Careers at Drexel

Job Summary

The Associate Vice President for Strategic Financial Services reports to the Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer and serves as a senior leader responsible for university-wide financial planning, modeling, budgeting, and decision support. This role provides strategic oversight of financial resources, leads the development of planning tools and reporting that inform executive decision-making, and partners with academic and administrative leadership to align resource allocation with institutional priorities. The Associate Vice President advances forecasting accuracy, strengthens financial governance, and supports execution of the University’s strategic plan through disciplined analysis, cross-functional collaboration, and operational leadership. The role also coordinates closely with Treasury on cash flow forecasting, liquidity planning, debt strategy, refinancing analysis, and related assumptions that inform the University’s operating budget, capital budget, and long-range financial plans.

Essential Functions

• Develops and maintains financial planning models, templates, and reporting tools using internal budget data and inputs from Enrollment Management, Institutional Research, Treasury, Facilities, and academic and administrative units to support forecasting, scenario analysis, and executive decision-making. 
• Integrates operating budget assumptions, capital budget priorities, enrollment and net tuition revenue trends, Treasury forecasts, debt service, liquidity considerations, and institutional priorities into enterprise financial planning models and executive decision support.
• Advises executive leadership on strategic business development and key planning issues that relate and impact the financial operations of the University; helps identify opportunities and areas for improvement within each division/college.
• Assists the University Provost and the Chief Strategy Officer with the implementation of the University’s strategic plan.
• Serves as the principal financial planning strategic leader, managing all aspects of the University’s operating and capital budget cycles, including long-range financial planning, cash flow considerations, debt capacity, liquidity, and alignment of capital priorities with institutional financial capacity.
• Partners with Treasury and Facilities to evaluate proposed capital projects, funding sources, project timing, affordability, cash flow impact, debt capacity, and alignment with long-term institutional priorities.
• Creates and implements data reports for Senior Management and creates templates and spreadsheets for division/college utilization.
• Provides strategic administration, coordination, and maintenance of all RCM operational activities and reporting, including the development and implementation of training programs to educate faculty on the RCM model and the University budget.
• Clearly communicates expectations to team members and key stakeholders, acts as a mediator between stakeholders and team members.
• Implements financial planning tools and models to assist in allocating resources required to achieve strategic goals.
• Will implement and maintain a financial shared services model for the administrative functions.
• Leads Financial Planning Analysts in all financial planning, forecasting, and analysis activities; continuously drives for improvement of forecasting accuracy.
• Creates, updates, interprets, recommends, and develops procedures necessary to ensure consistent practice and alignment with the University’s financial objectives.
• Demonstrates high-level proficiency in the RCM model, keeping abreast of continuous changes throughout the University and the higher education industry.
• Advises schools and revenue generating units on the development of optimal financial modeling while achieving mission driven strategic goals.
• Serves as the lead financial planner on the Provost Working Group, the Budget Planning & Development Committee, and any other committee needing financial support and leadership.
• Supports Board-level, executive-level, and rating agency financial materials related to operating performance, liquidity, debt, refinancing, capital planning, enrollment trends, and financial resilience initiatives.
• Provides strategic financial and budgetary oversight to the College of Medicine collaborating directly with the Dean of the College of Medicine and their financial administrators.
• Provides financial and operational guidance and support for College of Medicine third party academic partnerships.
• Support RCM modeling, zero-based budgeting and any other budget model development.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of a Bachelor's Degree in Finance or the equivalent combination of education and work experience. (Please review the Equivalency Chart for additional information.)
• Minimum of 10+ years of progressively responsible finance and leadership experience
• Demonstrated experience with long-range forecasting, scenario modeling, liquidity analysis, capital budget planning, cash flow planning, debt/refinancing analysis, and executive-level financial reporting.
• Excellent oral, written, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated experience with Responsibility Center Management (RCM) budget model
• Demonstrated proficiency in situational and change leadership, effective fiscal management, resource allocation, strategy, and planning within a dynamic university environment.
• Demonstrated experience in systems implementation.
• Subject matter expertise with working in an academic environment and knowledge of higher education operations, policies, and procedures; ability to understand the needs of the business and to develop/redesign processes to meet those needs and recommend viable solutions that impact the organization University-wide.
• Strong business and financial management skills.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• An advanced degree in a field relevant to managing Finance is preferred or a combination of a relevant undergraduate degree with 12+ years of Finance-related experience

Location

• Hybrid/Flexible Work Arrangement

Additional Information
This position is classified as Exempt, grade Q. Compensation for this grade ranges from $ 162,030.00 to $ 243,040.00 per year. Please note that the offered rate can vary based on the successful candidate’s qualifications and experience, department budget, and an internal equity review.

Applicants are encouraged to explore the Professional Staff salary structure and Compensation Guidelines & Policies for more details on Drexel’s compensation framework. For information about benefits, please review Drexel’s Benefits Brochure.

Special Instructions to the Applicant
Please make sure you upload your CV/resume and cover letter when submitting your application.

A review of applicants will begin once a suitable candidate pool is identified.

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