Location: Seattle,WA, USA
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The School of Public Policy & Governance has an outstanding opportunity for an Associate Director of Finance & Administration to join their team.
The Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, is dedicated to enhancing the capacity of leaders and managers in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. We are guided by our purpose to inspire public service and democratize public policy by advancing a mission of educating leaders, generating knowledge, and hosting communities to co-create solutions to pressing societal problems, driven by values of equity, service, and courage. In the spirit of public service, the Evans School's approach to policy and management education is rigorous, hands-on, and professionally relevant. Acting professionally within the school is reflected by being consistent with these values.
The Associate Director of Finance & Administration is a pivotal role within the Evans School and requires the ability to be both a strategy thought partner as well as manage the day-to-day of finance and administration, including oversight of the success of the finance and administration team. The Evans School's operating budget is supported by a variety of funding sources. All academic and many other operating expenses for the school are split between these sources (GOF, DOF, gift and fee-based funds). The Evans School has no academic departments, has very few operational costs that are aligned one-to-one with a degree program and fee-based programs and state-supported programs share costs. This creates an efficient operating environment but creates a more complex environment for the Director, Finance and Administration who must be responsible for the appropriate use of University funds.
In addition to the complexity of the School's operational and funding model, the Associate Director of Finance & Administration must also be aware of the UW's administrative, operational and human resources policies and procedures to effectively ensure proper use of fiscal resources. Not only does this position need to understand and comply with these policies, procedures and guidelines, but this position must interpret these often complicated and vague regulations in a manner that assists the School in achieving its goals timely, efficiently and with the lowest impact of bureaucracy. The wide breadth in types of funds that are administered by this position adds to the sophistication of knowledge and skills required.
POSITION DIMENSIONS AND IMPACT TO THE UNIVERSITY
The quality and effectiveness of the work of the Associate Director of Finance & Administration directly impacts the ability of the Assistant Dean, Finance and Administration of the Evans School to focus on high level strategic actions and planning activities. Reliance on the Associate Director of Finance & Administration to ensure that effective and efficient financial operations of the school are maintained allows the school's administration to advance strategically.
Additionally, quality and timely reporting from the Associate Director of Finance & Administration enables nimble responses by the school's operational managers and the school's administration to both opportunities and challenges and helps the school and the University avoid major compliance risks. This position is critical to the timely alignment of resources to operational and strategic needs of the school and is therefore critical to the success of the school which is a strategic priority for the University.
A key role for this position in the next few years is to help the School implement the UW's Workday Financial Shared Services System, initially begun in FY2024. This will include planning for future state business processes, ensuring staff understanding of shared services environment, and align policies, processes, and tools and monthly reporting. The individual in this role will need to be a change champion and end user advocate to support a successful user experience going forward.
POSITION PURPOSE
Reporting to the Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration (ADFA), Associate Director of Finance & Administration is responsible for the school's financial planning and management, budget development, monitoring, reporting, long-range forecasting, Dean's level grant and contract fiscal oversight, and policy setting regarding fiscal procedures for annual budgets across all funding sources worth approximately $25 million. This position works to integrate and rationalize the financial reporting, decision-support and forecasting systems required by the School to manage its resources.
The Associate Director of Finance & Administration performs and coordinates School wide research and financial analysis in the areas of institutional effectiveness, strategic planning and financial management. This position has a wide range of responsibilities such as financial reporting, preparing complex analyses for special projects, and providing operational assessments. Together with the ADFA, this position will develop, conduct research and analyze data for decision making and policy implementation in areas including (but not limited to) modeling and financial forecasting, resource utilization, institutional and instructional costs and productivity, and benchmarking studies. This position will also be responsible for producing regular financial reports and presentations to the ADFA and the Dean.
This position manages, supervises, and supports the team responsible for providing support for fiscal operations in the school, including budget development and the administration and financial management of state, fee based and certificate program budgets, grants and contracts, procurement, gifts, endowments, scholarships, self-sustaining activities and discretionary funds. The Director will work with the ADFA to manage this funding, and will design, develop, and oversee financial accounting and reporting systems that feed into the school's overall financial reporting.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Financial Management - 35%
Provides guidance and strategic partnering to the Assistant Dean, Finance and Administration regarding fiscal management, planning of annual budgets and operating plans that supports mission, strategic goals, and core values of the school.
Coordinates the school's internal annual budget process.
Leads the School's annual Provost Budget Submission process including the preparation, submission and management of state budget and budget revisions to the Office of Planning and Budgeting.
Maintains and improves financial reporting systems to optimize the School's ability to manage financial performance within the UW activity-based budgeting environment.
Holds budget authority and responsibility for developing and managing budget for finance and administration.
Acts as a resource for the school on university financial systems, policies, and practices.
Research and prepare budget proposals, narrative analysis and reports for expanding services and/or undertaking new projects, determine fiscal impacts and prepare budget models.
Prepares financial forecasts and leads long-range financial planning. Maintains awareness of relevant national and state trends such as on research funding and academic finances.
Provide oversight and sponsored project expertise and leadership to meet all pre- and post-award management requirements.
Lead the effective and efficient administration of sponsored projects throughout the entire life-cycle, focusing on regulatory compliance, assessment and mitigation of business risk, and enforcement of sponsor/donor and UW/Evans policies and procedures.
Oversee the delivery of high-quality, customer-focused sponsored project management services, interacting with staff and faculty to facilitate successful sponsored project planning and administration
Serve as proposal manager during periods of high proposal submission volume
Business Planning Leadership - 25%
Directs the preparation, implementation, and interpretation of business analyses for existing programs and new programs, including assessment of staffing needs, financial impact, immediate and future growth, as well as communication to stakeholders.
Provides decision support to the Dean and leaders in developing School policy and position statements. Leads business and operational planning, including projected benefits and consequences of decisions. Helps support an open communication pathway for School through one-on-one and group meetings. Contributes to the implementation and assessment of the School's strategic plan.
Designs, develops, and manages financial tracking, accounting, and reporting systems.
Manages and prepares reports for School leadership and others regarding the School. Translates complex financial data into general summaries directed toward a diverse audience.
Develops fiscal and administrative strategies for future needs of any proposed Dean's level initiatives and coordinates with departmental administrators on fiscal and administrative strategies for proposed unit-led initiatives.
Tracks and ensures compliance with federal, state and University regulations, policies and procedures related to administrative, human resources, and fiscal issues.
Provides strong leadership and supervision for the finance team, supervising two staff supporting payroll, purchasing, travel, petty cash, accounting, financial reporting, and other business activities.
Implements appropriate management methods and strategies to promote a culture of high performance, accountability, and continuous improvement; works consultatively with UW central administration as needed.
Workday Finance Leadership and Change Management - 20%
Assess and resolve issues with implementation of Workday Finance, mitigate risks, and escalate problems and risks to UWFT leadership as needed.
Lead School administrative, HR, and finance staff in shared services environment. Ensure staff are appropriately trained and prepared to complete work when the new Workday financial system is implemented.
Develop and revise policies and processes key to the success of the Workday Finance program, user experience, and School effectiveness.
Direct and lead school-wide efforts towards user acceptance and proficiency, advocate with central financial team for necessary system or other improvements, and analyze and evaluate School policies and procedures to ensure compliance, mitigate risk, and facilitate success in the new system.
Develop mastery of system and reporting functions to fulfill responsibilities for school-wide business and operational planning, financial tracking and analysis, and decision support.
Personnel management - 15%
Manage, supervise and provide leadership for the Finance team that currently support state and fee-based funds, research proposals, grants and contracts, service agreements, gifts, endowments and operating funds including reconciliation, payroll, purchasing, travel, equipment inventory, equipment insurance, and operations.
Provide leadership in research management, including setting policies, advancing professional development, and driving new staff hiring and growth.
Interview, hire, train, set goals and expectations, review and evaluate performance.
Determine appropriate training and development and where necessary disciplinary action.
Provide cross-training to ensure back-up systems are in place.
Responsible for recruitment, hiring, on-boarding, training and managing 4.0 staff
Liaison with Department HR on performance reviews and any performance management issue.
Provide excellent role-model for School values and mission; work to build a positive team.
Facilitate team meetings as well as conversations and engagement about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Provide opportunities for growth as appropriate; encourage improvement activities
Role-model professional and team behavior. Manage employee recognition
Promote strong links with School staff by encouraging attendance at staff meetings and other School-led activities and events.
Other - 5%
Organize and execute team staff meetings and trainings
Serve as backup in the absence of the Assistant Dean, Finance & Administration
Attend School and Staff meetings as well as serve on the Management Team and other committees/work groups as appropriate.
Manage administrative systems authorizations in ASTRA
Perform special projects and other related duties as needed
Lead Responsibilities:
Plan for and lead the mapping of current to future state business processes. Assess and resolve issues, mitigate risks, and escalate problems and risks to UWFT leadership as needed.
Leads the School's annual Provost Budget Submission process including the preparation, submission and management of state budget and budget revisions to the Office of Planning and Budgeting.
Leads the finance and administration team and all fiscal and admin functions, including research administration
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
Bachelor's degree in Business, Accounting, Public Administration, or related field.
Six or more years of increasingly responsible financial and administrative leadership experience in higher education, to include reporting and analyzing financial data, policy development, compliance and risk mitigation, and advising high-level decision makers.
Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Four or more years of experience in research administration, managing both pre and post award grants and contracts.
Experience with federal sponsors such as NIH, NSF and USAID as well as nonfederal sponsors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Experience with a change management project for a large-scale business operations change, e.g., enterprise resource planning (ERP) software implementation.
Excellent written and verbal communications skills.
Exceptional project management and organizational skills, and problem-solving ability.
Proven capacity to effectively manage deadlines and ensure accuracy while responding quickly and appropriately to emerging and/or urgent issues.
Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite and ability to learn new software.
Ability to supervise and lead a team of staff, as well as motivate, lead, and support the success of unit colleagues to enable School-wide success.
Demonstrated knowledge of the importance of and commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity, with emphasis on underrepresented communities.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Master's degree in Business, Accounting, Public Administration, or related field.
Three to five years of increasingly responsible financial and administrative leadership experience at the University of Washington, including utilization of the university's financial systems.
Experience with accrual accounting.
CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
This position is constantly responding to internal and external requests for information and must be able to meet critical University and other externally imposed deadlines regardless of conflicts, including conflicts with internal priorities, vital approval deadlines (such as payroll) and requests from the Assistant Dean or Dean. An open door is expected - making quick, concise and good decisions and responding courteously to questions from faculty, staff, external constituents, and students is part of the daily routine. Work will be conducted in Parrington Hall with opportunities for a hybrid work schedule. If essential needs arise, this position must be available before or after normal business hours and on weekends to accommodate meeting schedules, attend events or complete crucial tasks. The daily schedule is regularly interrupted to attend to urgent issues, respond to inquiries, advise the Assistant Dean, Dean and other leaders, assist staff and review and approve various actions (payroll, personnel, grant proposal, purchases, etc.) among other things. This position must be prepared to act on behalf of the Assistant Dean, Finance and Administration for operational and fiscal issues at any time.
Application Process: The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select Apply to this position . Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment, you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your My Jobs page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your My Jobs page to take when you are access ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.