Deputy Chief Financial Officer

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR); Boulder (CO); On-site; USD 170,000 - 213,000; Full time

Job summary

UCAR in Boulder, Colorado seeks a Deputy Chief Financial Officer to coordinate and integrate the Office of the CFO under the CFO's strategic direction. The role acts as the CFO's integrator across Finance & Accounting, Treasury, and FP&A, aligning operations with organizational objectives.

Responsibilities include leading annual planning, overseeing financial reporting, and coordinating with UCAR/NCAR entities on business processes.

Responsibilities

• Ensure financial business policies and procedures exist and are regularly updated; provide support and customer service to labs and programs.
• Provide insight and leadership to UCAR annual planning processes.
• Oversee the financial component of all monthly and annual reports under the Office of the CFO.
• Maintain understanding of labs and programs' needs and address them in partnership with labs and programs.
• Serve as primary liaison with UCAR/NCAR entities to develop new business processes and coordinate operational changes.
• Manage day-to-day operations of the Office of the CFO, including fiduciary responsibilities and staff matters.
• Review financial aspects of strategic project business cases and guide budgeting templates for projects.
• Develop metrics to measure financial results across priorities; produce metrics regularly.
• Oversee budgets for the Office of the CFO and support multi-year planning.
• Coordinate with Audit & Finance Committee and NSF/others on actions; maintain relationships with stakeholders.
• Develop reports in compliance with NSF Large Facilities Manual.

Job description

Position Type:

Regular

Visa Sponsored Job:

No

Relocation Assistance Eligible:

No

Hiring Range:

170,479.00 USD - 213,096.00 USD

*Final salary and rates are based on education, experience, and skills relevant to the role.

Application Closes at 12:00am MST on:

2026-09-25

About the Role

The UCAR Deputy CFO serves as the principal operational deputy to the Chief Financial Officer and is responsible for coordinating and integrating the activities of the Office of the CFO under the strategic direction of the CFO.

The Deputy CFO acts as the CFO's chief integrator across Finance & Accounting, Treasury, and FP&A, ensuring alignment of operational activities with the strategic objectives established by the CFO.

The position will be responsible for ensuring that the department establishes and maintains effective communication with UCAR program units (labs and programs) and ensures that business needs are addressed in a timely manner.

This position develops creative and innovative solutions to address challenges and opportunities that present themselves to the organization and to mitigate existing risk.

Represents the Office of the CFO on behalf of the CFO when delegated, ensuring consistent execution of established financial strategy and organizational priorities. Together with the UCAR CFO, serves as a liaison on contractual, fiscal, and accountability matters with the NSF and other government agencies. Establishes and maintains an effective relationship with the university community, state and local governmental and community entities, and Federal agencies, representing UCAR in a role of Deputy Chief Financial Officer (and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) when required).

Job Description

Application Deadline:

• This position will be posted until 12 am MDT at the beginning of Friday, September 25, 2026.

Required application materials: (preferably uploaded as a PDF)

• Resume
• Cover Letter - Please address how your skills and experience meet the needs of this position (for more information, please refer to the Key Responsibilities and Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities sections of this job posting).
• Questionnaire (embedded in the application)

Background Checks: Conducted for candidates selected for hire. Learn more.

Work Location: Regardless of flexible work arrangements, UCAR requires ALL positions to be performed within the U.S., excluding U.S. Territories.

What You Will Do

Financial/Business Management:

• Responsible for ensuring financial business policies and procedures exist and are regularly updated and ensures support and customer service to the labs and programs.
• Provides insight and leadership to UCAR annual planning processes.
• Provides oversight and an in depth review of the financial component of all monthly and annual reports that are the responsibility of the office of the CFO.
• Maintains a comprehensive understanding of unique and developing business needs within labs and programs and works in partnership with labs and programs to address them
• Serves as primary liaison with all UCAR/NCAR entities at a tactical level to develop new business processes and coordinate operational changes. Represents the Office of the CFO on all significant business transformation initiatives in support of the strategic direction established by the CFO.
• Manages the day-to-day operations of the Office of the CFO, enabling the CFO to focus on enterprise strategy, executive leadership, Board relations, and external partnerships; These include, but not limited to daily fiduciary responsibilities, routine approvals, exceptions to policy, and employee issues.
• Represents the Office of the CFO in reviewing and consulting on the financial aspects of all business cases for strategic projects and provides guidance on desired financial, budget, and benefits tracking templates for strategic projects to other Business Operation teams.
• Responsible for driving institutional metrics and statistics that measure financial results against multiple strategic priorities, ensuring metrics and statistics are produced on a regular basis.
• Oversees all operational and capital budgets for the Office of the CFO and supports a multi-year planning infrastructure.
• Oversight and management of the activities in the Unrestricted General Fund and the Renewal and Replacement Fund.
• Coordinates the preparation of materials for the Audit & Finance Committee and ensures timely execution of follow-up actions under the direction of the CFO.
• Develops reports in compliance with the NSF Large Facilities Manual

Financial Compliance

• Interpret, communicate, and implement changes related to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and Accounting Standard Updates (ASUs)
• Interfaces with the internal auditor to ensure that all internal audit requirements are met and required audits are supported. Ensures timely and effective resolution of all audit issues.

Team Management

• Ensures the service culture is consistent with the values of UCAR and maintains the highest levels of customer focus and integrity.
• Manages the teams' resource allocation of space, people, and finances within budgeted parameters.
• Recruits, develops, and retains staff with a focus on creating a diverse team of high-performance individuals.
• Develops and maintains effective team processes for communication, constructive debate, conflict resolution, identifying innovation opportunities, and joint problem solving.
• Facilitates regular staff meetings.

Leadership

• Provides professional and managerial leadership to the CFO team as delegated by the CFO in line with the organization's values of providing support to our internal and external stakeholders
• Serves as a member of the Senior Leadership Team and a member of the COO Coordination Team.
• Exercises delegated authority on behalf of the CFO for assigned operational and administrative matters while keeping the CFO informed of significant strategic, financial, legal, and organizational issues.
• Lead the development of the annual objectives/goals alignment and succession planning processes for all positions within the Office of the CFO and help employees implement these goals.
• Provides leadership for special projects as assigned by the CFO.

Who We'd Love To Join Our Team

Successful candidates will ensure their application materials speak to the following criteria: