Analyst II - Sr. Budget Analyst

City of Wilmington; Wilmington (NC); On-site; USD 85,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

City of Wilmington is seeking a Sr. Budget Analyst to transform complex financial data into actionable insights that guide community decisions and maximizes public resources.

You will partner with City departments and leadership to influence strategic investments and ensure budgets align with priorities. The role covers multi-year planning, performance measurement, and city-wide budgeting processes, providing oversight, modeling, and recommendations to optimize operations and services for

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in finance, accounting, public administration, or related field.
• Minimum three years of government budget development and administration experience.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook).

Responsibilities

• Conduct data analysis and budgeting for city operations to support financial and policy recommendations.
• Review and evaluate department budget requests in light of fiscal realities.
• Prepare operating and capital budget materials, including budgets in brief and supporting documents.

Skills

Budget analysis

Excel

PowerPoint

Communication skills

Data visualization

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in finance, accounting, public administration, or related field

Tools

Excel

Word

PowerPoint

Outlook

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

One City. One team. One mission.

Do you like to help guide financial decisions that move a community forward?

We are looking for a Sr. Budget Analyst to help shape the financial future of our City by turning complex financial data into meaningful insights that drive decisions, strengthen services, and support community priorities. This is more than a budgeting role—it's an opportunity to partner with City departments and leadership, influence strategic investments, and ensure public resources are working where they matter most.

This position provides complex budget, management, financial, and strategic planning analysis, with responsibilities to include consulting, planning, budgeting, monitoring, and evaluating city-wide governmental operations. Work includes analyzing, reviewing and making professional recommendations for the allocation and distribution of revenues and expenditures for city operations; linking the needs of the City with the desired strategic direction; providing budgetary and operational oversight throughout the year; consulting with departments on organizational resource allocation; evaluating current operations and making recommendations for improvements in areas related to operations, management, and budget; providing direction in financial and statistical analysis; performing complex analysis of goals, objectives, and needs of the general operating and political environment; participating in business planning; developing and monitoring performance measures; and facilitating city-wide meetings.

Facilitates the annual city-wide budget development and monitoring process to include but not limited to:

• Conducts data analysis and research on budget, performance, and policy issues to support financial and policy recommendations.
• Analyzes and reviews requests for merit in relationship to current fiscal and political realities.
• Provides recommendations to the City Manager’s Office on the validity of departmental requests.
• Prepares the annual recommended operating and capital budgets to include publication, presentation, budget in brief and other materials.
• Develops solutions or options for proceeding.
• Researches, gathers and assembles disparate information from a variety of sources into usable formats (manuals, guidelines, process report, and/or research white papers etc.)
• Gathers, analysis and/or reviews data for trends affecting financial, programmatic and personnel needs.
• Synthesizes large sets of data and determines high level key messages and gaps.
• Assists management in program design, development and implementation; conducts program evaluations.
• Analyzes service delivery identifying solutions to improve resource allocation
• Develops financial models such as expenditure and revenue projections as well as compensation and benefit increase scenarios and summaries data for multiple stakeholders.
• Collaborates with Departments on business plan development, budget request development and justifications, city-wide strategic plan linkage by supporting business case development.
• Assists Departments in their improvement efforts by providing analytical support in the areas of finance, processes, and communications.
• Facilitates, consults and/or participates in initiatives that involve changing current business practices.
• Offers critical feedback to ensure viability of proposed initiatives.
• Approves and posts budget revision requests.
• Develops and recommends cost effective and efficient budgets.
• Monitors and analyzes revenues and expenditures for alignment with adopted operating budgets.
• Develops, presents and defends findings and recommendations to stakeholder groups and City decision-makers.
• Monitors assigned department's annual expenditures and budget performance balancing departments need with city-wide needs.
• Assistsdepartmentsinreviewingprograms/servicesforprocesschangesandprovidesrecommendationsfor potential cost cutting measures.

Assists with the multi-year strategic planning process:

• Links department requests with the overall strategic direction of the city.
• Assists in the implementation and application of the city's strategic plan and organizational performance measurement and monitors service level data, including output, effectiveness, efficiency, and outcome trends.
  

Specific Responsibilties by specilaized assignment area:

• Position Control/Salary Position Projections:

  • Provides direct support to the Budget Team in the following areas: position control management, compensation modeling, budget scenario development, salary interfaces, and year-end balance analyses, in close coordination with Human Resources, based on annual position movements and compensation rollout plans, and in accordance with the City’s adopted financial policies and procedures and recognized financial (accounting and budgeting) standards.

• Financial Trends and Forecasting:

  • Tracks revenues over time to determine the direction of the trends; generates models and recommendations for actions required for budgeting and compliance; identifies root causes for changes identified; generates forecast reports for Council and budget publication; designs, develops, and maintains ongoing metrics, reports, analyses, dashboards, and provides support for the annual indirect cost development, and other data solutions.

Education and Experience

• Bachelors Degree or higher and at least three years of relevant experience in government budget development and administration.
• Intermediate to advanced experience using Microsoft applications including Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook.
• Valid driver’s license

Ideal candidates should possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Problem solving skills:
  • Ability to evaluate budgetary requests from different perspectives to determine the benefits as well as the drawbacks if they move forward.
  • Ability to assess not only spending trends but resource allocations across city functions and disciplines.
  • Ability to develop and recommend cost effective and efficient city services to include recommendations for both process changes and resource allocation.
• Technical skills:
  • Ability to collect and analyze data using intermediate to advanced Excel techniques.
  • Ability to create visuals that show data findings.
  • Ability to develop manuals, research papers and present findings to multiple stakeholders.
  • Ability to facilitate groups to gather input.
  • Ability to communicate written and orally in many styles (persuasive, narrative, expository and descriptive) for multiple audiences.
  • Ability to complete mathematical tasks required to gather historical data, produce a data model set, forecasting models and perform directional analysis.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

Exerting up to 10 lbs. occasionally or negligible weights frequently; sitting most of the time.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

This position generally requires work in an indoor office setting.