Pay and Finance Specialist, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology (Temporary)

Job Description

The Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology has an outstanding opportunity for a Pay and Finance Specialist to join their team.

About this Opportunity

The Pay and Finance Specialist provides centralized oversight of financial operations and compliance within the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. Because faculty, fellows, students, and staff are funded through a complex mix of grants, clinical revenue, gifts, and institutional funds, this role ensures costing allocations are accurate, compliant with university and sponsor requirements, and aligned with departmental financial plans. This position supports the unit’s overall operations by strengthening financial controls and manages faculty efforts and grant and institutional (non-hospital funded) funding processes. Additionally, this role partners with finance, HR, and research administration teams to ensure costing/budgetary transactions support the department’s clinical, research, and educational missions while maintaining compliance and financial integrity.

This is a temporary one-year full-time day shift position located at the Financial Center in downtown Seattle. The specific work schedule will be discussed with the hiring manager.

The salary information is provided below.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Operations, Pay Accounting & Compliance (50%)

• Oversee and manage financial budgetary and costing pay operations for DLMP fellows, graduate students, and faculty.
• Oversee and process all costing allocations across budgets, grants, cost centers, and gifts, ensuring funding sources are applied correctly and proactively adjusted ahead of payroll deadlines. Collaborate with grant and finance managers to confirm allowability, resolve discrepancies, and maintain alignment with financial plans.
• Manage the complete payroll cutoff cycle, including reconciliation of in-flight transactions, validation of costing allocations, monitoring of financial workflow progress, and ensuring all actions are completed to support an accurate and timely monthly financial close for listed groups within DLMP.
• Oversee complex funding structures including split allocations, multi-grant distributions, period activity pay, graduate funding packages, and adjustments for over/underpayments.
• Provide oversight and strategic management of departmental default and holding worktags, ensuring compliance with School of Medicine financial standards, timely cleanup, and strong internal controls to safeguard financial accuracy.
• Evaluate compensation structures, including clinical compensation, supplements, and sponsored funding, to ensure compliance with UW financial policies, union agreements, sponsor regulations, and NIH salary cap requirements.
• Identify financial risks related to payroll and costing allocations; develop and implement internal controls and mitigation strategies to support compliance and reduce audit exposure.
• Review and resolve audit findings, exception reports, and error alerts; ensure discrepancies are corrected promptly and documented appropriately.

Financial Leadership, Training & Stakeholder Communication (15%)

• Provide financial training and guidance to administrators, faculty, and staff on costing allocations, compensation compliance, financial workflow processes, and internal controls.
• Serve as the primary subject-matter expert for pay compliance and costing for grants and non -hospital institutional funds, ensuring consistent communication and coordination across internal stakeholders.

Financial Analysis, Reporting & Continuous Improvement (15%)

• Analyze costing and personnel financial data to identify trends, variances, systemic issues, and process gaps including pulling and distributing payroll default, missing resource, and other miss match reports; develop and implement solutions that enhance accuracy, efficiency, and financial stewardship.
• Collaborate with Finance, HR, and Department leadership to ensure payroll processes support departmental financial strategies and long-term planning.
• Participate in or lead initiatives related to financial process improvement, compliance enhancements, and operational efficiency across the department.

Faculty Effort Management (10%)

• Provide oversight of faculty payroll and effort distribution, including maintenance of the University’s Mission Advance faculty effort-tracking system; ensure accurate alignment between payroll and funding sources, and prepare standard and ad hoc reports for leadership to support financial planning, analysis, and compliance.

Strategic Financial Support & Special Projects (10%)

• Provide