Manager, Corporate Planning

Algonquin College•Ottawa, ON

4d•CA$106,420 - CA$141,892•Hybrid

About The Position

The Manager, Corporate Planning leads a team to provide primary support to the budgeting, long-term financial forecasting, and scenario planning for the College, while ensuring alignment with the College’s Strategic and Business Plans. The role oversees the annual budgeting process end-to-end, including the development of pro-forma budgets, financial assumptions, multiple scenarios, and consolidation of departmental budgets. The incumbent also leads the preparation of quarterly forecasts and reporting, providing analysis and insights to explain the variances against the approved annual budget. The position also plays a critical role in managing and allocating funding for Strategic Investment Priorities (SIP) projects, maintaining a strong alignment between strategic initiatives and financial plans, and ensuring accurate, timely reporting to senior leadership and governance bodies. The role is responsible for consolidating input from stakeholders across the organization to develop the annual Five-Year Capital Investment Report for the Board of Governors, as well as providing ongoing updates on approved major capital projects through the preparation of the quarterly Major Capital Project reports. In addition, the incumbent provides expert guidance to budget holders across the College by providing policy interpretation, financial insights, and direction on budget preparation. The incumbent also leads the strategic oversight of the College’s Workday Adaptive Planning platform ensuring it effectively supports financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes while aligning with business objectives. The Manager collaborates with business stakeholders to optimize system performance, enhance data integrity and improve user experience, and leads the Adaptive Planning Advisory Group as part of the system’s governance framework. Overall, the role combines financial leadership, strategic planning, system governance, and stakeholder engagement to ensure robust financial management and informed decision-making across the College.

Requirements

Minimum four (4) year degree in Business, Finance or other related field
Incumbent must possess a Chartered Professional Accounting designation (CPA).
Minimum of nine (9) years of progressively responsible experience including financial planning, forecasting, general ledger, etc.
Experience operating in an environment following the Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards for Government Not-for-Profit Organizations (PSAS).
Experience with financial planning processes (budgeting, forecasting, scenario modeling).
Experience/expertise operating in an ERP financial information system.
Experience and demonstrated ability to provide fiscally sound guidance and advice to budget holders and committees.
Experience organizing a heavy workload, setting priorities, and meeting numerous competing non-negotiable deadlines.
Excellent understanding of corporate structure, governance, and financial policies.
Expert knowledge and experience in corporate budgeting and financial accounting systems/processes and their proper functioning.
Expert knowledge of cash flow budgeting and Public Sector Accounting Standards.
Demonstrated experience with web-based financial information systems.
Demonstrated leadership ability and project management skills.
Advanced Excel skills to aid in the preparation of complex budget documents, as well as to perform variance analysis and statistical reporting.
Prior work experience in the public sector, or not-for-profit sector.
Effective oral and written communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to influence others to achieve College goals.
Highly organized and self-directed.
Collaborative management style.
Demonstrated ability to lead a team, as well as an ability to work independently with minimal supervision.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with Workday Adaptive Planning considered an asset.

Responsibilities

Coordinates the preparation of and maintains the pro-forma operating budget of the College, and the Strategic Investment Priorities budget, as well as the quarterly review process for all corporate level budgets; Communicates, schedules, and coordinates the submission of all budget documents to the College community to ensure that budget submission materials are received in advance of submission deadlines; Assists budget holders by providing interpretation, information, and direction in the budget preparation process; Liaises with departments on a scheduled basis to communicate budget directions, impact of strategic plans on budgets, and to review related budget documents; Develops budget models and tools to advance college budgeting processes while keeping apprised of “best practices” in the industry; Maintains current information on the budgeting process through the appropriate communication channels; Prepares financial forecasts and scenario analysis in the context of College Strategic and Business Plans.
Serves as the primary owner and subject matter expert for Workday Adaptive Planning; Responsible for strategic oversight, maintenance, and continuous improvement of the organization’s Workday Adaptive Planning platform; Manages systems configuration, security roles, access controls and environment integrity; Identifies opportunities to streamline processes, improve system functionality, and enhance user efficiency; Oversees Workday Adaptive Planning user training, documentation and support materials to drive adoption; Acts as the primary liaison between Finance, the Information Technology Services team and other business units including leading the Adaptive Planning Advisory Group for the College.
Prepares comprehensive budget documents and reports for presentation to College committees including the Algonquin College Executive Team, Audit and Risk Management Committee and the Board of Governors; Maintains and reports on multi-year Strategic Investment Priorities budgets and financial performance, including preparation of quarterly Major Capital Projects reports for the Audit and Risk Management Committee and Board of Governors; Coordinate and support the development of the College’s Five-Year Capital Investment Report, ensuring accuracy, alignment, and completeness of financial data; Develop and deliver ad hoc financial analysis to support decision-making, as required.
Ensures financial data of the College’s Strategic Investment Priorities is recorded accurately and in a timely manner within the financial reporting systems; Ensures revenues and expenses are properly recognized in accordance with the accrual method of accounting, and that approved multi-year budgets are tracked and reported; Reviews financial results to identify the causes of significant budget variances and collaborates with project managers and their teams to resolve discrepancies and correct errors if required; Maintains regular communication with project managers and their teams to provide budget direction, discuss plans and review budget documentation; Provides required data and analysis to support the College’s audit processes as required; Supports additional Finance and Administrative Services deliverables as needed.
Participates in, and contributes to the effective recruiting, selecting, developing, motivating, and training of college staff who are responsible for budget preparation in their departments; Participates in the monitoring of the departmental budget to ensure the budget is not overspent, and that any variances are investigated and analyzed; Communicates the College’s budgeting direction to the College community using the department website, and other internal communication tools; Participates as a resource on College committees as the budgeting subject matter expert.