Senior Accountant - Endowment & Investments

Williams College, London•Williamstown, MA

2d•$90,000 - $100,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Williams College is seeking a Senior Accountant - Endowment & Investments to join our Finance Department to directly support the mission of the College by stewarding the College’s $4+ billion long-term investment pool through monthly, quarterly, and annual accounting responsibilities. The Senior Accountant will model and execute the annual endowment distribution, assist with forecasting distribution scenarios, respond to internal and external donor and account holder questions, and recommend action on a wide range of legal and accounting issues relating to endowments, split interest agreements, and outside trusts. This position is also responsible for evaluating and recommending appropriate endowment accounting treatment in accordance with GAAP and UPMIFA including but not limited to review of gift agreements, assisting the Investment Office to prepare data for the investment footnotes in the annual financial statements, preparing and reviewing journal entries, preparing reports relating to the annual endowment distribution, and performing or reviewing complex account reconciliations. This position has oversight responsibilities of the Fundriver endowment system.

Requirements

A Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 5 years professional experience in investment accounting for a large complex balanced portfolio with many illiquid holdings.
Strong critical thinking, analytical, and creative problem-solving skills; attention to detail.
Advanced knowledge of not-for-profit and endowment accounting, including unitization and accounting for the use of restricted funding sources.
Advanced technical skills including financial planning and accountings systems, complex spreadsheets and Microsoft Office and Google suites; relational database management.
A collaborative working style and ability to build strong relationships with people at all levels of the organization.
Capacity to work independently as well as with others in a diverse and decentralized organization.

Nice To Haves

Experience in higher education, Workday, and endowment unitization tools (e.g., Fundriver); preferably over a period of implementation and stabilization.
MBA, CFA, CPA, or equivalent experience desired

Responsibilities

Perform monthly, quarterly, and annual reconciliation processes for investment valuation and activity between the investment office, Workday, and Fundriver.
Coordinate with outside providers administering split interest agreements and outside trusts to ensure that all activity is properly recorded in Fundriver and Workday on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.
Assist in the design of reports to support the annual audit and financial statement preparation.
Separately handle exception payouts for funds that do not follow the normal spending policy.
Assist the Controller and Assistant Controllers to prepare for and draft the annual financial statements, 990, and other required reports.
Review new endowment gift agreements and planned giving instruments, recommend appropriate classification, establish new gift accounts in Workday and Fundriver.
Review existing gift agreements to ensure use of expendable funds is in line with donor intent.
Assist with urgent or deadline-driven special projects in response to compliance requirements or Senior Staff requests. Partners with the accounting & finance teams in their completion.
Annual review of professorship releases.
Quarterly reconciliation of class gift designations.
Work with the Development Office to review undesignated and income to principal gifts.
Review unspent or underspent gifts and recommend course of action.