Senior Financial Analyst, Bentonville Institute of Technology

Art and Wellness Enterprises•Bentonville, AR

2d•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. It is a hands-on, high-ownership role at a lean, developing institution, responsible for building models, maintaining the budget, producing analyses, training others, and shaping the University’s budget and financial planning infrastructure. The analyst will build and administer the institutional operating budget, develop multi-year and enrollment-driven financial models, monitor actuals and variances, and prepare management and board-level reporting. The role also serves as a Workday Financials power user and budget subject-matter expert, helps evaluate and implement an analytics platform, develops reporting infrastructure, and evaluates AI-powered tools for financial planning workflows. All reporting systems and tools must be validated for compatibility with AWE shared services infrastructure. The position works closely with the Vice President for Finance and Administration, the Vice President for Enrollment Management, departmental leaders, Human Resources, and AWE shared-services teams. The institution is being developed around a five-term academic year and expects gradual enrollment growth, requiring adaptable budget models and position planning that account for term-based operations and non-standard faculty appointment structures. The role is based on-site in Bentonville, Arkansas, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., in a professional, climate-controlled office. Some travel, including occasional overnight trips, is required. A flexible schedule may be needed for occasional evening and weekend work. Physical requirements include prolonged computer and telephone use, good hand-eye coordination, bending and stretching, lifting and transporting at least 10 pounds, and visual acuity for reviewing written materials.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, economics, business administration, or a related field.
Five to seven 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, with demonstrated ability to act 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 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 explain data clearly to non-financial audiences.
Ability to build processes and reporting infrastructure where none exist and work effectively in unstructured institutional contexts.
Builder’s mindset; analytical rigor; systems fluency; an AI-forward approach; ability to translate financial complexity; collaborative execution; and high ownership.

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 appointments 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 with 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 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, including calendar management, unit submissions, consolidation, scenario analysis, and presentation 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 tracking, and actuals monitoring.
Design budget submission templates, process documentation, and training materials for division leaders and department administrators, and build the budget office function.
Administer position budgeting for faculty and staff, tracking hiring-plan execution against approved budgets in coordination with Human Resources and the AWE HCM team, including non-standard appointment types and faculty cohort hiring.
Monitor Workday delegation-of-authority budget thresholds, 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 institutional decisions, documenting assumptions and sensitivity ranges for enrollment changes, program expansion, staffing, and capital planning.
Monitor actuals against budget monthly, prepare 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 for non-financial audiences.
Support grant budget development for federal and private applications, coordinating templates and financial data in accordance 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 configuration decisions with AWE.
Evaluate and implement AI-powered tools for budget automation, variance analysis, scenario modeling, and financial dashboards, and 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 MuleSoft; validate AWE integration compatibility before selecting tools.
Participate in evaluating and implementing a financial planning and analytics platform, serving as functional lead for budget module design, chart-of-accounts alignment, and Workday data integration.
Coordinate with the AWE finance team on budget data, Workday configuration, and financial reporting outputs to ensure institutional accuracy and control.
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.