Senior Financial Analyst, Bentonville Institute of Technology

Art and Wellness Enterprises•Bentonville, AR

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Financial Analyst supports the design and operation of Bentonville Institute of Technology’s budget and accounting function. The position owns the institutional budget process, leads financial analysis and scenario modeling, and serves as the primary budget resource for functional departmental leaders, working in Workday Financials from initial implementation. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role at a lean institution. The Senior Financial Analyst builds models, maintains the budget, produces analyses, trains others, and helps shape the University’s budget and financial planning infrastructure. The position works with institutional leaders and Art and Wellness Enterprises (AWE) shared services to establish accurate, integrated budget processes and reporting. Bentonville Institute of Technology is a developing higher education institution focused on new models of STEM education and workforce development. It plans to enroll its first undergraduate class in 2029 and expects enrollment to grow from approximately 200 students to approximately 1,500. Its five-term academic year and faculty cohort hiring model require budget processes to account for frequent payroll, billing, and reconciliation cycles and non-standard appointment structures. The institution uses Workday Financials and expects AI automation to be embedded in budget workflows. Systems and reporting tools must be validated for interoperability with AWE’s shared services infrastructure. The position is based on-site in Bentonville, Arkansas. Work is performed in a professional, climate-controlled office with standard office equipment and requires regular interaction with internal colleagues and the public. Some travel, including occasional overnight trips, is required. A flexible schedule may be necessary for business needs, including occasional evening and weekend hours.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, economics, business administration, or a related field.
5–7 years of relevant experience in financial planning and analysis, corporate finance, budgeting, forecasting, accounting, or a similar financial role.
Demonstrated experience owning a multi-unit or institution-wide budget process, including managing submissions, consolidation, variance monitoring, and executive-level reporting.
Proficiency in Workday Financials or a comparable ERP system, including the ability to function as a systems power user, build reports, and train others.
Experience with financial planning and analytics tools, such as Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday Prism, Oracle Business Intelligence, or equivalent, and the ability to build financial models and scenario analyses.
AI fluency, including hands-on experience or willingness to learn how to apply AI tools to budget workflows, financial modeling, reporting automation, or process improvement.
Strong analytical and communication skills, including the ability to build defensible financial models, explicitly surface assumptions, and translate data into clear narratives for non-financial audiences.
Ability to build processes and reporting infrastructure where none exist and work effectively in blank-page environments and unstructured institutional contexts.
Builder’s mindset; analytical rigor; systems fluency; an AI-forward approach; ability to translate financial complexity; collaborative execution; and high ownership and accountability.
Ability to work on-site in Bentonville, Arkansas, with some travel, including occasional overnight trips, and occasional evening and weekend work as business needs require.
Ability to utilize a computer and telephone for prolonged periods, demonstrate good hand-eye coordination, bend and stretch, lift and transport at least 10 pounds, and review written materials.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in finance, accounting, business administration, or a related field.
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or another relevant professional designation.
Experience in a research university, liberal arts institution, mission-driven organization, or other higher education environment.
Experience with position budgeting for academic workforces, including non-standard appointment types such as multi-term contracts, fractional appointments, or non-tenure-track faculty.
Experience designing or administering budget processes for non-standard academic calendars, including term-based, competency-based, or accelerated-format institutions.
Experience in a Workday Financials implementation or migration, including chart of accounts design, budget module configuration, or management reporting setup.
Familiarity with grant budget development and OMB Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200) financial reporting requirements.
Familiarity with IPEDS financial reporting and Arkansas Division of Higher Education (ADHE) or comparable state higher education financial reporting requirements.
Experience deploying AI-powered tools in financial planning, such as AI-assisted forecasting, automated variance reporting, natural-language query tools, or workflow automation platforms.

Responsibilities

Own and execute the annual institutional budget process from kickoff through Board adoption, including calendar management, unit submissions, consolidation, scenario analysis, and presentations to senior leadership and the Board.
Build and maintain the institutional operating budget in Workday Financials, including chart of accounts mapping, budget entry, position-level budget tracking, and actuals monitoring.
Design budget submission templates, process documentation, and training materials for division leaders and department administrators; build the budget office function from first principles.
Administer position budgeting for faculty and staff, tracking hiring plan execution against the approved budget in coordination with Human Resources and the AWE human capital management team, including non-standard appointment types and faculty cohort hiring.
Monitor delegation-of-authority budget thresholds in Workday, enforce budget policy, flag exceptions, and escalate risks to the Vice President for Finance and Administration.
Build and maintain multi-year financial models and enrollment-driven projections in coordination with the Vice President for Finance and Administration and the Vice President for Enrollment Management.
Produce scenario analyses for enrollment ramp adjustments, program expansion, staffing acceleration or deferral, and capital planning assumptions, documenting assumptions and sensitivity ranges.
Monitor actuals against budget monthly, produce variance analyses with narrative explanations, and identify emerging risks and opportunities for senior leadership.
Support development of Board-quality financial presentations and management reports, translating financial data into clear narratives for non-financial audiences.
Support grant budget development for federal and private grant applications, coordinating templates and financial data in compliance with sponsor requirements and, where applicable, OMB Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200).
Serve as Workday Financials power user and budget module subject-matter expert; provide training, reporting guidance, and decision support to division administrators, and represent institutional budget interests in Workday configuration decisions with AWE.
Evaluate and implement AI-powered tools for budget automation, variance analysis, scenario modeling, and financial dashboards; champion AI adoption in financial planning workflows.
Design and maintain management reporting infrastructure, including dashboards, standard reports, and ad hoc analytical tools in Workday and connected platforms such as Snowflake and the MuleSoft integration layer; validate AWE integration compatibility before selecting reporting tools.
Participate in evaluating and implementing a financial planning and analytics platform; serve as functional lead for budget module design, chart of accounts alignment, and data integration with Workday.
Serve as the primary budget and financial planning counterpart to the AWE finance team, coordinating budget data, Workday configuration, and financial reporting outputs.
Ensure budget and planning data flows accurately between the institution’s Workday configuration and AWE-administered platform functions; surface discrepancies to the Vice President for Finance and Administration and Controller.
Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned to support evolving organizational needs.