Senior Financial Analyst

Staff - Non Union

Job Category
M&P - AAPS

Job Profile
AAPS Salaried - Accounting, Level D

Job Title
Senior Financial Analyst

Department
Finance Management | Dean's Office | Faculty of Applied Science

Compensation Range
$7,622.83 - $11,886.67 CAD Monthly
The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge, qualifications and experience for the position.

Posting End Date
November 21, 2024
Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date
May 31, 2025

This position is expected to be filled by reassignment and is included here to inform you of its vacancy at the University.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

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 Associate Deans, Department Heads and Department Administrators to provide strategic financial information and support.

A significant portion of each day will be spent dealing with complex and strategic financial and data issues. 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. This position is part of the reporting chain to the Comptroller of UBC and to the Dean of 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:

1. 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.
2. Develops key performance indicators and other dashboard indicators and metrics of risk and performance, based on available data; recommends coding and data structures to enable new measures to be developed.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Under the guidance of 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.
7. Supports the preparation of 5 year plans by departments, developing assumptions and guidelines for forecasting and for multiple scenarios, and useful common formats.
8. In collaboration with program managers, supports the development of financial reports for external agencies such as Engineers Canada, various funders, government, and donors.
9. Reviews financial reports for the entire Faculty and performs comparative analysis to identify and resolve potential issues with Administrators and Department Heads.
10. Guides and co-ordinates 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.
11. 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.

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 Faculty Management. If reports to funders are incorrect, this could damage the relationship with the funder, cause significant reputation losses to the Faculty. 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.
• 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.