

• Prepare and distribute monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting packages to evaluate firm, practice group, client, department, and individual performance.
• Produce recurring and customized financial and operational reports for internal stakeholders and external requests.
• Support development and maintenance of the annual budget: gather assumptions, build schedules and models, consolidate submissions, and analyze proposed results.
• Assist with forecasts, budget-to-actual reporting, variance analysis, and follow-up with budget owners.
• Analyze general ledger, revenue, expense, productivity, and other financial data; investigate variances and reconcile reporting results to source systems.
• Write and execute SQL queries to extract, combine, validate, troubleshoot, and analyze financial data (SQL required).
• Gather and summarize information for surveys, RFP responses, client reporting requests, peer benchmarking, and ad hoc business questions.
• Participate in testing, data validation, documentation, and implementation of reporting enhancements, system changes, and integrations.

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Stakeholder Partnership

• Collaborate with Accounting, Billing, Financial Applications, Legal Operations, IT, and business partners to clarify requirements and deliver accurate reporting solutions.
• Work with department leaders and budget owners to collect budget information, explain report results, and resolve data or reporting questions.
• Maintain a responsive, service-oriented approach and communicate financial and technical information clearly to non-technical users.

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Tools & Reporting Systems

• Use SQL, Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, lookup functions, formulas), Power BI (or SSRS / similar BI tools), PowerPoint, and financial/ERP systems to develop and maintain reports, dashboards, and budget models.
• Create and maintain SQL queries, data extracts, reporting datasets, and recurring processes with validation and documentation.
• Support data imports/exports, interfaces, reconciliations, reporting structures, and account/expense coding quality processes.
• Troubleshoot reporting issues, identify root causes, test corrections, and help users understand results.

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Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, Business Analytics, Information Systems, Data Analytics, or a related discipline.
• 1–3 years of experience in financial analysis, accounting, budgeting, reporting, data analysis, or financial systems work preferred. Relevant internships plus professional experience will be considered.
• Required: Experience writing and executing SQL queries against relational databases to retrieve, join, filter, validate, and analyze data.
• Strong Microsoft Excel skills for analyzing large data sets.
• Experience with Power BI, SSRS, or a similar BI/reporting platform preferred.
• Experience with Aderant Expert or another financial/accounting/billing/ERP system is a plus.
• Law firm or professional services experience is preferred but not required.

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Skills & Competencies

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; ability to connect financial results to underlying data.
• High attention to detail and commitment to accurate, well-documented work.
• Ability to manage recurring deadlines while handling ad hoc requests and changing priorities.
• Clear written and verbal communication; able to explain data and financial information to varied audiences.
• Curiosity and willingness to develop deeper expertise in accounting, budgeting, SQL, reporting tools, and financial systems.
• Collaborative, service-oriented approach and sound judgment on when to resolve independently or escalate.
• Required: Use approved AI-enabled tools responsibly and effectively, consistent with organizational policies, confidentiality, and applicable laws.

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Compensation & Benefits

• For applicants in California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, and New York: annual pay range is $60,000 - $85,000. Final compensation depends on experience, skills, and internal equity.
• Eligible to participate in bonus programs subject to program terms.
• Full-time benefits typically include medical, dental, vision, elective/voluntary life/disability coverage, paid holidays, paid time off, and eligibility for the firm 401(k) plan.
• Professional development, career planning, and specialized training opportunities.

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Location & Workplace

• This position is based in Chicago, IL. You will be part of a collaborative office environment designed for both concentration and teamwork.

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Equal Opportunity & Hiring Transparency

Careertakes and our client are Equal Opportunity Employers committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind. To support a fair and efficient hiring process, AI tools may be used to assist with application review or resume screening. These tools do not replace human decision-making. Final hiring decisions are made by people.

If you have questions about how your data is used, please contact us directly.