Assistant Director
Position Type:
SOG Services
Salary Range:
$140,000
Pay range: $140,000 annual salary
Benefits-earning position
Position Summary
This position may be eligible for a hybrid work arrangement that may include a partially remote work location.
This Associate Director position will serve in a critical leadership role in the Budget, Planning, & Analysis (BP&A) department. This position will function as an analytic leader who will help foster growth in the area of financial analysis, financial modeling and forecasting, metrics, reporting, and budget development. This includes all institutional fund types - general funds, F&A or overhead receipts, institutional trust funds, grants, discretionary funds, foundations, and endowments. This position will lead and continue to mature the all-funds budget process, while providing insights and analysis to support executive decision-making and ensuring alignment with budget priorities. This position will be viewed as an analytical expert who can balance high-level financial strategy with technical expertise.
The selected candidate will be employed by the School of Government Services (SOG Services), but their work location and reporting responsibilities will be at the Budget, Planning & Analysis unit. SOG Services assists faculty and staff at the UNC School of Government in carrying out its important mission: to improve the lives of North Carolinians by engaging in practical scholarship that helps public officials and citizens understand and improve state and local government. As a nonprofit organization and an official affiliated entity of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, SOG Services also contributes to advancing UNC-Chapel Hill’s broader mission of academic excellence, research, and public service.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
50% Analysis, Modeling, and Forecasting
This position is accountable for leading the development and implementation of various moderately complex models and systems to perform campus-wide budget analysis during the development, review, and reporting periods of the annual budget cycle.
Strategic Budget Planning: Leads the institutional annual budget process through the management of trend evaluation, projection and forecast development, and critical data review of all fund types.
Fund Requests & Recommendations: Manages the evaluation of campus funding requests and provide recommendations to leadership based on comprehensive analysis and prioritization.
External Budget Requirements: Manages the expansion budget process via Office of State Budget and Management and manages analysis or review of ad hoc data requests from the UNC System Office.
Tuition & Fee Support: Provides leadership support to the Executive Director for Academic Finance during the tuition and fee process and ensures the successful implementation of approved changes into the institutional annual budget process.
Revenue Projections: Provides leadership in the growth and management of our centralized tuition projection process, appropriation projections, and all other non-general fund sources.
Technical Data Analysis: Utilizes advanced data querying and visualization tools to create budget dashboards and modeling for executive decision support.
Consultation & Support: Provides support for MCU finance leads to aid in informed financial decisions.
Data Leadership & Collaboration: Drives collaboration with key partners across campus to gain access to data for forecasting and reporting. This includes financial, human resources, and student data.
Fund Analysis & Reporting: Manages the development of regular analysis and reporting such as budget-to-actuals, historical examination of revenues and expenses, budget reduction and distribution scenario planning, and allocation model forecasting.
Technical System Leadership: Provides leadership and expertise on projects related to the growth and expansion of our budget development system and connected ERP system.
50% Special Projects
As our annual budget process continues to evolve, our budget development system continues to advance, and the demand for multifaceted planning and reporting from leadership is at the forefront, the need for financial analysis and reporting is paramount. This position will provide leadership and directive regarding the special projects that are assigned to the Financial Analysis team. The projects will involve documenting and analyzing complex issues, developing ad-hoc reporting, and providing recommendations based on the review of data. The projects will also require knowledge of all areas of the institution and expertise of the various datasets. This position will be viewed as a leader and authority on institutional and regulatory knowledge and may be asked to participate in other special initiatives as assigned by the Executive Director.
Minimum Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities):
- Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or other related disciplines, and a minimum of five years or greater related professional experience.
- Demonstrated analytical and critical thinking skills including ability to analyze large volumes of data, solve problems, find efficient way to complete tasks, and make decisions.
- Proficiency in understanding numerical relationships and trends, using tools like graphical and/or Excel dashboards to create financial projections, metrics, and other relevant information for campus partners.
- Ability to prepare and interpret financial and operational information to evaluate business performance and to support strategic business decisions.
- Operational business understanding, including the potential impact of business decisions on various situations.
- Ability to interpret and apply North Carolina General Statutes and budget legislation.
Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience:
- Proven experience in financial reporting, system integration, and data reconciliation, particularly with software such as AIM, Maximo, PeopleSoft, Sequel, IQ Query, Power BI, and/or Tableau.
- Ability to educate constituents, deliver formal presentations, summarize complex data, and communicate results with outstanding written and oral correspondence.
- Demonstrated leadership ability in people and projects.
- Knowledge of UNC System Office and Office of State Budget and Management guidelines.
Please submit: Resume, Cover Letter, and References
SOG Services is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a protected veteran.