Manager of Administration and Finance

Join Our Team as the Manager of Administration and Finance for the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station at Cornell University!

If you're eager to make an impact and be part of a dynamic team, then we invite you to explore this exciting opportunity with us!

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University embraces diversity and seeks candidates who will contribute to a climate that supports students, faculty, and staff of all identities and backgrounds. We strongly encourage individuals from underrepresented and/or marginalized identities to apply.

About The Department

Founded in 1879, Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (Cornell AES) is vital to New York state agriculture and food security. We contribute to healthy and resilient communities and improve the lives and well-being of people by advancing research on agriculture and food systems, the environment, applied economics, and community and individual development. 

Cornell’s world-class research farms and plant growth facilities that are managed by Cornell AES, provide the crucial support and environments needed to move critical research from concept to commercial application.  In fact, we have operations across New York State—from Ithaca to the North Country.  Through an internal grants program, we also support a research portfolio of more than 150 unique projects within three Colleges. These projects provide vital support for a broad base of critically important research that addresses local, state and national priorities – from agricultural crop and pest management to community and economic vitality.

Interested in learning more?  Check out our website: https://cals.cornell.edu/agricultural-experiment-station.

About the Opportunity

The position will complement a well-grounded, core administrative team that is professional, knowledgeable, and supportive. 

The Manager of Administration and Finance provides administrative and managerial expertise for Cornell AES and serves as the lead financial officer—coordinating and managing administrative and operational systems and processes, an annual Federal Capacity Fund budget of $6.3M, and operating budgets of more than $4.2M—each serving to provide support for administration, research farms, and plant growth facilities and their collective, ongoing success. 

Our watchwords are experimentation and innovation, and we champion a culture of sustainability.   In this light we are thinking creatively and proactively about how we manage our operations now and into the future, especially given shifting land use demands and palpable impacts from climate change at our farm operations.  Consequently, one unique aspect of this position is that a sizeable portion (15%) of position duties and responsibilities will be devoted to sustainability efforts.  These efforts encompass two categories: operational and administrative/fiscal.  Operationally, we are advancing a model that seeks to create multifunctional, climate adaptive landscapes.  Administratively and fiscally, we seek to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and long-term fiscal sustainability of Cornell AES.  There are many exciting opportunities to make an impact here.

Duties include:

• collaboration with our leadership team on the development and implementation of management strategies and strategic planning,

• partnering with our leadership and management teams to create and approve budgets, set service facility rates, manage diverse funding streams, and manage invested funds,

• conducting basic and advanced financial analyses and modeling,

• streamlining processes and systems for efficiency and effectiveness and implementing best practices,

• codeveloping, administering, and advising related to internal policies (e.g. competitive internal grants) and external policies (e.g. staffing, human resources, sponsored funding),

• managing salary plans and hiring processes,

• managing accountability and compliance reporting,

• serving as a liaison to represent Cornell AES to University units, College units, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA),

• managing and coordinating diverse business systems,

• interacting and collaborating with Cornell business officers and non-Cornell business officers (e.g. experiment station colleagues in other states, NIFA representatives),

• assisting in the planning and coordination of Cornell AES sustainability efforts,

• actively seeking professional development opportunities. 

This is a full-time po