Financial Manager, Administrative Regional Team

UW-Madison College of Letters & Science; Madison (WI); Hybrid; USD 80,000 - 106,000; Full time

Job summary

UW-Madison College of Letters & Science is seeking a Financial Manager to support department administrators in optimizing financial resources while ensuring regulatory compliance across UW System, State, and federal requirements. You will lead a team, coordinate workload, and serve as a key partner for leaders in a growing ATP initiative.

Following onboarding, the role offers remote work flexibility up to 3 days per week and onsite presence at least 2 days per week.

Qualifications

• 4 years of experience in accounting, finance, and/or budgeting/forecasting with financial systems.
• Ability to foster collaborative relationships with department administrators, supervisors, staff and partners.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills to interpret and summarize financial data.
• Strong verbal and written communication, administrative and organizational skills.
• Commitment to customer service excellence and solution-oriented assistance.
• Judgement and discretion in applying laws, rules, policies and procedures.
• Experience with improving processes, managing change or applying systems thinking.

Responsibilities

• Facilitate and share unit budgets and large budget projections, including planning, policies, controls, and analysis.
• Recommend, interpret, disseminate, and implement unit fiscal policies ensuring compliance.
• Supervise at least 2.0 FTE or equivalent employees in a collaborative team.
• Identify, verify, audit financial charges, credits, and authorize payments.
• Participate in development, maintenance, and monitoring of automated financial information systems.
• Serve as subject matter expert to unit leadership on financial operations, reporting, and process improvement.
• Plan, direct, and manage financial/accounting operations across multiple areas; coordinate data management and reporting.
• Analyze financial information and provide recommendations to unit leadership.

Skills

Advanced Excel

Financial analysis

Budgeting & forecasting

Stakeholder collaboration

Strong communication

Policy interpretation

Process improvement

Education

Bachelor's degree preferred in Accounting/Business or related field

Tools

ERP systems (PeopleSoft/Workday)

Job description

Job Category

Academic Staff

Employment Type

Regular

Job Profile

Financial Manager

Job Summary

Join the College of Letters & Science (L&S) for an exciting role as a Financial Manager with a team of other finance champions. You'll have an opportunity to make a positive impact by supporting department administrator(s) towards the best utilization of financial resources while ensuring compliance with all relevant Universities of Wisconsin, State of Wisconsin and federal regulations and policies and procedures. This is a new initiative with an evolving team as the college implements Administrative Transformation Program (ATP) within L&S. The role is perfect for trailblazers passionate about building effective relationships while applying equitable practices that foster a community of belonging. There are multiple openings on the new team and we encourage you to review and apply to all of the positions.

Under the general direction of the Associate Dean for Innovation and Strategic Budgeting, the Financial Manager will have the following key functions:

• Manage the efforts of a team of finance in a collaborative way that fosters innovation and supports team development and success.
• Provide expertise, facilitate training, coordination, and workload management across the team.
• Serve as key point of contact and partner for department administrators

Following an initial onboarding period, this position will have remote work flexibility up to 3 days per week and will work onsite a minimum of 2 days per week.

Key Job Responsibilities

• 20% Facilitating and sharing unit or organizational budgets and large budget projections including budget planning, policies, controls, procedures, forecasts, and analysis
• 10% Recommends, interprets, disseminates, and implements unit-focused fiscal policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with established rule, regulations and financial guidelines
• 20% May exercise supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 FTE or equivalent employees
• 10% Identifies, verifies, and audits financial charges, credits, and authorizes payments
• 5% Participates in the development, maintenance, and monitoring of automated financial information systems
• 5% Serves as a subject matter expert to unit leadership regarding financial operations, status and reporting, and recommends process improvements
• 20% Plans, directs, and engages in financial and/or accounting operations for multiple areas; coordinates data management, budget preparation and management, and financial reporting efforts
• 10% Analyzes financial information and makes recommendations to unit leadership

The application deadline is 11:59pm on October 11, 2026.

Please note that successful applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without need of employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment.

Department

College of Letters & Science, Administration - Finance

L&S is the heart of UW-Madison and home to a tremendous breadth and depth of departments and degree-granting programs in the humanities; natural, physical, and mathematical sciences and the social sciences. Learn more at ls.wisc.edu.

Compensation

The expected salary range for this position is $80,000 up to $106,000 for highly experienced candidates. Actual pay within this range will depend on experience and qualifications.

Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances and savings accounts; and retirement benefits. Please review the summary of benefits for more information.

Required Qualifications

• 4 years of experience in accounting, finance, and/or budgeting/forecasting including experience using financial systems software and tools
• Experience fostering and maintaining collaborative relationships with key stakeholders, such as department administrators, supervisors, staff and college & campus partners
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills with an ability to interpret, analyze, and summarize financial data
• Strong verbal and written communication, administrative and organizational skills
• Demonstrated commitment to customer service excellence and a history of offering responsive and solution-oriented assistance
• Evidence of using sound judgement and discretion in applying and interpreting laws, rules, policies, and procedures
• Experience with improving processes, managing change and/or applying systems thinking to work

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct supervisory experience or equivalent experience leading/managing a team
• Experience offering guidance, outreach and monitoring for compliance regarding complex fiscal policies in higher education, governmental or other highly regulated setting
• Experience with an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, such as PeopleSoft or Workday

Education

Bachelor’s Degree preferred; Accounting, Business Management or a related field preferred

Institutional Statement on Diversity

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).

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