Finance Team Manager: Independent Schools Team

Overview

This role is for a Finance Team Manager to lead an independent schools finance team in a remote, mission-driven environment.

The position reports to the Director or Senior Finance Team Managers. Location is flexible (remote). Part-time arrangements may be possible for exceptional candidates.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of analysts and finance specialists (generally teams of 2–5, with a minimum of 2).
• Deliver on people management expectations, including:
  • Train and coach staff through standard training sessions and additional support to help them meet and exceed role expectations.
  • Support staff career paths through discussion, navigation, and collaborative planning.
  • Conduct Annual Reviews and Mid Year Deep Dives for direct reports with input from colleagues and clients.
  • Address underperformance and develop PIPs as necessary.
  • Decide on staff promotion timing (with approval of the Director).
  • Create and maintain an inclusive and fair team work culture.
  • Resolve staff issues as necessary.
  • Provide upward visibility on trends.
• Ensure team client work meets quality standards by:
  • Providing project management to ensure work is completed on time with generally expected quality.
  • Supporting accounting review processes for schools and implementing team-specific quality control mechanisms to provide reasonable certainty that work meets established standards.
  • Adapting quality control processes and cadence as needed for individuals on the team while ensuring staff compliance with the standard quality control approach.
  • Problem-solve and find solutions for complex parts of the work.
• Serve as an outsourced controller for at least one school, overseeing day-to-day full-cycle accounting and compliance, including:
  • Closing the books monthly/quarterly/annually and supporting preparation of monthly financial statements.
  • Overseeing federal, state, and local grants administration.
  • Serving as the primary contact during annual financial audits and 990 preparation.
  • Supporting the annual budgeting process in partnership with School Finance Managers.
  • Liaising with a school’s state education authority (SEA) as needed.
• Contribute to continual improvement of finance service line efficiency and accuracy by:
  • Gathering information, noticing trends, and making recommendations to Directors to improve products and processes.
  • Identifying service/tools needed and addressing issues.
• Collaborate with the Director of People Operations to help optimize people operations practices and approaches.
• Participate in ongoing recruitment of new staff.
• For some managers (depending on team size and/or fewer client assignments), specializations may include overseeing changes to regional compliance and facilities accounting.

What you will accomplish

By Year 1

• Sharpen people management expertise by leading a team of accounting and finance professionals.
• Contribute to development of finance team operational changes.
• Solve small, real problems for schools on a daily basis.
• Independently manage the annual financial cycle for at least 1 school.

By Year 3

• Contribute to continual improvement of the finance service line by collaborating on internal process improvements.
• Possibly specialize in areas such as new hire onboarding and training, quality control, tool design and development, or liaising with state education agencies and/or authorizers to ensure new compliance requirements are disseminated to the whole team.
• Continue to manage a team of accounting and finance professionals.
• Continue to solve real problems, both small and large, for schools every day.

Requirements

• Experience managing teams of finance or accounting professionals.
• Strong organization and time management skills, including ability to prioritize and manage multiple responsibilities while meeting deadlines.
• High attention to detail and commitment to accuracy.
• Experience with accounting systems (e.g., QuickBooks Online) and ability to learn new systems.
• Ability to write and clearly document processes and procedures.
• Intermediate Excel skills.
• Ability to interface professionally with clients.
• Typically, 10+ years of work experience and/or post-secondary educational experience, including 3+ years of management or supervisory experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with schools or non-profit organizations.
• Audit experience.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary range for the Finance Team Manager position: $96,200–128,000/year.
• Additional perks and benefits are described in the employer’s benefits information (not included here).

Location

• Remote / location flexible.

Hiring Process

• Application Review
• First Review
• Performance Task
• Final Interviews (Behavioral, Technical, Values)
• Reference Check
• Offer