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Department

Compensation Range

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Posting End Date

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career. 

Job Summary
This position is responsible for managing high level financial and budgetary analysis and reporting for VP Finance & Operations (VPFO). This position will provide direction and expertise on budget management and financial processing for the VPFO.  The portfolio provides university-wide services ranging from facilities operations, financial services, budgeting & planning to safety and risk with a combined operating budget of over $240M annually. 

For the VPFO portfolio, this position is primarily responsible for providing financial decision support, advice, tools and reports to directors and budget managers; development of unit level individual budgets; financial modeling; sensitivity analysis for financial planning beyond the budget period, conducting financial analyses in respect of revenues; assessing existing financial systems and recommending and implementing changes; and developing / supporting financial processes. This position plays a significant role in supporting the business partners with strategic financial management.  

The Finance Manager reports to the Associate Director, Facilities Finance, and works closely with Unit and Department directors, managers and administrators to provide strategic financial information and support.

Manages complex and strategic financial and data issues. Must be able to deal with changing priorities and multiple deadlines. Must be able to build relationships and work collaboratively to provide support for academic and departmental priorities.

Organizational Status
The Finance Manager reports to the Associate Director, Facilities Finance. He/She works closely with Unit and Department directors, managers and administrators to provide strategic financial information and support, and is part of a finance team providing financial leadership to the Portfolio. He/She works independently or in collaboration with the Finance Managers, the Portfolio Finance Director and other portfolio executives, directors, managers, and staff.

Work Performed

• Working collaboratively with the Finance Directors, Unit and Department directors, managers and administrators:
• Provides strategic advice and guidance to departments, managers and senior leadership within the Finance & Operations portfolio (VPFO)
• Develops and implements consistent financial and budgetary reports/systems and structures for all the departments within the Finance & Operations portfolio (VPFO) that enable the Leadership Team and Department Directors to monitor the financial health of the areas in their responsibility, including quarterly financial reports, financial models, estimates, summaries of results, and variance analysis built from information from the university-wide systems.
• Develops and implements processes that can be readily maintained and used by others to create, gather and compile financial data and estimates into meaningful financial formats to support the development of budgets and financial projections for the portfolio ensuring consistent practices between departments and within the VP Portfolio as a whole.
• Manages complex and strategic financial and data issues while dealing with changing priorities and multiple deadlines.
• Builds relationships and works collaboratively to provide support for academic and departmental priorities.
• Performs granular analysis of actual costs for the VP Portfolio as a whole, including analysis of budget drivers such as salary and benefit costs, vacancy savings, travel costs, etc. and sets up systems to monitor these.
• Reviews financial reports for assigned departments within the Portfolio to identify potential issues and works to resolve issues with directors and administrators.
• Develops and maintains expert knowledge in UBC s financial systems and other relevant UBC databases to be able to extract and analyze data relevant to financial analysis and forecasting and to act as a point of contact with department personnel to assist in their accessing or understanding of financial reports.
• Leads the process and technical preparation of the quarterly forecasts and annual budget in the assigned units by providing departments with strategic, technical and practical guidance and support to enable them to prepare accurate projections for upcoming years in a common VP Portfolio format.
• Supports the preparation of 5-year plans by department, developing assumptions and guidelines for forecasting and for multiple scenarios, and useful common formats.
• Builds financial models as required to assess the financial viability and impact of new and existing strategic initiatives. Involved in the development of business plans for new programs and activities.
• Provides advice, direction and guidance concerning budget, accounting and financial matters, accounting policy interpretation and sound business practices; advising on financial implications of various planning options
• Participates in business process analysis, documenting process flows and facilitating workshops to elicit improvement, and in training in new systems and structures.
• Manages and co-ordinates the implementation of new, UBC-initiated financial reporting including implementing new processes and systems, providing communication, training and assistance.
• Represents the VPFO at University working committees related to financial, budgeting and accounting systems.
• Oversees the preparation of quarterly variance reporting and KPI summaries for the assigned units.
• Manages key operational processes within assigned units including internal and external customer billing, receipt of funds and account reviews.  Oversees a team focused on providing technology-driven solutions to client billing.
• Manages day-to-day financial operations across facilities finance and the broader portfolio.
• Undertakes special projects at the request of the Finance Director
  

Consequence of Error/Judgement
The Finance Manager must have a thorough understanding of the principles of accounting and sound financial management skills. They are required to apply this theoretical knowledge to research the information needs of management, develop structures to collect the data required, and create processes to compile the data into meaningful reporting formats which enable financial results and risks to be readily determined. The position is required to use judgment to interpret financial information received from a variety of sources, assess financial risks and problems, and make recommendations to manage the risks and resolve financial issues.

The position must make decisions regarding non-standard or new accounting data and analytical questions.

Reports developed by this position must be correct, contain the appropriate, complete information, and present the information in a manner that enables them to be easily understood by leadership. Errors in the information/reports prepared by this position could result in poor financial decisions by Senior Portfolio Management. In addition, if the information presented does not support appropriate financial monitoring, then problems could be overlooked and continue to worsen over time and thus jeopardize the financial health of the portfolio and the university.

Supervision Received
Works independently with latitude to make decisions on policy, process and procedure under general direction in a collaborative and professional environment.

Supervision Given
Manages a team of both M&P and CUPE staff. Performs annual performance evaluations of all team members.  The incumbent will also lead working groups and virtual teams, and should have collaborative skills.

Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Completion of the CPA accounting program (CA, CGA or CMA). Minimum of seven years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in financial and budgetary analysis and development of financial tracking and reporting systems required. Experience in post-secondary education preferred. Experience in fund accounting, budgeting, management of accounting systems and teams is preferred. Experience working collaboratively with senior leadership and management and other professionals. Experience with and ability to consolidate and interpret financial data, present findings and assist non-financial managers in understanding financial reports. Extensive experience with data analysis in large ERP systems and/or large data sets is required, including demonstrated ability to build reporting tools, performance indicators and other analytical tools. Ability to consolidate data from various sources to develop budgets and financial reports to support senior management decision making. Demonstrated ability to develop appropriate and effective financial reports. Proven oral and written communication, interpersonal and organizational skills. Must be able to deal with sensitive issues with tact and diplomacy. Advanced computer skills required. Initiative, creativity and flexibility to develop options for the resolution of complex financial issues. Ability to work independently and within a team environment. Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines. Ability to maintain accuracy and attention to detail while maintaining an overall big picture perspective.