Senior Manager, Finance

Job Summary

The Senior Manager, Finance provides strategic and operational leadership for the School’s finance services and serves as the principal finance adviser to the Dean, Executive Director and other designated School leaders on financial priorities, resource options, sustainability, scenarios and material financial risk.

The Senior Manager provides financial advice, leads a finance team, aligns team capacity with competing priorities and client needs, and ensures coordinated, responsive, and high-quality finance services. They work directly with School leaders, and resolve ambiguous and high-consequence financial, operational, control and service issues within delegated authority. The Senior Manager also connects School needs to institutional financial priorities and escalates matters requiring executive involvement.

Job Description

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Leadership and Integrated Service Delivery

• Provides leadership and accountability for the complete integrated finance service delivered within the School.

• Is accountable for the senior finance relationship with the Dean, Executive Director and other designated School leaders and maintains an appropriate governance and planning cadence.

• Develops a comprehensive understanding of School priorities, strategic context, organizational structures, financial scale, financial models, research and commercial activity, risk profile and service requirements.

• In consultation with School leaders, establishes finance priorities, workplans, performance measures and cross-coverage arrangements.

• Balances capacity across units, workstreams and financial cycles and makes transparent service trade-offs within delegated authority.

• Resolves material service and accountability issues and escalates strategically significant matters, unresolved executive-priority conflicts, cross-client impacts, significant risks and structural capacity issues to appropriate senior leader.

Strategic Financial Advice and Financial Planning

• Acts as strategic finance adviser on financial strategy, sustainability, priorities, resource options, scenarios, affordability and material risk.

• Provides authoritative financial advice on the affordability, financial implications and risks of academic programs, services, workforce plans, capital requirements, research activity, strategic initiatives, organizational change and external partnerships.

• Leads development of financial models, business cases, sensitivity analyses and multi-year projections. Presents clear options and recommendations to senior leaders.

• Advises leaders on resource-allocation options and trade-offs.

• Assesses School’s overall financial health and determines when issues have School-wide or institutional implications.

• Leads the detailed development, consolidation and monitoring of annual and multi-year budgets, staffing plans and forecasts for the School, working directly with the designated administrative or operations lead.

• Reviews complex forecasts, scenarios, business cases and financial models; challenges assumptions and considers commitments, volatility, risk and sustainability.

• Ensures approved decisions are accurately reflected in financial plans, reporting, systems and operational processes.

• Provides strategic financial advice and decision support, carefully weighing both institutional and local context.

Budgeting, Forecasting and Financial Planning

• Leads the detailed development, consolidation and monitoring of annual and multi-year budgets, staffing plans and forecasts for the School, working directly with senior leaders.

• Reviews the School’s consolidated financial position at key planning and reporting points and identifies where assumptions, commitments, risks, opportunities or variances are material.

• Identifies and communicates material assumptions, commitments, risks and opportunities.

• Identifies and advises on emerging pressures, structural risks and corrective options.

• Ensures approved budget and resource decisions are accurately reflected in financial plans.

• Coordinates School requirements with central budgeting, planning and other institutional Finance functions.

Finance Services, Reporting Controls and Risk

• Provides oversight for finance services, including applicable transactions, account administration, reconciliations, reporting, close activities, audit support and control processes.

• Ensures School’s financial information is complete, accurate, timely, validated and useful.

• Ensures appropriate financial administration, reporting, analysis and control monitoring for operating, ancillary, research, trust, endowment and capital funds, as applicable within the portfolio, and escalates material financial or compliance risk.

• Is accountable for Finance-service integrity, financial-control oversight, interpretation of financial requirements and escalation of material control, compliance, reporting or service issues.

• Coordinates School responses to internal and external audit requirements and relevant funding, regulatory and external reporting obligations.

People, Capacity and Capability Leadership

• Leads a finance team, which may include team leads or senior professionals, and establishes clear performance and accountability expectations.

• Conducts performance reviews and addresses performance, attendance, conflict and employee-relation matters within delegated authority and University requirements.

• Makes effective recommendations regarding recruitment, selection, workforce requirements, development, discipline and organization of work.

• Builds resilience through cross-training, documentation, succession planning, knowledge transfer and backup arrangements.

Continuous Improvement

• Leads major assignment-level improvements, process redesign, automation, standardization and implementation of Finance systems and service standards.

• Uses service data, control findings and client feedback to prioritize corrective action and capability improvements.

• Contributes expertise to portfolio-wide and University-wide Finance improvements, communities of practice and cross collaboration support.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• University degree in Commerce, Business Administration, Accounting, Finance or a related field.

• Professional accounting designation

• Substantial progressively responsible experience spanning financial management, planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, controls, operations and advisory services in a large or complex organization.

• Substantial experience formally managing Finance employees and demonstrated experience leading multiple teams, distinct disciplines, team leads or comparable complex workstreams.

• Demonstrated experience independently advising senior leaders, reconciling competing priorities and resolving ambiguous financial, service or control issues.

• Advanced knowledge of budgeting, forecasting, modelling, reporting, account administration, internal controls, compliance and risk management.

• Experience in a university or similarly complex environment is an asset.

• Consideration will be given to equivalent combination of education and experience.

SPECIAL SKILLS:

• Strong knowledge of financial strategy, governance, risk, organizational planning and integrated Finance service delivery.

• Advanced financial, analytical and operational judgement and ability to integrate detailed information into forward-looking advice.

• Ability to lead teams.

• Ability to influence senior leaders, reconcile competing priorities and make transparent capacity and service trade-offs.

• Excellent communication, facilitation and presentation skills for complex non-financial audiences.

• Sound judgement and ability to recognize matters requiring escalation.

• Strong client-service orientation balanced with institutional stewardship, consistency and compliance.

DECISION MAKING:

• Establishes workplans, service priorities and performance expectations and allocates capacity within teams.

• Makes broader service, capacity and financial-management decisions within delegated authority and recommends material action.

• Determines analyses, models, assumptions and financial information required to support complex senior-client decisions.

• Provides recommendations on budgets, forecasts, affordability, sustainability, resource options, risks and corrective action; authorized client leaders retain final business, staffing and resource-allocation decisions and are accountable for corrective operational action.

• Resolves significant accounting, operational, control and service issues and directs corrective action within authority.

• Interprets policy in complex circumstances and implements assignment-level process, reporting and work-practice changes within institutional frameworks.

• Makes effective recommendations concerning workforce requirements, recruitment, selection, performance, development, discipline and organization of work.

• Determines when matters require Director or other senior institutional involvement based on agreed escalation thresholds, including material risk, cross-client impact, strategic significance or unresolved priority conflict.

• May act for the designated senior leader within expressly delegated parameters. The Senior Manager may be the principal day-to-day Finance adviser and is accountable for the quality and coordination of service within the assigned area.