Academic Finance Manager, Reporting and Analysis - Office of the Provost - UTK

This role is responsible for developing and maintaining comprehensive monthly reporting packages for use by the Provost to assess the performance of the colleges and academic affairs units.  Additional reports include analytical and variance analysis reports, forecasts and projections, and scenario planning and modeling.  Utilizing Power-BI and collaborating with the Institutional Research and Strategic Analysis team, this position is responsible for developing performance dashboards and graphics that “tell the story within the numbers,” and continuously work toward improvements and efficiencies in gathering, processing, analyzing, reporting, and displaying data. This position is also responsible for creating tools for the colleges, such as calculating return on investment (ROI) and trend lines, and providing various performance ratios such as expense dollars per faculty FTE or student headcount, and operating margins. 

25% - Standard Recurring Reports:

• Develop and maintain standard, recurring "monthly reporting package" of financial performance reports for each college and each Provost academic affairs unit. 
• Develop and maintain fiscal year forecasts from year-to-date actuals for each college and each Provost academic affairs unit. 
• Develop a set of comparative operating ratios (for example, $$/Faculty FTE, $$/Student FTE, personnel costs/total direct costs) for all colleges and other instructional units.

 

25% - Financial Analysis and Interpretation:

• Create analytical reports that illustrate trends for revenues, direct expenses, indirect expenses, and operating margins for each college. 
• Create variance analyses for year over year changes to budgets, year over year changes to actuals, yearly comparisons of actuals to budgets. 
• Analyze the data and produce graphic reports that "tell the story within the numbers" and what the numbers mean about the current and future performance of each college.  These explanations should be geared toward a non-financial audience, and support decision makers in developing strategy and managing university operations.

 

20% - Data Analysis and Display:

• Collaborate with the Institutional Research group to develop performance dashboards on a host of performance metrics that compare financial data to personnel data to payroll data to student data. 
• Create dynamic reporting platforms to display these relationships at the college and departmental levels. Illustrate where a college falls above or below other colleges using statistical methods and standards such as means, medians, and standard deviations.
• Create these dynamic reports using tools such as Power BI or other business intelligence and data analysis software such that they are user friendly and readily available on demand.
• Prepare presentations of data to support strategic and operational planning and decision making.

 

20% - Future-facing Planning Scenarios and Calculating Return on Investment:

• Develop comprehensive long range planning tools to allow studying "what-if" scenarios for changes in various inputs to the budget model (such as changes in enrollments, revenues, cost increases, etc.).
• Develop models that can make projections of future financial positions given particular budget drivers.
• Create tools that will calculate ROI of proposed new programs or changes in existing programs.
• Create tools that can be delivered to the college business offices for them to use to study feasibility of new programs or changes to existing programs.
• Create reports and analyses that show the limits of available resources, and conversely the level of resources required to reach a proposed goal. (In essence, create business plans and pro formas.)

 

10% - On Demand Reporting and Analysis ("other duties as assigned"):

• Do ad hoc analysis as requested and when requested by the Provost or Asst Provost for Finance.
• Support the Director of Academic Finance in their projects as requested.
• Educate the general campus community members and other non-financial managers about financial best practices and concepts.
• Continuously work toward improvements and efficiencies in gathering, processing, analyzing, reporting, and displaying data (for example, bringing in AI to provide analytical insights).

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Finance, Analytics, Accounting, Math, Statistics, Economics, or other related field of study, or 7 years’ experience in a similar position in Higher Ed or a large corporation.
• Experience: 7 years of relevant, progressively responsible work experience of which 5 years’ experience involves financial analysis, budgeting or modeli