Associate Director, Finance and Operations

Job Summary

The Dornsife School of Public Health (DSPH) Dean’s Office would like to invite applicants to apply for the position of Associate Director, Finance and Operations. The position requires a strong understanding of operations within the setting of an institution of higher education. The Associate Director is responsible for coordinating and monitoring the operations and administrative functions of the Dornsife School of Public Health (DSPH)’s Deans Office and will manage Dean’s Office procurement and human resources needs. Finally, the candidate will be called upon to complete special projects on a variety of topics including but not limited to yearly school space audits, ad hoc analysis of human resources data, and strategic planning for the office. The successful candidate must be a detail-oriented, organized, and creative individual with the ability to manage various projects. The position will be based at the Dornsife School of Public Health and will report to the School’s Associate Dean for Finance and Administration.

Essential Functions

• Budgeting and Finance:
  • Manage the budgeting and expense management of all funds within DSPH’s budget, including managing the yearly budgeting process with Provost Office by working with each budget manager to ensure sufficient budget support and quarterly review of budget vs actual spending across all non-grant funds.
  • Provide support, training and coverage for post-award research administration, including financial projections review, research faculty and staff quarterly effort reporting and labor redistributions, indirect cost recovery returns, summer salary and providing back up documentation to ensure compliance with funders’ financial reporting requests.

• Reporting and Analysis:
• Collecting, cleaning and sorting data and providing analysis of metrics for the school’s strategic plan, program assessment, accreditation, provost office requests and special projects.
• Develop improved processes for data collection and coordinate the creation of a data store and KPI dashboard to enable multiple sources of finance, student, faculty, staff and institutional data can be combined to provide actionable insights.
• Coordinate the creation of and deployment of school-wide surveys, including faculty activity reporting, climate survey, staff excellence award and other projects as needed.
• Liaison with other school and university offices for data acquisition and follow-up for discrepancies.

• Operations & Dean’s Office Administration:
• Manage personnel and financial information for the Dean’s Office with a high level of confidentiality.
• Manage portfolio of human resources needs for the Dean’s Office including posting/hiring of new positions and serving as a liaison between HR and the Dean’s Office staff when questions arise.
• Coordinate completion of purchasing and accounts payable processing, including purchase requisitions, consultant agreements, travel reimbursement, PCARD transactions, and vendor invoice payment for the Dean's Office operations.
• Coordinate the processing of journal entries for all funds, including year-end transfers, indirect cost recovery transfers, inter-school transactions and others as needed.
• Train, develop and support personnel regarding university, school and department policies and procedures as well as provide onboarding, systems and logistics support.
• Manage large-scale facilities projects and provide support to Dean’s Office Admin Coordinator to complete all other facilities projects, as needed.
• Serve as a stopgap to manage administrative workload when there is unexpected overflow or vacancies in departments throughout the school until other solutions are sourced.
• Serve as a partner to various central offices University-wide, ensuring collaborative and positive relationships with our colleagues.
• Evaluate areas for quality improvement or efficiencies, including the review of department volume, staffing and faculty workload.
• Serve as manager and support to Assoc Deans for yearly projects including but not limited to: University Space Audit, Dornsife Faculty survey, University Finance Access Audit, return of Indirect Cost Recovery, ASPPH accreditation process, and strategic planning.
• Conduct data analysis as requested, including crafting and deploying new surveys and aiding in organizing and presenting data collected to diverse audiences.
• Solve complex ad hoc problems that cannot be worked out at the department or center level.
• Initiate the creation of new policies and systems to streamline operations/data and adapt to new needs as the school changes and evolves.
• Works closely with and serves