Financial Analyst

University of Wisconsin Madison • Madison, WI

58d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (DFMCH) — consistently ranked among the top family medicine departments nationally — is seeking a Financial Analyst to join its Financial Services team. This role supports key UW Health (UWH) and UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) financial functions, including expense reimbursement, accounts payable, operating budget coordination, and financial analysis. The position plays a critical role in supporting faculty and residents, ensuring departmental compliance, stewarding resources, and enabling data-informed decision-making.
This position is full or part-time, 80%-100%. This position may require some work to be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location. Terminal, 24 month appointment. This position has the possibility of being extended or converted to an ongoing appointment based on need and/or funding. Applicants for this position will be considered for the following titles: Financial Analyst I, Financial Analyst II. The title is determined by the experience and qualifications of the finalist.

Requirements

• Financial Analyst I Required Qualifications : Minimum 1 year of core finance/accounting experience (internships count).
• Working knowledge of sound financial practices; ability to prepare accurate schedules and resolve variances.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, lookups) and comfortable working with large datasets from enterprise systems and reporting tools.
• Experience providing front-line finance support to internal customers and partnering with cross-functional teams.
• Financial Analyst II Required Qualifications: Substantial finance/accounting experience (≥3 years) including supporting annual budget development processes, performing complex reconciliations, conducting variance and root-cause analysis, or delivering decision-support reporting.
• Strong understanding of financial workflow optimization, with a proven track record of identifying and implementing enhancements that improve efficiency and accuracy.
• Expertise in Microsoft Excel, including building and maintaining financial models and consolidating data from multiple systems.
• Knowledge of ERP, business intelligence, and AI tools.
• Experience providing front-line finance support to internal customers and partnering with cross-functional teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, Business, Information Science, or Data Analytics, or a related field; or equivalent education and relevant experience.

Nice To Haves

• Financial Analyst I Preferred Qualifications: Experience in higher education, academic medicine or healthcare setting.
• Hands-on experience with Workday and/or Oracle Fusion ERPs.
• Practical exposure to expense reimbursement and Accounts Payable.
• Budget development and support across multiple cost centers in a university or healthcare setting.
• Intermediate to Advanced Excel skills.
• Experience drafting standard operating procedures (SOPs) and micro-guides.
• Financial Analyst II Preferred Qualifications: Experience in higher education, academic medicine, or health-system finance.
• Practical experience with Workday Finance and Oracle Fusion ERPs.
• Experience supporting operating-budget cycles across multiple cost centers.
• Experience with monthly financial-statement analysis: variance by cost center/category, root-cause tagging, and targeted corrective actions.
• Advanced Excel skills, experience with analytics & dashboards, such as building and updating Power BI or Tableau views.
• Experience mentoring colleagues, developing templates and job aids, and contributing to the standardization of financial and programmatic processes across teams.
• Master’s degree – Preferred.

Responsibilities

• Financial Statement Analysis Conduct monthly variance analysis by cost center and expense category. Identify trends, recommend corrective actions, and prepare leadership summaries. Respond to UWH financial inquiries with audit-ready documentation.
• Operating Budget Coordination Collaborate with faculty and staff leaders to support the annual UWH and SMPH operating budget process. Map approved decisions to ~40 cost centers and budget categories with version control. Produce documentation for budget traceability and execution.
• Expense Reimbursement Leadership Serve as the department functional lead on UW Health (UWH) expense and accounts payable policies. Guide faculty and residents on reimbursement allowability, documentation, and exceptions. Lead processing of faculty/residency reimbursements and complex AP transactions. Maintain documentation, route approvals, and ensure proper controls. Ensure accurate coding, documentation, and policy compliance. Support implementation of AI-assisted reimbursement workflows to improve efficiency, accuracy, and compliance.
• Strategic Modernization & Continuous Improvement Partner with the DFMCH fiscal leadership to enhance processes, clarify policies, and leverage technology (Oracle, Workday, AI). Develop SOPs, guides, and training materials; monitor adoption and impact. Coordinate with SMPH and UW Health to align cross-organizational workflows. Benchmark best practices and pilot measurable improvements.
• Prepares reports, spreadsheets, and schedules with compiled financial data
• Uses statistical analysis, simulations, predictive modeling, or other methods to analyze information and develop solutions to business problems
• Processes general ledger entries in accordance with GAAP; performs GL reconciliations and complex GL account analysis
• Participates in development, maintenance, and monitoring of automated financial information systems and budgets; disseminates updates/results
• Participates in the development and implementation of financial processes; develops/provides training & instructions, timelines, reports, and recommendations for improvement
• Supports the AI-assisted reimbursement pilot (human-in-the-loop) by validating intake, flagging missing documentation or potential duplicates, reviewing coding suggestions, and summarizing results and issues for fiscal leadership.
• Maintains a concise set of key performance indicators (service, quality/controls, and cycle time) for reimbursement and AP processes; prepares monthly KPI snapshots and supports operations huddles to drive follow-up actions.
• Advances SMPH Project Agility goals by helping retire shadow trackers and spreadsheets and by drafting standard work, process maps, and job aids for faculty, residents, and staff.

Benefits

• Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits.

What This Job Offers

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