Finance Manager

Stanford University; Palo Alto (CA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 136,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

18+ PTO days per year

Health benefits

Tuition and training assistance

Job summary

Stanford University’s STVP seeks a Finance Analyst to support financial operations, budgeting, and external funding tracking. The role reports to the Executive Director and collaborates with faculty leadership to ensure accurate, well-documented financial activity aligned with budgets.

The position operates in a hybrid model with at least three days on Stanford’s main campus, reflecting its academic and programmatic needs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and three years of relevant experience, or combination of education and relevant experience.
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize own work and multi-task.
• Demonstrated excellent organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative and ownership of projects.
• Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
• Ability to routinely and independently exercise sound judgment in making decisions.
• Demonstrated experience working independently and as part of a team.
• Relevant subject matter knowledge.
• Ability to direct the work of others, for jobs requiring supervision.

Responsibilities

• Independently implement, administer and evaluate day-to-day activities of the unit, function or program.
• Collect and analyze data, create reports, review trends; formulate and evaluate options.
• Analyze and interpret policies; develop, revise and implement procedures.
• Represent the program as the key contact and subject-matter expert within the department.
• Organize outreach activities including communications and training for events and conferences.
• May participate in budget development, monitoring expenditures, and providing recommendations.
• May supervise staff and direct work as needed.

Skills

Organizational skills

Prioritize work

Multi-task

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree & 3+ years experience

Job description

This position has been deemed critical by the School of Engineering Dean’s Office and is exempt from the hiring freeze.

For Stanford University employees, please apply through the Opportunity Marketplace within Sequoia.

Note - Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. All candidates must be eligible to work and live in the U.S.

Work Arrangement: This position is eligible for a hybrid work arrangement with a minimum of 3 days/week working at the Stanford main campus, subject to operational needs.

Budgeted Salary:

The budgeted base salary range for this position is $120,322 to $135,922 per annum.

The School of Engineering

Stanford Engineering has been at the forefront of innovation for over a century, creating pivotal technologies that have transformed the worlds of information technology, communications, health care, energy, business and beyond. Our faculty and students are creative risk-takers who pursue excellence across a breadth of disciplines. Our alumni include some of the world's most successful leaders in technology and business. Our staff are critical to enabling Stanford Engineering to accomplish its mission: seeking solutions to some of the world's most urgent challenges and educating leaders who will make the world a better place through the power of engineering principles, techniques and systems.

About STVP

Stanford Technology Ventures Program, known as STVP, is Stanford University’s entrepreneurship center, housed within the School of Engineering’s Department of Management Science and Engineering. As one of the world’s leading entrepreneurship education programs, STVP is dedicated to accelerating high-technology entrepreneurship through research, innovative education, experiential learning, and thought leadership. Celebrating its 30th year of trailblazing impact in entrepreneurship and innovation at Stanford, STVP brings together students, faculty, researchers, and industry leaders to foster entrepreneurial mindsets, build community, and support breakthrough innovations that create positive global impact.

As a small and collaborative center, STVP offers a social, iterative, and mission-driven work environment where team members contribute to strong day-to-day execution and thoughtful experimentation. The center is exploring pilots for new concepts and entering a new chapter of growth, creating opportunities for team members to support continuous improvement, responsible scaling, and high-impact work across entrepreneurship education and innovation.

Position Overview

STVP seeks a Finance Manager to support the center’s financial operations, budget tracking, financial analysis, expenditure monitoring, and compliance activities. Reporting to the Executive Director and working closely with faculty leadership, including the Professor of Teaching and other program leaders, this role will help ensure that STVP’s financial activity is accurate, well documented, and aligned with Stanford policies and approved budgets.

STVP operates with a financial model that relies significantly on external funding, including donations, sponsorships, pledges, and other contributed support. The Finance Analyst will support the tracking and reporting of these funding sources, assist with financial planning and forecasting, and provide analysis to help leadership understand available resources, spending patterns, reserves, and projected funding runway.

This role is well suited for a detail-oriented finance professional who can manage recurring financial processes, prepare clear reports, support budget planning, and work collaboratively in a small, mission-driven academic environment with opportunities for growth and scale.

In this role you will:

Financial Operations and Compliance (50%)

• Monitor financial transactions to help ensure alignment with approved budgets, funding restrictions, and Stanford policies.
• Backup support for routine financial processes, including purchasing, reimbursements, vendor payments, honoraria, and other transactions if responsible staff are absent.
• Management of department software tools (as administrator and renewal management) and responsibility as CRM administrator.
• Review transaction documentation for completeness, accuracy, and appropriate approvals.
• Coordinate with Stanford finance and administrative partners to resolve routine financial questions or transaction issues.
• Track spending approvals and maintain organized financial records for center activities.
• Identify discrepancies, compliance concerns, or unusual spending patterns and elevate them to the Executive Director or appropriate Stanford office.
• Support monthly, quarterly, board reports and year-end financial activities, including reconciliations, reporting, and close-related tasks.

Budgeting, Forecasting, and Financial Analysis (25%)

• Support the annual budget planning process for STVP in partnership with the Executive Director, faculty leadership, and relevant administrative partners.
• Prepare and maintain budget tracking tools, financial reports, forecasts, and variance analyses.
• Monitor budget-to-actual activity across STVP programs, initiatives, and operating areas.
• Track planned and actual expenditures and identify variances, trends, or potential budget concerns for review by leadership.
• Assist with tracking reserve balances and projected funding runway based on current spending levels, known commitments, and anticipated funding.
• Prepare cost estimates and financial summaries for proposed projects, events, programs, and initiatives.
• Support basic scenario analysis and business case development by compiling financial data, projected expenses, and available funding information.
• Provide budget data and financial analysis to support leadership discussions regarding program priorities, resource allocation, and future planning.
• Support project costing, business case development, and basic financial scenario analysis by preparing cost estimates, compiling relevant financial data, tracking available funding, and identifying potential budget risks, funding gaps, or resource needs for leadership review.

External Funding, Donations, Sponsorships, and Pledges (10%)

• Track and monitor financial activity related to donations, sponsorships, pledges, and other external funding sources, including expected and received funds, available balances, restrictions, and related commitments.
• Coordinate with the Executive Director, faculty leadership, fundraising committee, and Stanford development or finance partners to support visibility into external funding activity and inform planning, stewardship, and income-generating initiatives. This includes as a key liaison for the board of advisor fundraising committee.
• Prepare reports and summaries on externally funded resources, including timing, allowable use, spending activity, and funding availability, to help ensure alignment with donor, sponsor, and institutional requirements.
• Exercise discretion and maintain confidentiality when handling donor, sponsor, pledge, gift, fundraising strategy, and financial information.

Student and Hourly Worker Expenditure Monitoring (10%)

• Monitor and track student worker, temporary staff, and hourly employee expenditures, including budgeted amounts, projected costs, actual spending, and labor allocations.
• Coordinate with administrative, HR, and payroll partners to help ensure labor-related expenses are accurately tracked and appropriately allocated, including managing HR paperwork for new hires.
• Prepare routine updates for leadership and identify projected overages, funding gaps, or allocation issues for review.

Center-Wide Financial and Operational Support (5%)

• As part of a small, collaborative team, provide occasional support for center-wide priorities, major events, fundraising activities, and special initiatives, particularly where financial tracking, purchasing, reconciliation, vendor coordination, or compliance support is needed.
• Assist with event and initiative-related financial administration, including budget tracking, expense monitoring, payment coordination, and post-event reconciliation.
• Contribute to time-sensitive STVP priorities during peak periods while maintaining focus on core Finance Analyst responsibilities.

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience supporting financial activity in an academic, nonprofit, externally funded, or program-based environment is helpful.
• Familiarity with Stanford financial systems, policies, and procedures.
• Experience tracking gifts, sponsorships, pledges, or restricted funds.

Responsibilities

Core Duties:

Independently implement, administer and evaluate day-to-dayactivities of the unit, function or program by identifying and executingtasks and objectives, making recommendations that impact policies andprograms, and assigning resources to achieve the goals of theprogram.

Collect and analyze data, create reports, review and explaintrends; formulate and evaluate alternative solutions and/orrecommendations to achieve the goals of the program orfunction.

Analyze and interpret policies; develop, revise and implementprocedures for program or function.

Represent the program or function as the key contact and subjectmatter expert within the department, unit or school. Commit resourcesand provide information and/or training. May also represent the programor function to external/internal stakeholders andconstituencies.

Organize and/or participate in outreach activities that mayinclude developing communications and training, planning/promotingevents and/or conferences.

May participate in development of budgets, monitor, and approveexpenditures. May perform limited forecasting and providerecommendations that determine the budget.

May direct staff to perform various tasks and assignments. Mayalso supervise staff.

Bachelor’s degree and three years of relevant experience, orcombination of education and relevant experience.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Demonstrated ability to prioritize own work andmulti-task.

Demonstrated excellent organizational skills.

Demonstrated ability to take initiative and ownership ofprojects.

Ability to communicate effectively both orally and inwriting.

Ability to routinely and independently exercise sound judgment inmaking decisions.

Demonstrated experience working independently and as part of ateam.

Relevant subject matter knowledge.

Ability to direct the work of others, for jobs requiringsupervision.

• Pay Range $120,322-$135,922
• Pay Frequency Annually
• Fixed Term N
• Stanford Schools and Units School of Engineering
• Full time or Part time Full Time
• Regular or Temporary Regular
• Job Category Administration
• Posting Date 10/16/2026, 06:10 PM
• Grade H
• Job Identification 201420

Benefits that support you, and your future

18+ PTO days per year

Health benefits start when you start

Flexible work options

$6000+ annual tuition and training assistance

403(b) plan

Mental health and wellness programs

Free and discounted commuter transportation

Applies to regular full-time positions.

Notice to Applicants

The job duties listed are typical examples of work performed by positions in this job classifications and are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, tasks and responsibilities. Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.

Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodation to any employee with a disability who requires accommodation to perform the essential functions of their job.

Stanford is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Stanford University provides job pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the university reasonably expects to pay for a particular job. The specific pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on a wide range of factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to geographic work location, relevant knowledge, skills and abilities, relevant education, years of relevant experience, depth and breadth of relevant experience, and performance; further including but not limited to other business and organization needs such as the scope and responsibilities of the position, the minimum qualifications, departmental budget availability, and market and internal equity across the university, school/ unit, department, as well as job reporting relations hips.

Why work at Stanford

World-changing work in a culture of continuous learning

An inspiring community that values collaboration

High-quality health and wellness benefits that put you and your family first

Access to world-class education and career development, with tuition reimbursement, training assistance, and more