Senior Manager, Finance Operations and Controls, Office of the Vice President for Research

UVA Health•Charlottesville, VA

22h•$120,000 - $135,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) at the University of Virginia is seeking an experienced finance operations and controls professional to strengthen its finance infrastructure, support sound financial stewardship, and serve as a trusted advisor to the Senior Director of Finance and decentralized OVPR finance and administration teams. This full-time exempt role requires strong judgment, technical finance capability, proficiency with Workday or comparable enterprise finance systems, budget and research administration experience, and the ability to provide credible guidance in a complex research finance environment. The position combines senior-level controls, analysis, issue resolution, process improvement, and selected transactional execution to ensure financial activity is accurate, timely, well documented, appropriately reviewed, and escalated when judgment, policy interpretation, or corrective action is required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business administration, public administration, or a related field and at least seven years of professional experience in a financial discipline; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
Demonstrated subject matter expertise in financial operations, accounting, budgeting, research administration, internal controls, financial analysis, or related business operations.
Demonstrated ability to analyze, reconcile, interpret, and document complex financial information with accuracy, discretion, and attention to detail.
Experience strengthening financial review processes, controls, workflows, escalation practices, and operational accountability, including transactions, account reviews, reconciliations, budget entries, payroll costing updates, or purchasing/payment workflows.
Advanced Excel or comparable spreadsheet proficiency, including complex formulas, reconciliations, pivot tables, lookups, data validation, and analysis templates.
Ability to use financial systems, reporting tools, spreadsheets, and structured workflows to improve accuracy, visibility, accountability, and operational efficiency.
Strong judgment, independence, organization, documentation habits, follow-through, and ability to manage multiple transactions, requests, deadlines, open items, and stakeholder follow-ups simultaneously.
Ability to coordinate across decentralized stakeholders, resolve routine issues, ask timely questions, escalate exceptions or policy-sensitive matters appropriately, and communicate requirements and next steps clearly to technical, non-technical, and senior leadership audiences.
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States.
The University will not sponsor or consider candidates requiring sponsorship for employment visas now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

MBA, CMA, CPA, or other relevant advanced degree, certification, or professional credential related to finance, accounting, business administration, research administration, or operations.
Experience in higher education, research administration, academic medical centers, government, nonprofit organizations, or similarly complex environments with significant financial, operational, policy, or compliance requirements.
Experience with Workday, Adaptive Planning, Anaplan, planning systems, reporting tools, research administration systems, or other enterprise finance platforms.
Experience with research finance operations, budget administration, payroll costing, purchasing/payment workflows, transaction tracking, account reviews, or reconciliations.
Experience documenting procedures, maintaining trackers, organizing transition materials, improving finance workflows, and developing dashboards, exception reports, checklists, control frameworks, training materials, or decision-support resources.
Experience supporting decentralized finance, administration, research, or business operations teams through guidance, training, review, escalation, or process improvement.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement finance operations processes, controls, documentation standards, review protocols, escalation criteria, and recurring quality checks.
Review Workday and related financial activity to identify exceptions, recurring errors, policy concerns, process gaps, and opportunities to strengthen account review, reconciliation, workflow, and escalation practices.
Lead or support budget planning, variance analysis, payroll validation, scenario planning, budget development, and decision-support materials.
Prepare, review, and improve reports, dashboards, trackers, reconciliations, and decision-support resources that are accurate, actionable, and appropriate for management review.
Support sponsored and non-sponsored research administration through budget alignment, proposal- or award-related financial analysis, payroll costing review, compliance documentation, funding questions, and central-office coordination.
Identify and escalate research finance, compliance, funding, documentation, or policy issues that require interpretation, corrective action, or coordination with central administrative offices.
Execute selected finance operations activity, including purchasing, supplier payments, reimbursements, journals, budget entries, transfers, payroll costing updates, and related Workday activity.
Maintain trackers, status logs, documentation, follow-up notes, and budget, payroll, and commitment records to support review, reconciliation, reporting, and escalation.
Provide senior finance operations guidance to decentralized OVPR units by clarifying requirements, reviewing complex activity, resolving issues, and strengthening consistent finance and business practices.
Communicate clearly with OVPR leadership, decentralized units, faculty, staff, central administrative offices, vendors, and partners; perform other finance operations, controls, analysis, and administrative responsibilities as needed.