Financial Planning Analyst II

mines; Colorado; Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Colorado School of Mines invites applications for a Financial Planning Analyst II to join the Budget and Financial Planning team in Golden, CO. The role focuses on operational forecasting, reporting, and analysis for a select portfolio, with responsibilities including documenting procedures, implementing the budgeting system, and delivering high‑level financial summaries for campus leadership.

The successful candidate will develop financial models, conduct scenario analyses, and collaborate

Qualifications

• Attention to detail in analyses and reporting.
• Curiosity to dig deeper into analyses and explain anomalies.
• Customer focus to tailor information for diverse audiences.
• Innovation to develop new solutions for challenges using available resources.
• Collaboration with team members and campus partners.

Responsibilities

• Analyze and summarize campus portfolio budget and fund variances; produce monthly and annual reports.
• Develop scenario analyses evaluating impacts of enrollment, state funding, research growth, and investments.
• Support strategic initiatives and campus projects with analyses and briefing materials for portfolio partners.
• Develop understanding of financial data to measure benchmarks, explain outcomes, and provide performance metrics.
• Manage campus portfolio by partnering with leaders; communicate models, reports, and analyses in writing and presentations.
• Lead process improvements and document business processes; support annual budget development and fiscal year analyses.
• Enhance skills in Workday Adaptive Planning to improve operations and modeling accuracy; develop dashboards with data visualization tools.
• Develop forecasting procedures and multi-year projection reports including mandatory costs and labor expenses.
• Create digestible financial dashboards and maintain scheduled reports based on feedback.

Skills

Attention to Detail

Curiosity

Customer Focus

Innovation/Problem Solving

Collaboration

Tools

Workday Adaptive Planning

Tableau

Job description

Engineering a world of possibilities

Colorado School of Mines is pleased to announce an opportunity for a Financial Planning Analyst II to join our Budget and Financial Planning team.

At Mines, the Budget and Financial Planning Office sits within our Finance, Administration, and Operations (FA&O) Division and provides oversite for campus units' financial planning and collaborates with various campus units to manage the university's financial health. The Budget and Financial Planning team works to enhance financial and budget forecasting, reporting, and analysis by being a resource and partner to the Mines community. Broadly, FA&O provides critical support to the mission and forward-thinking strategic initiatives while managing $325 million in operating activity, stewarding $1 billion in assets, and supporting approximately 1400 full‑time faculty and staff.

In this role, you'll be responsible for operational forecasting, reporting, and analysis for a select portfolio along with institutional projects as assigned. Additional responsibilities include procedural documentation, implementing the budgeting system, and communicating financial data into high‑level summary reports.

For success in this position, you'll need:

• Attention to Detail – The ability to not only be accurate in producing analyses, but also notice quirks in the information that may warrant further exploration


• Curiosity – A drive to dig deeper into analyses to determine why things look or function the way they do


• Customer Focus – An understanding of constituent needs that allows for the tailoring of information to most effectively serve that specific audience


• Innovation/Problem Solving – A focus on leveraging available resources to develop new solutions to long‑time or newly identified challenges


• Collaboration – Awareness of how the individual's work may impact or be supported by other members of the team

This position may be eligible for hybrid work in Colorado and requires two or more days per week on campus in Golden, Colorado. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position now nor in the future.

Primary Responsibilities

Financial Analysis

Analyze and summarize campus portfolio budget and fund variances, along with producing monthly and annual reports explaining those results.

Develop scenario analyses that evaluate financial impacts of enrollment changes, state appropriations, research growth, compensation adjustments, and strategic investments on campus portfolio partners.

Support current strategic initiatives and campus projects, including preparing analyses and briefing materials for campus portfolio partners, including scenario evaluations and strategic or operational recommendations.

Develop a deep understanding of the financial data to measure benchmarks, explain the outcomes, and provide metrics to measure financial performance against industry trends.

Financial Operations and Systems

Manage a campus portfolio by meeting regularly and serving as a financial consultant for those leaders by supporting budget management, effectively communicating models, reports, and analysis results in writing, presentations, and other methods.

Work on continuous business process improvement, including writing and revising documentation along with recommending and supporting ways to improve business and financial services to campus partners.

Support the university budget processes, including annual operating budget development, implementation, monitoring, and fiscal year analysis.

Continuously enhance skills and abilities in Workday's Adaptive Planning tool to implement efficient operations/business processes and refine modeling accuracy and efficiency.

Reporting and Forecasting

Develop financial models to forecast future department revenues and expenses, along with annual and long‑term financial funding models for units in their reporting portfolio.

Aid in the development of forecasting procedures and lead reporting initiatives related to multi‑year projections, which include mandatory costs, auxiliary revenue, and labor expenses.

Draw from available data to develop digestible financial dashboards and reporting while maintaining and enhancing scheduled reports based on campus feedback and strategic needs.

Continuously enhance skills and abilities in data visualization software, such as Tableau.

Continuously enhance skills and abilities in Workday's Adaptive Planning tool to support effective decision‑making reports and analytics

In the first 3-6 months, the successful candidate will have developed and implemented:

• Working knowledge of Mines financial and organizational structures, Workday/Adaptive systems, and standard business processes


• Positive rapport with campus partners, including both operational partners (e.g. HR) and financial partners (i.e. portfolio)


• Ownership of their learning process with constant leveraging of available resources


• Mainten