Director | Financial Planning & Analysis

Gundersen Health System • Onalaska, WI

23h • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) will play a pivotal role in transforming the financial planning function into a strategic powerhouse that drives enterprise-wide performance and decision-making. This leader will be responsible for building and scaling a FP&A Center of Excellence (COE), delivering proactive, data-driven insights that empower senior leadership to make informed, agile decisions in a dynamic healthcare environment. This role goes beyond traditional budgeting and forecasting. It is about reimagining how financial planning supports operational excellence, strategic growth, and resource optimization. The Director will lead the development of integrated planning processes that align financial, strategic, and operational goals, enabling the organization to anticipate opportunities, mitigate risks, and accelerate value creation. The Director will oversee the creation of three FP&A COEs, each led by a manager, to ensure consistent, standardized, and high-quality financial support across the enterprise. These teams will serve as trusted partners to service line and functional leaders, including Chief Nursing Officers and other key stakeholders, providing actionable insights, performance benchmarking, and scenario modeling. This leader will also be responsible for enhancing the organization’s financial planning infrastructure--streamlining manual processes, implementing scalable tools, and embedding financial acumen into decision-making frameworks. The role requires a strong blend of strategic thinking, operational execution, and people leadership, with a focus on building high-performing teams and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field.
• 10+ years' experience in health care, accounting or related field, as well experience with financial planning processes.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the FP&A team as a Center of Excellence, fostering a culture of analytical rigor, innovation, and best practices in financial planning and analysis.
• Manage and develop a high-performing FP&A team, encouraging continuous learning and professional development to maintain the Center of Excellence status.
• Lead the FP&A team that manages the execution, and continuous improvement, of the long-range financial planning, annual budgeting and forecasting processes.
• Lead productivity benchmarking through establishing agreed upon improvement initiatives with operational leaders.
• Establish an integrated planning process that synchronizes strategic, financial and operational plans to achieve alignment with business strategy.
• Use planning, budgeting and forecasting to anticipate in-year decisions, mitigate risk, model and assess a range of scenarios, and reprioritize initiatives.
• Create high performing teams that produce insightful strategic decision support for the senior leadership teams including profitability and cash flow improvement; strategic planning, investment evaluation and prioritization; M&A support.
• Provide strategic financial insights and recommendations to senior leadership, enabling data-driven decision-making that aligns with Enterprise goals.
• Broaden FP&A’s scale of support for operational decisions by leading efforts to embed FP&A’s acumen into well designed decision support tools.
• Continuously enhance processes and systems within FP&A to improve efficiency, accuracy, and the quality of financial information and services provided to stakeholders.
• Steward and maintain trust in FP&A by instituting governance mechanisms for insights in routine or ad hoc business support, management reports and analysis.
• Monitor leading indicators to identify initiative delivery and operational performance gaps, drive action or alternative approaches to close.
• Establish key performance indicators and provide regular analysis and reporting on financial performance, highlighting variances and areas for improvement.
• Oversee the creation of complex financial models to evaluate business performance, support strategic initiatives, and identify growth opportunities.
• Collaborate with Finance Business Partners to support business units and ensure financial strategies are integrated with operational plans and objectives, supporting overall business success.
• Assist managers prioritize their team’s work queue of ad hoc support requests to ensure the appropriate balance between ad hoc and proactive analysis.
• Maintain all financial modeling tools used by the Finance team.
• Work collaboratively with IT and Revenue Cycle to support consistent and accurate financial information.
• Present financial information and recommendation to senior leadership.
• Stay current on industry trends, reimbursement/regulatory changes and market trends within the healthcare industry.

Benefits

• Tailored Benefits Package: We offer a comprehensive benefits package that varies based on your location. To learn more about the specific benefits available in your area, please inquire with the recruiter during the application process.
• Remote Work Opportunity: This position is eligible for hybrid work. However, candidates must be residents of Wisconsin (WI), Iowa (IA), or Minnesota (MN) at the time of hire. Candidates will ideally live within a reasonable driving distance to La Crosse or Green Bay, WI. This is not a fully remote position and will require on-site needs.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees