Job Opening: Director, Strategic Finance Initiatives

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Job Summary

The Director, Strategic Finance Initiatives is a critical member of the Institute for Capacity Building team, directly managing all program development, professional development, and advisory support related to strategic finance. The Director will have principal responsibility for delivering professional development in the area of higher education finance to ICB’s partnering institutions. In addition to developing strategic finance programming for partnering institutions, the Director will also be responsible for developing ICB’s strategic finance strategy, growing ICB’s strategic finance capabilities, and securing additional programmatic resources through grant writing, sponsorships, and other activities. Beyond leading strategic finance programming, the Director will also provide subject matter expertise to other programs and team members, where appropriate, this includes, but is not limited to, identifying and undertaking activities to inform ICB’s ongoing organizational and strategic development activities.

The successful candidate will be part of a team seeking to partner with HBCUs and PBIs to ensure their sustainability by increasing the institution’s competitiveness, and viability. The position requires a highly motivated and collaborative individual who can communicate effectively and possesses strong finance, higher education, program, and/or professional development abilities.

Successful candidates will join the Institute for Capacity Building team which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to specific roles and responsibilities, ICB team members have proven to be successful when they:

  • Are driven to serve people and institutions that are often undervalued and overlooked;
  • Embrace collaboration as a critical value to ensure effective teamwork and adoption of best practices;
  • Seek out opportunities to innovate and improve upon conventional practices and procedures;
  • Take personal responsibility for executing key projects and developing relationships, and operate with a sense of mission and purpose.

Responsibilities and Duties

  • Report to the Executive Director, Institute for Capacity Building.
  • Support the design, development, and execution of ICB’s Strategic Finance Institute (SFI).
  • Ensure ICB develops business models for HBCUs that assist institutions with more effective and strategic use of scarce resources.
  • Drive the development and execution of an assessment to identify archetypal business models of lower resource institutions.
  • Facilitate the creation of necessary training and professional development curriculum.
  • Create metrics and other key performance indicators to measure and monitor progress.
  • Provide strategic advice to ICB by participating in planning, design, and implementation for other institutional programs as well.
  • Promote several learning-oriented initiatives, both internal to UNCF and externally to the participating institutions.

Qualifications and Skills

  • An outstanding record of academic and professional achievement and leadership
  • Excellent quantitative and financial analysis skills including the ability to envision, orchestrate and execute complex analyses (e.g. multivariate and regression analysis)
  • Ability to apply financial analysis to address questions of strategy (e.g. tuition strategy)
  • Strong ability to communicate complex financial analysis effectively, both verbally and in writing
  • Strong ability to break down complex problems, distinguish essential and secondary issues, and deliver creative insights.
  • Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, across lines of difference
  • Command of Excel (including pivot tables, and advanced functions), statistical tools (e.g. R, Stata, SPSS, SAS), and visualization tools (PowerPoint, Tableau, Power BI)
  • Strong interpersonal skills
  • Ability to move deftly between big picture and details
  • Comfort with concurrently managing multiple ongoing projects in different phases
  • Thrives with detail and deadlines
  • Bachelor’s degree is required; Graduate degree with an emphasis on quantitative analysis, MBA, CPA, or relevant consulting experience is preferred
  • 7-10 years of relevant work experience in business, finance, or management/strategy consulting is required
  • Commitment to education.
  • Individual must be a self-starter, who is able to problem-solver and take on a wide range of tasks to deliver results; collegial and professional manner; excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

Benefits

  • Medical, Dental & Vision
  • Vacation, Sick & Personal Leave
  • Life Insurance (Basic & Optional)
  • Flex Spending Accounts
  • 403(b) Retirement Account
  • Holiday Savings Plan

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About UNCF

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization, has been an engine of minority educational achievement for more than 75 years. UNCF’s mission is to build a robust and nationally recognized pipeline of black students who, because of UNCF support, become highly qualified college graduates. UNCF is committed to closing the educational attainment gap between African Americans and other populations by increasing postsecondary access and success for students from underrepresented groups, particularly low-income and first-generation students.

About ICB

Launched in 2006, UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building (ICB) provides targeted capacity-building resources to help HBCUs improve their resilience. We define resilience as the institution’s ability to improve its operation today and future-proof them for tomorrow. ICB’s engagement equips UNCF member institutions, and other HBCUs and PBIs, to provide high-quality educational experiences to their students and the broader Black community. ICB’s work focuses on three areas critical to HBCU success: institutional effectiveness, academic competitiveness, and financial viability. Beyond our strategic advisory and project management support, ICB serves as an innovation hub for Black colleges, connecting institutions to funders, best practices, resources, and subject matter experts both within and outside of UNCF.