IT Budget & Operations Manager

Babson College • Wellesley, MA

3d • $101,157 - $112,397 • Remote

About The Position

The IT Budget & Operations Manager is a strategic and operational leader responsible for overseeing the financial management, administrative operations, and performance optimization of the Information Technology division. This role ensures effective stewardship of IT resources, drives transparency in budgeting and cost allocation, is the primary point of contact on legal contracts with General Counsel and Procurement. Reporting to the CIO, this position serves as a key partner in aligning IT financial strategy with institutional priorities, enabling data-driven decision-making, and maximizing the value of technology investments.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Accounting or Finance
• A minimum of 8-10 years of successful experience in finance or budget or related experience; as well as a minimum of 5 years of experience managing staff.
• Advanced knowledge of financial modeling, analytical and data gathering skills and business acumen.
• Must have excellent communication, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills and experience collaborating with senior management in a higher education setting.
• Must understand how modern, SaaS financial and budgeting systems/software are used – ideally, including some experience with Workday Financials and Adaptive Insights
• Must have experience providing timely and complete monthly financial/budget reporting.
• Must have strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills applied across problems of varying nature and scope.
• Demonstrated effectiveness in working with a diverse student body, faculty, staff and other constituents.
• Ability to create an environment where direct reports have the freedom and security to take initiative; deal with complexities with resilience, resourcefulness, and optimism; and appreciate open mindedness, creativity, and agility in thought and tactics.
• Ability to embrace ideas and changes created by all community members.
• Ability to work independently to solve problems; look for opportunities to take on responsibility; take thoughtful risks; and effectively act on new and ongoing initiatives, objectives, and solutions to gain sought-after results.
• Ability to anticipate and effectively handles change; demonstrate willingness to acquire new skills and challenging tasks; and is flexible in changing conditions.
• Must have strong computer skills including proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint)

Nice To Haves

• CPA or MBA preferred
• Higher Education financial experience preferred

Responsibilities

• Analyze financial data and create financial models for decision support; report on financial performance; and prepare for regular leadership reviews.
• Analyze past results, perform variance analysis, identify trends, and make recommendations for improvements.
• Evaluate financial performance by comparing and analyzing actual results with plans and forecasts.
• Work closely with CIO and DCIO to develop, recommend and establish strategies, plans and processes to understand and control operating expenses, identify and quantify productivity opportunities and cost efficiencies using benchmarks and other data.
• Guide the cost analysis process by establishing and enforcing policies and procedures.
• Proactively seek opportunities to improve processes based on data; identify areas of improvement by analyzing and interpreting data and making comparative analysis.
• Work with the CIO and DCIO to develop and maintain a 10-year capital budget plan; meet with all department heads in the library and IT routinely to ensure this plan is up to date.
• Work with the CIO & DCIO to develop and maintain an annual operating plan, identifying all hardware and software maintenance agreements, expected annual increases and contract renewal dates to help ensure that ITSD is on target with both actuals and projections.
• Serve as the primary point of contact between ITSD and Purchasing/Legal for new agreements or changes to existing agreements that require purchasing/legal review.
• Provide all financial management and support to all ITSD and Library teams. This would include, but not be limited to journal entry preparation and submission, opening of AP Purchase orders, processing of invoices, and facilitating transaction processing in Workday. Also responsible for invoice management, ensuring invoices are paid in a timely fashion and allocated to the correct budgets.
• Responsible for obligation requests, entries and monitoring, ensuring that ITSD is meeting financial obligations annually.
• In collaboration with the Budget Office, responsible for strategic budget analyses and forecasting to support decision-making, planning, institutional assessment, and policy formulation which includes offering sound business advice to the CIO, DCIO, and leadership team; serve as the liaison between ITSD and the Budget Office leaders, working closely on the annual budget cycle and processes for ITSD which includes budget development, budget approvals, and quarterly projections.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to IT leaders, Finance, and senior administrators, fostering strong cross-functional partnerships.
• Build dashboards and reporting to provide visibility into spend, utilization, and operational performance and deliver executive-level summaries and board-ready materials on IT financials and strategic investments.
• Perform financial analysis for leases, investigates and evaluates billing, payments, and vendor proposals.
• Identify areas for revenue savings and drive the transformation of the divisional spending plan to align with the College’s strategic initiatives and re-allocating costs accordingly.
• Manage one employee focused on IT finance and operations.
• Assume additional responsibilities as required.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, group life and long-term disability insurance, business travel accident insurance, and mental health benefits.
• Starting at 3 weeks of vacation annually, 2 weeks of sick time, 1 week of paid family illness time, 6 weeks of paid parental leave, and 12 paid holidays per year.
• Participation in a 403(b) retirement plan with mandatory employee contributions and a 4:1 employer match.
• Wellbeing programs, virtual fitness platform, and employee assistance program.

What This Job Offers

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