Assistant Director, Agency Financial Services

State of Washington•Thurston County – Olympia, WA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) seeks an Assistant Director of Agency Financial Services to join the OSPI team. This full-time permanent position is based in Olympia, Washington. This position will be required to be in- office 5 days per week. OSPI is the primary agency charged with overseeing public K–12 education in Washington state. Working with the state's 295 public school districts and 6 state-tribal education compact schools, OSPI allocates funding and provides tools, resources, and technical assistance so every student in Washington is provided a high-quality public education. At OSPI, we recognize that our employees are the key to the success of the agency. We are committed to our work but value the balance with our personal lives. We demonstrate our commitment to employees by providing an environment that stimulates professional growth and values them their expertise. OSPI is a great place to work and has several initiatives to help create a great working environment, including: We support a healthy work/life balance by offering flexible/alternative work schedules and mobile and telework options. (Depending on job duties and work location.) We have an Infant at Work Program that is based on long-term values of newborns and infant-parent bonding. Eligible employees who are new parents or legal guardians can bring their infant (six weeks to six months) when returning to work. (Depending on job duties and work location.) We value and are actively involved in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within OSPI by way of cross-divisional, collaborative committee. The focus of the committee includes employee engagement and education; reinforcing OSPI values; and maximizing the value of diversity and identifying strategies for inclusion. Vision: All students prepared for post-secondary pathways, careers, and civic engagement. Mission: Transform K-12 education to a system that is centered on closing opportunity gaps and is characterized by high expectations for all students and educators. We achieve this by developing equity-based policies and supports that empower educators, families, and communities. Values: Ensuring Equity, Collaboration and Service, Achieving Excellence through Continuous Improvement, Focus on the Whole Child Equity Each student, family, and community possesses strengths and cultural knowledge that benefits their peers, educators, schools. Ensuring educational equity: Goes beyond equality; it requires education leaders to examine the ways current policies and practices result in disparate outcomes for our students of color, students living in poverty, students receiving special education and English Learner services, students who identify as LGBTQ+, and highly mobile student populations. Requires education leaders to develop an understanding of historical contexts; engage students, families, and community representatives as partners in decision-making; and actively dismantle systemic barriers, replacing them with policies and practices that ensure all students have access to the instruction and support they need to succeed in our schools. The purpose of this position is to support the Director of Agency Financial Services in unit planning, staff supervision, monitoring of unit processes and procedures. The position has the authority to act on behalf of the Director in the Director’s absence. The Assistant Director directly supervises the unit’s Budget team. This position advances the Superintendent’s K–12 education vision by translating strategic goals into a financial plan and supporting its development with OSPI staff, policymakers, and education leaders. It leads a professional team in producing budget and planning analyses for agency activities funded through K–12 appropriations. The role also serves as backup leadership for the Agency Financial Services unit, including purchasing, contracts, and fiscal operations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in public policy, management, accounting, or related field; year for year related experience may substitute for a degree
Four years of experience working in a position with a primary budget focus
Minimum of two years of supervision experience in a medium-to-large organization
Ability to work cooperatively and effectively with staff
Effective verbal, written, and presentation communication skills
Must reside in the state of Washington

Nice To Haves

Advanced education in public policy, management, accounting, or related field.
Experience working with state and federal funds.
Familiarity with OFM budget and accounting systems.
Strong understanding of the Washington state legislative process.
Experience with Workday financial platform.

Responsibilities

Supervises OSPI’s Team of Budget Analysts
Assigns and organizes the work of the Budget team; Training/Onboarding of new budget staff; Reviews the team's work for accuracy; Develops annual employee Professional Development Plans (PDPs); and conducts annual employee evaluations.
Provides budget support to the programs and leads the budget team in the following ways: Prepares budget recommendations (decision packages) for submittal to the Governor and the legislature; Reviews proposed legislation for fiscal impact and prepares fiscal notes; Develops internal and external allotments for submittal to the Office of Financial Management; Monitors expenditures vs. allotments for variances and in consultation with program managers develops and monitors corrective action; Oversee maintenance and updates of information in the Salary Projection System; Reviews Personnel Action Requests (PAR’s) to ensure program budgets have sufficient resources to support the requested action; Reviews proposed contracts and purchase requests to assure budgets are sufficient to support the obligations; Responsible for managing, maintaining, and organizing the preparation and processing of all documents related to the position’s work according to state archive and records retention schedules; Responsible for central service projection and expenditure tracking for the agency and boards; Responsible for chargeback projections and tracking related to agency grant expenditures; Supports coordination of annual proviso report process; Provide technical support to internal and external stakeholders; Acts as backup to team portfolio of assignments; and Other budget development and monitoring activities as assigned.
Supports the Director of Agency Financial Services
Oversees the preparation of information for submittal to OFM such as required reports, the Activity Inventory, Budget Drivers, the Compensation Impact Model, and others as required; Collaborate with Agency Financial Resources to review and monitor apportionment balances; Reviews agency Federal Financial Reports (FFR’s) prior to submission; Oversees the submission of the agency indirect cost proposal; Coordinates agency fiscal note assignment and tracking during legislative session; Reviews and provides budget approval for agency Personnel Action Requests (PAR’s); Reviews and analyzes the Governor’s and legislative budget proposals for impact on the agency’s mission, summarizes the impact and recommends action when appropriate; Acts on behalf of the Director in their absence by making day-to-day tactical decisions as they arise for the Agency Financial Services Unit; Signs various forms and documents when the Director is absent, including but not limited to Substitute Reimbursement Requests, and Facility Use Agreements; and Makes recommendations and provides leadership support to the Director concerning the organization of Agency Financial Services, including agency Procurement and Fiscal activities.