Senior Financial Analyst

Job Summary

The role of the Senior Financial Analyst is to provide high level financial and budgetary analysis, data management and reporting to the Faculty of Applied Science, in support of strong budget management.

The Senior Financial Analyst reports to the Associate Director, Finance, and works closely with the Senior Manager, Faculty Affairs, as well as various Associate Deans, Department Heads, School Directors and Department Administrators to provide strategic financial information and support.

In the first year of this role, the focus will be on complex financial modelling and projections to capture the financial mechanisms of both short-range and long-range salaries and benefits forecasting.

A core focus will be specifically on the salaries of tenure-track faculty members, and lecturers. Knowledge of the collective agreement between UBC and the UBC Faculty Association will be cornerstone to this role.

In the second year, the focus will be to create or improve upon the existing database as well as reporting out of this information.

The resulting work will inform standardized practices, policies, workflows, along with implementation and integration of these core components of practice into the Faculty’s operational workstreams.

Must be able to deal with changing priorities and multiple deadlines. Must be able to build relationships, provide support from a client-service perspective, and support academic and departmental priorities.

Organizational Status

The Senior Financial Analyst reports to the Associate Director, Finance, in the Faculty of Applied Science. The Senior Financial Analyst is part of the finance team in the Dean’s Office providing financial leadership to the Faculty and works closely with the Finance Coordinator, providing coverage during absences and peak operational periods.

Work Performed

• Management Reporting, Financial and Budget Analysis
• Working collaboratively with the Associate Director, Finance, Associate Deans, Department Heads and Department Administrators :
• Develops and implements consistent financial and budgetary reports / systems and structures for departments and senior management that enable senior leaders to monitor the financial health of the areas in their responsibility, including quarterly financial reports, financial models, estimates, summaries of results, and variance analysis built from information from the university-wide systems
• Develops and maintains key database of all tenure-track faculty members and lecturers. The key skillsets required for this task : 1) financial modelling to merge payroll and ledger data into a customized database;
• 2) constant engagement and coordination with various stakeholders ranging from Faculty Leadership, Department Administrators, Faculty Relations Administrators, Human Resources Administrators, and Finance Administrators;

3) costing and forecasting skills to ensure accurate short-term quarterly and annual forecasts, as well as long range (>

5+ years) forecast. Data visualization skillsets would be highly complementary and relevant to this body of work.

Performs granular analysis of actual costs for the Faculty as a whole, including analysis of budget drivers such as benefit costs, faculty costs, travel costs, etc.

and sets up systems to monitor these

• Develops and maintains expert knowledge in UBC s financial systems (including Workday, Adaptive, SERA) and other relevant UBC databases (including SIS) to be able to extract and analyze data relevant to financial analysis and forecasting and to act as point of contact with department / school / centre personnel to assist in their accessing or understanding of financial reports
• Develops and implements processes that can be readily maintained and used by others to create, gather and compile financial data and estimates into meaningful financial formats to support the development of budgets and financial projections for the Faculty ensuring consistent practices between departments and within the Faculty as a whole
• With the Associate Director, Finance, guides the process and technical preparation of the quarterly forecasts and annual budget in the Faculty by providing departments with strategic, technical and practical guidance and support to enable them to prepare accurate projections and costings for the coming years in a common Faculty format.
• Supports the preparation of 5-year plans by departments, developing assumptions and guidelines for forecasting and for multiple scenarios, and useful common formats.
• In collaboration with program managers, supports the development of financial reports for external agencies such as Engineers Canada, various funders, government, and donors
• Reviews financial reports for the entire Faculty and performs comparative analysis to identify and resolve potential issues with Administrators and Department Heads
• Manages the implementation of new, UBC-initiated financial reporting systems in the Faculty of Applied Science including implementing new processes and systems, providing communication, training and assistance
• Develops projection models and analyzes data related to enrollment, curriculum, research funding, and teaching to assess the financial viability and impact of new and existing strategic initiative projects
• Performs other duties as required

Consequence of Error / Judgement

The Senior Financial Analyst must have a thorough understanding of the principles of accounting and sound financial management skills.

They are required to apply this theoretical knowledge to research the information needs of faculty management, develop structures to collect the data required, and create processes to compile the data into meaningful reporting formats which enable financial results and risks to be readily determined.

The position is required to use judgment to interpret financial information received from a variety of sources, assess financial risks and problems, and make recommendations to manage the risks and resolve financial issues.

The position must make decisions regarding non-standard or new accounting data and analytical questions.

Reports developed by this position must be correct, contain the appropriate, complete information, and present the information in a manner that enables them to be easily understood by Faculty leaders.

Errors in the information / reports prepared by this position could result in poor financial decisions by Senior Management.

If reports to funders are incorrect, this could damage the relationship with the funder, causing significant reputation losses to the Faculty and University In addition, if the information presented does not support appropriate financial monitoring, then problems could be overlooked and continue to worsen over time and thus jeopardize the financial health of the Faculty and the University.

Supervision Received

Reports to the Associate Director, Finance, Faculty of Applied Science. Is expected to work independently in a collaborative and professional environment.

Supervision Given

While no direct reports are supervised, the Senior Financial Analyst will lead working groups and virtual teams, and should have collaborative skills.

Minimum Qualifications

Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Completion of the CPA accounting program (CA, CGA or CMA). Minimum of seven years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own
• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in financial and budgetary analysis and development of financial tracking and reporting systems required.
• Experience in fund accounting, budgeting, management of accounting systems and teams is preferred.
• Experience working collaboratively with Senior Leadership and Management and other professionals.
• Experience with and ability to consolidate and interpret financial data, present findings and assist non-financial managers in understanding financial reports.
• Demonstrated experience leading teams across various levels of management.
• Extensive experience with data analysis in large ERP systems and / or large data sets is required, including demonstrated ability to build reporting tools, performance indicators and other analytical tools.

Ability to consolidate data from various sources to develop budgets and financial reports to support Senior Management decision making.

Demonstrated ability to develop appropriate and effective financial reports. Proven oral and written communication, interpersonal and organizational skills.

Must be able to deal with sensitive issues with tact and diplomacy. Advanced computer skills required. Initiative, creativity and flexibility to develop options for the resolution of complex financial issues.

Ability to work independently and within a team environment. Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines. Ability to maintain accuracy and attention to detail while maintaining an overall big picture perspective.