Associate Director Business Finance ( Deeksha Vedantu)

Location - Bangalore

Working Days: 6 Days, In Office

Key Responsibilities:

This role focuses on comprehensive revenue planning rather than cost planning, overseeing the entire conversion journey

Summary:

Mapping out the lead-to-admission pipeline, from lead generation to sales qualification, initial sales interactions, walk-ins, and finally, admissions
Strategically planning lead generation efforts and allocating the marketing budget based on conversion rates and channel-lead ROI
Integrating marketing and sales budgets to optimize resource and capital deployment
Developing and implementing course/product strategies and go-to-market (GTM) interventions
Establishing sales excellence models and performance tracking systems
Conducting root cause analysis (RCA) on planned vs. actual performance across channels, lead sources, and conversion rates (CVR) to identify and implement corrective actions
Ensuring in-depth, detailed visibility of each stage in the funnel

Responsibilities

A. Revenue, Sales & Marketing Planning (70%)

1. Annual Operating Plan (AOP) & Monthly Business Planning

• Co-own the AOP process with the Business Head, Category Leads, Sales, Marketing, and Finance — from revenue target setting and funnel assumptions to final plan sign-off.

• Break annual targets into monthly, weekly, and channel-level plans; own the cascade of targets across all stakeholders and functions.

• Run structured Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs) — tracking plan vs. actuals, identifying gaps early, and aligning corrective action owners with clear timelines.

• Maintain a live monthly planning tracker across leads, conversions, revenue, and costs — updated and shared proactively.

2. Revenue Funnel Planning & Tracking

• Own end-to-end visibility of the lead-to-revenue funnel: lead generation → marketing qualified leads (MQLs) → sales qualified leads (SQLs) → trials/demos → conversions → renewals.

• Plan lead volumes, conversion rate benchmarks, and revenue outcomes by course, category, channel, and cohort — and hold each stage of the funnel accountable.

• Build and maintain dashboards to track funnel health in real time; surface early warning signals before they translate into a revenue miss.

3. Sales & Marketing Channel Strategy & Budget Planning

• Partner with marketing leads to build channel-wise lead budgets grounded in CPL, channel CVR, and ROI — ensuring spend is performance-linked, not just historical.

• Evaluate and recommend reallocation of marketing budgets across channels — scaling high-ROI sources, rationalizing underperformers.

• Work with Sales Head to build sales productivity models: revenue target per head, funnel throughput per rep, and team sizing vs. plan.

• Integrate marketing and sales budgets into a unified revenue plan — no siloed planning.

4. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) — Plan vs. Achievement

• Lead structured RCAs whenever revenue deviates from plan — dissecting by channel, lead source, category, funnel stage, cohort, and time period.

• Translate RCA findings into corrective actions with named owners, timelines, and success metrics — not just diagnosis, but recovery planning.

• Present RCA outputs to Sales Head, Marketing Leads, Category Leads, Academics Head, and Business Head — with solutions, not just slides.

• Maintain a living tracker of open RCA actions and their status across functions.

5. Course & Category-wise Revenue Strategy

• Partner with Category Leads and the Academics Head to build course-level revenue targets, pricing strategies, and GTM intervention plans.

• Track category performance: enrollments, revenue per student, dropout rates, renewal rates, and course-level contribution margins.

• Build business cases for new course launches or pricing changes, including market sizing, competitive benchmarking, and projected ROI.

6. Performance Reporting & Business Intelligence

• Own the performance reporting cadence — daily/weekly/monthly — with clear accountability mapped to each KPI.

• Build and manage dashboards across revenue, sales productivity, marketing efficiency, and funnel health.

• Prepare crisp, insight-driven decks for Business Head and senior leadership reviews — distilling complexity into decision-ready outputs.

B. Cost, Headcount & Investment Planning (30%)

7. Headcount Planning & Resource Budgeting

• Plan and track headcount requirements across sales, marketing, and operations — aligned to revenue targets and per-head productivity benchmarks.

• Collaborate with functional heads to build hiring plans, role-level budgets, and cost-per-hire models for the AOP cycle.

• Flag headcount risks proactively — over-hiring against a revenue shortfall, or under-hiring against an aggressive plan.

8. Marketing Spend Governance & Efficiency

• Own marketing budget tracking — planned vs. actual spend by channel, campaign, and period; update in real time.

• Monitor marketing efficiency ratios (CAC, CPL, ROAS, payback period) and call out inefficiencies with recommended actions.

• Flag budget overruns or reallocation opportunities in real time — do not wait for month-end reviews.

9. Course-wise P&L Tracking

• Maintain course-level P&L visibility — revenue, direct variable costs, contribution margins, and profitability trends by cohort.

• Identify underperforming courses or categories early; propose strategic or operational interventions to course heads and BH.

• Ensure P&L data is granular, trusted, and decision-ready — not a backward-looking report, but a forward-looking signal.

10. New Investment Evaluation & ROI Tracking

• Evaluate business cases for new investments — course launches, technology tools, marketing experiments, and team expansions.

• Build financial models and ROI frameworks to support go/no-go decisions; set clear return expectations and payback timelines.

• Track post-investment outcomes vs. projections; close the loop with stakeholders and inform future investment decisions.

11. Risk Identification, Call-outs & Contingency Planning

• Proactively identify financial and operational risks across revenue and cost — and present solutions alongside the flag, not separately.

• Develop contingency plans for high-probability scenarios: demand softness, channel saturation, CAC inflation, cost overruns.

• Maintain a live risk register with impact assessments, probability ratings, and mitigation owners — reviewed at every MBR.

Qualifications

● Bachelor & Master degree from tier 1 college

● 4+ years of experience in revenue planning, growth planning , conversion/sales strategy business planning, financial analysis, or strategic planning roles.

● Strong financial modeling and data analysis skills, with experience in using advanced analytics tools and software.

● Proven track record in developing and executing business plans in a corporate environment.

● Excellent communication and presentation skills with experience presenting to senior leadership.

● Strong project management skills, with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple initiatives.

● Strategic thinker with excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.