Chief Financial Officer

Universities of Wisconsin • Madison, WI

23h • $190,000

About The Position

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.

Requirements

• 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.

Nice To Haves

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

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

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive