Public Service - Higher Education Management Consulting Manager

Accenture•St. Louis, MO

1d•$80,400 - $293,800•Hybrid

About The Position

Accenture is seeking a Higher Education Management Consulting Manager to join their Public Service practice. This role focuses on supporting higher education institutions through significant operational transformations, including modernizing finance, HR, payroll, procurement, and research administration systems. The practice works with universities, four-year colleges, and community colleges on critical implementations. The ideal candidate will be passionate about this work and possess deep domain expertise to execute it effectively.

Requirements

Minimum 5 years of consulting or functional experience in higher education or community college environments with deep functional expertise in at least one domain: institutional finance and budget operations, HR and academic workforce management, payroll administration, procurement and purchasing compliance, or research administration and sponsored programs.
Minimum 5 years of hands-on delivery experience with a Cloud ERP platform in a functional or technical capacity.
Experience leading a functional tower or workstream on a large-scale ERP engagement, with responsibility for design, delivery, and client engagement within your domain.
Ability to travel 50%+.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree
Finance: experience with enrollment-driven budget modeling, GASB fund accounting, endowment accounting, or board and audit committee reporting in a Cloud ERP Financials context. Familiarity with how decentralized college and departmental finance structures affect system design.
HR: experience with faculty appointment structures, academic workforce planning, classification and compensation, or HR transformation in a Cloud ERP HCM context. Experience navigating shared governance environments and designing for both centralized HR and distributed departmental HR functions.
Payroll: experience with multi-bargaining-unit payroll configuration, faculty and staff pay structures, or complex leave and benefit plans in a Cloud ERP Payroll context.
Procurement: experience with higher education purchasing compliance, requisition-to-pay processes, grant-funded procurement, or the intersection of procurement and sponsored programs in a Cloud ERP Procurement context.
Research Administration: experience with sponsored programs finance, effort reporting, indirect cost recovery, sub-award management, cost transfer processes, or grant lifecycle management in a higher education ERP or research administration system context. Familiarity with federal sponsor requirements (NIH, NSF, DoD) and 2 CFR 200 compliance as they apply to system design.
Prior experience working within a college, university, or community college in a finance, HR, payroll, procurement, or sponsored programs function, with an understanding of the institution from the inside.
Experience with data migration complexity in higher education, including payroll history, position control records, grant encumbrances, or other sensitive historical data that requires careful conversion strategy.
Familiarity with AI-assisted delivery methods or platform-native AI capabilities in Cloud ERP platforms.

Responsibilities

Lead the functional tower in your domain (Finance, HR, Payroll, Procurement, or Research Administration) on Cloud ERP implementations for universities, four-year colleges, and community colleges.
Own design decisions within your tower, leveraging platform capabilities and a deep understanding of higher education operations, including decentralized structures, shared governance, and cross-functional dependencies.
Build and maintain strong working relationships with client functional leaders (e.g., VPs of Finance, Controllers, HR Directors, Chief Procurement Officers, Sponsored Programs Directors) and engage with them as a peer.
Lead stakeholder engagement and change management within your tower, navigating shared governance, decentralized cultures, and stakeholder scrutiny.
Navigate integration complexity by understanding connections to other enterprise systems (student platforms, research administration systems, state/federal reporting) and designing with these dependencies in mind.
Apply AI-assisted analysis, workflow design, and delivery acceleration as a standard method to improve quality and speed.
Communicate clearly on status, risk, and decisions to senior stakeholders, considering implementation milestones, board reporting cycles, and audit timelines.
Contribute to proposals and pursuits by bringing domain credibility that resonates with higher education evaluators.