Can Opus recruit a senior FP&A analyst in Latin America?

Opus recruits full-time Latin American finance professionals against your role profile and scorecard. For an FP&A search, define the planning cycle, systems, reporting audience and assumptions the analyst will work with. Your finance leader interviews finalists and manages the hire; Opus provides recruiting and ongoing contracts, payroll, benefits and compliance support.

Should this role be an FP&A analyst or a controller?

Use the work to decide. Forecasting, scenario analysis and actuals-versus-budget reporting point toward FP&A. Close ownership, reconciliations and accounting policy need accounting expertise and assigned approval authority. If the role combines both, assess both and confirm reviewer capacity. An FP&A title does not establish controller experience.

Can the analyst prepare reporting for our private equity sponsor?

Make sponsor reporting part of the brief if the role requires it, then verify that experience with each candidate. Name the portfolio company, data owners, reporting definitions and CFO reviewer. The analyst can prepare analysis within that scope; your authorized finance leader approves assumptions and releases the report. Confirm any cross-company access separately.

Hire a senior FP&A analyst in Latin America

An FP&A hire inside a $95 million PE-backed business

An Opus customer with $95 million in revenue and six business units hired a senior FP&A analyst to bring its forecasts and account-contribution analysis together. The assessment required an earnings bridge from inconsistent operating data and three recommendations with their underlying assumptions.

By month six, monthly reforecast turnaround fell from six business days to two, CFO board-pack preparation fell from 16 hours to four, and one-month-ahead EBITDA forecast error fell from 19% to 7%. The CFO and business-unit leaders retained approval of commercial and operating decisions. Read the anonymized case and its complete results.

Define the planning work

An FP&A analyst can maintain a forecast, compare actual results with budget, investigate changes with operating leaders and prepare scenarios for a decision. The Association for Financial Professionals' skills framework describes planning, performance reporting and analytics as FP&A work. Specify the systems and responsibilities your candidate must have used personally.

Keep close ownership and accounting judgments assigned to a qualified reviewer. If reconciliations or accounting policy are the unresolved work, start with the controller role. A combined finance role may cover both when the scope and review capacity fit. Do not assume an analyst who can explain a variance can also own the close.

A fictional sponsor-reporting intake record

The fictional record below gives the recruiter a reporting deadline and a named reviewer. This is a planning example, not an Opus placement or a promised reporting timeline. Replace the fields with your company's actual scope.

Company and reviewer: Example Components LLC, one US portfolio company. Maya, its CFO, manages the analyst and approves the report sent to the sponsor. Other portfolio companies are outside this role.
Monthly deadline: draft to Maya on business day 6; CFO-approved sponsor report due on business day 8. Maya reserves a review session on day 7.
Data owners: the controller supplies approved actuals and account mappings by day 4. The sales leader supplies order timing assumptions; the operations lead supplies planned headcount and freight inputs. The CFO owns the approved budget version.
Planning work: validate expected order timing, planned start dates and freight-rate assumptions with those owners before updating the forecast. Record each assumption's source and approval status.
Required output: an actuals-versus-budget report tied to the approved source totals, a short variance explanation separating known causes from open questions, and forecast changes for CFO review.
Escalation: if inputs are missing on day 5, send Maya the missing fields, affected conclusions and requested decision. Maya decides whether to obtain revised inputs, approve a disclosed estimate or change the reporting plan. The analyst cannot release an unapproved estimate to the sponsor.
Search fields still open: candidate screening evidence [not received]; relevant references [not received]; written provider quote and contracting arrangement [not received]; working hours and interview availability [to agree].

Turn the record into a search request

Send the completed record with your ERP or planning tool, reporting currency, working hours and approved search budget. Request evidence that each finalist has worked with operating leaders to challenge assumptions and explain forecast changes. Ask what they personally owned and who approved their work. A finance title alone does not establish sponsor-reporting experience.

Opus's published hiring process starts with a role profile and scorecard. You receive candidate profiles, scorecards and references for interviews, then choose whom to hire. Confirm the responsible contracting parties and administration scope in the written proposal. Opus's published hiring-time definitions describe the company-wide figures below; they do not establish availability for this FP&A search.

If several portfolio companies will share the analyst, resolve who sets priorities and approves access before expanding the brief. The portfolio-company hiring guide covers those decision rights.

Assess the analysis with your finance reviewer

Use the existing senior FP&A work sample and scorecard to discuss calculations, financial judgment and written recommendations. It includes a fictional dataset, an answer key and reviewer guidance. Adapt it consistently to the role and combine it with interviews and references. It is a practice resource with no validated pass score; it does not test every part of a planning role.

Bring the completed intake record to the call, including the first report the analyst will prepare and the finance leader who will review it.