Chief Financial Officer

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Employment Type:

Job Profile:

Job Summary:

The University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education is seeking a strategic and forward-thinking financial leader to serve as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The CFO is the senior administrator responsible for the School’s overall financial operations, including budgeting, financial reporting, stewardship of educational gift, and research funds, managing financial relationships with UW–Madison and external partners, and ensuring accurate, timely accounting across all cost centers, accounts, and funds. 

Reporting directly to the Dean of the School of Education, the CFO serves as a key member of the Dean’s Leadership Team. In this role, the CFO offers strategic guidance and financial decision-making support, collaborating closely with School leadership—department chairs, directors, and campus partners under the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, including the Madison Budget Office, the Division of Business Services, to advance financial and administrative strategies aligned with the School’s mission and priorities. The CFO is  an innovative financial leader who can forecast various financial tracks as well as support the development of plans and strategies to generate new revenue streams. This will require knowledge of complex budget approaches in the changing landscape of higher education. 

The School of Education is a multifaceted organization that includes a wide range of academic, outreach, research, and administrative units. The successful candidate will demonstrate a strong record of leadership, effective communication, exceptional writing and presentation skills, and the ability to build and support high performing teams. Candidates must also show sound judgment, discretion, and a proven capacity for creative problem-solving.

The CFO will lead a team supporting more than 20 academic departments, units, and centers. This position has responsibility for a school-wide budget of more than $240 million in annual expenditures and oversight of over 750 FTE.

Key Job Responsibilities:

• Exercises supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees

• Directs strategic planning initiatives and establishes objectives for multiple finance functional areas to ensure appropriate use of financial, administrative, and staffing resources and alignment with the strategic plan

• Participates in the development, maintenance, and monitoring of automated financial information systems and budgets, and disseminates updates and results to leadership when appropriate

• Determines personnel needs and the personnel resource allocation plan

• Serves as a divisional representative and subject matter expert to institutional leadership and internal and external stakeholders providing financial direction and information, fostering collaborative relationships across multiple functional areas, and representing the interests of the division

• Oversees, reviews, develops, recommends, and implements policies and procedures for internal and external financial reporting, budgeting and financial operations

Department:

School of Education / Dean's Office

Compensation:

Minimum: $190,000

Commensurate with qualifications and experience. This position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax-advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum of eight years of progressive financial leadership experience working in business services related units, including budgeting, finance or human resources.

• Experience managing teams and supervising staff.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Five years of strategic financial management experience within a higher education institution is preferred

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree required preferably in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration or related field

How to Apply:

Please go to the “Apply Now” area and select your current UW Employment Status. Upload a copy of your current resume and a cover letter.  

Note:  There is one area to upload all documents in the application portal, but you can upload multiple documents for your application. Incomplete application packages that do not include all of the requested documentation will not be considered.

Contact Information:

Tianwei Miller

HR Manager

twmiller2@wisc.edu

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment. 
 
The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7). 
 
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