Job Abstract

The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (A&S) seeks applicants for a Finance Manager to work closely with one of the A&S divisions as part of a Divisional Resource Team (DRT) that will expand the administrative capacity of the departments in that division and support their success. The DRTs are part of the Dean’s vision for engaging, developing, and recognizing staff’s critical role in achieving Arts & Sciences’ mission and strategic priorities. Inaugural members of the DRTs will have an exciting opportunity to shape the future of A&S and contribute to developing a collegial, creative, and service-oriented culture. Three positions are available: one for each of A&S’s three divisions (Sciences, Social Sciences, or Humanities). 

Under the leadership of the Divisional Resource Team Director and in close coordination with the Dean’s Office Budget & Finance team, the Finance Manager will lead the finance and budget services for a team that works closely with Department Managers, Department Chairs, Program/Center Directors, and Department teams in the assigned division.

The Finance Manager will be responsible for:

Identifying and implementing high-impact opportunities for the DRTs to support departments’ financial and administrative operations.

Improving turnaround times for approvals by serving as Finance Approver for all items within the assigned division, and by facilitating coverage of other approvals, such as account certification and expenses approval, especially P2P approval.

Providing departments with coverage and backup support, to include:

• Assigning and/or directly providing temporary support to cover vacancies and PTO in department finance roles,

• Overseeing back-up coverage of tasks such as entering payroll costing allocations, period activity pays, payroll accounting adjustments, temporary employee hires and wage payments for students.

Providing supportive oversight of financial planning, forecasting, and analysis within the assigned division, to include:

• Developing, rolling-out, and continuously monitoring a process and/or checklist(s) to ensure that the departments are consistently distributing financial reports for their area’s funding sources at the appropriate level which could be to the individual faculty member.

• Monitoring chart of account use (FDM) to ensure that departments are maintaining consistency and budget alignment in their use of the FDM.

• Monitoring for and resolving deficits and suspense.

• Disseminating information to departmental faculty and staff as needed, in coordination with other divisions to ensure consistent messaging.

• Reviewing Smartsheet and Fund Balance Extension requests to ensure that necessary information and documentation is provided to enable a smooth workflow of approvals.

• Supporting the use of University systems, Workday HCM, Finance, and Adaptive, rather than shadow systems.

• Developing staff with financial responsibilities in the division by creating and delivering training, professional development opportunities, and one-on-one support.

Supervising finance staff on the DRT, which may include Finance Generalists or Fiscal Technicians.

Serving as an advisor and resource for the Divisional Associate Dean and for dean’s office budget and finance colleagues in areas that include strategic budgetary projects, annual budget and quarterly forecast development, trend analysis, and more.

Representing the division at University and School meetings, advocating for system and policy improvement in service of effective and efficient operations in departments, and communicating critical information from departments up through the school and university and vice versa.

Attend University and School meetings such as the Department Manager meetings and the Fiscal Administrators meetings and coordinate within the divisional resource team to proactively spread the information presented to those within the division.

Collaborating and coordinating with Finance Managers in other divisions to provide responsive, consistent support across divisions and serving as back-up for each other to provide continuity during Divisional Resource Team vacancies and PTO.

Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Requirements

Education: Bachelor's degree in relevant subject
Experience: At least seven years of experience in a financial discipline, likely with supervisory experience. 11 years of relevant/finance experience accepted in lieu of degree.
Licensure: May hold CPA or other advanced financial certification.

Preferred skills and qualifications:

• Ability to synthesize financial information and provide sound advice to researchers, administrators, faculty, and department managers.

• Excellent oral and written communication in daily interactions, and proven ability to clearly articulate specific information in area of subject matter expertise.

• Experience in Arts & Sciences, preferably in finance or budget role, such as department manager.

• Knowledge of reporting and cloud-based enterprise-wide budget systems within a higher education environment strongly preferred; deep familiarity with UVA financial systems,  such as Workday HCM and Adaptive is a plus.

• Orientation toward service and problem-solving, with strong commitment to creating healthy culture and connections between the departments and the Dean’s Office.

• Supportive manager comfortable with direct supervision and with managing by influence.

• Ability to work collegially and effectively with colleagues in different roles at all positions on the org chart.

• Comfortable leading the development of services, structures, and processes AND pitching in to help get the job done when needed

• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

• Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook), and at least Intermediate-level skills in Excel are required. Knowledge of RCM is a plus.

• Ability to query, run reports, use databases systems, and/or automate spreadsheet systems.

• Knowledge and experience in applying data analytics is a plus.

This position will not sponsor applicants for work visas. The University will perform background checks on all new hires prior to employment.

This position will be eligible for a hybrid work schedule, with the expectation of regular in-person presence on Grounds with the option of 1-2 days per week of remote work. The particulars of the schedule will be determined in consultation with the Divisional Resource Team Director.

This is an Exempt level, benefited position. For more information on the benefits at UVA, visit hr.virginia.edu/benefits.

Application Instructions: Apply Now. Internal applicants must apply through their UVA Workday profile, search Find Jobs and then R0061329. Complete an application online and include the following documents:

• A CV/resume

• A cover letter. If you have a preference for a position in a particular Division (Sciences, Social Sciences, or Humanities), please note that preference in your cover letter.

Upload all materials into the resume submission field, multiple documents can be submitted into this one field. Alternatively, merge all documents into one PDF for submission. Applications that do not contain all required documents will not receive consideration.

References will be completed via UVA’s standardized process Skill Survey. A total of five references will be requested via SkillSurvey during the final phase of the interview process.

For additional information about the position, please contact Debbie White, Director of Staff Affairs, at daw2jb@virginia.edu. For additional information about the position, please contact Kerry Grannis, Arts & Sciences Chief of Staff and Associate Dean. For questions about the application process, please contact Melanie Sponaugle, Academic Recruiter, at unw5dq@virginia.edu.

There is the option for in person, hybrid or remote work for this position.

For more information about UVA and the Charlottesville community please see http://www.virginia.edu/life/charlottesville and https://embarkcva.com/.

Physical Demands
This is primarily a sedentary job involving extensive use of desktop computers. The job does occasionally require traveling some distance to attend meetings, and programs.

The University of Virginia, including the UVA Health System which represents the UVA Medical Center, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, UVA Physician’s Group and the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, are fundamentally committed to the diversity of our faculty and staff.  We believe diversity is excellence expressing itself through every person's perspectives and lived experiences.  We are equal opportunity and affirmative action employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, veteran status, and family medical or genetic information.