Senior Financial Planning and Analysis Specialist

Are you looking for more than just a job and want to make difference? If so, then join the National Student Clearinghouse talent community and discover your impact today!

We are a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization and the leading provider of educational reporting, data exchange, verification, and research services. Serving the education, workforce and learner communities has been at the heart of our mission for over 25 years. Our work - performed in a trusted, secure, and private environment - provides numerous time- and cost-saving benefits to students, schools, administrators, and requestors.

About the Role:

The Senior Specialist, Financial Analysis is responsible for developing and communicating highly complex and critical financial and business-related analysis to Executive leadership and across the company at all levels. This includes analysis related to budget, forecasting, pricing, product, customer, investment. The incumbent will partner with departmental and functional management to facilitate understanding the financial impact key business dynamics have and to help determine funding needs. Furthermore, the incumbent supports major business proposals that may require in-depth business analysis or complex cost estimates. The Senior Specialist, Financial Analysis drives financial efficiency and business analysis across the Company by helping to identify and implement KPI and other quality metrics. Driving financial best practices, this position will optimize opportunities regarding revenue, expense and cash management throughout the organization. In addition, the position will provide key support in the development of the annual and three to five year business/operating plans, quarterly and rolling forecast process, management reporting, and grant and project reporting and analysis.

Currently, this position is 100% telework, however, as our company starts to return to our new normal, a hybrid work pattern, this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required.

How You Contribute:

• Demonstrate the Clearinghouse's competencies, which align with our corporate values. Manager will provide more detail to candidates as needed.
  
  
  
  • Core Competencies include Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic.
  
  
  
  

Customer Focus:

• Manage the budget, rolling forecast, and long-range financial forecast processes as well as prepare financial statements and Board presentation packages.
• Track actual financial results to budget/forecast at department and service line levels and provide analytical insights into variances and financial results to stakeholders.
• Use deep understanding of objectives, issues and root causes and provide insightful, fact-based data analysis to help solve complex problems.
• Provide financial and strategic decision support to senior management to ensure achievement of short-and-long term financial goals.

Optimizes Work Processes:

• Leverage recurring and ad hoc management reporting to identify trends, build business cases, highlight opportunities and risks, and drive business decision making.
• Analyze historical and forecast results to identify areas of concern and anomalies and make business recommendations.
• Maintain the integration of financial planning tool with the General Ledger to ensure accurate transfer of information between the two systems.

Collaborates:

• Partner with Senior level management in setting direction and managing key financial priorities and executing successfully against those priorities.
• Participate in multiple, concurrent projects, serving as the analytical lead to provide financial framework and analysis.

Communicates Effectively:

• Assists management in understanding the business dynamics which impact the financial position of the company by developing financial models and creating and monitoring leading indicators and business statistics.
• Ensure relevant information is shared with all stakeholders as it pertains to their respective management areas.

Be Open and Authentic:

• Build trust with internal and external stakeholders by providing consistent, accurate and timely information, and demonstrating consistency between words and actions.
• Drive margin and sustainability while supporting the Clearinghouse mission by completing financial due diligence on new projects, initiatives, etc.

Position may be required to perform other duties as required. These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

What You Bring to the Table:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Economics, Data Analytics or related field. A combination of education and/or experience including military service will also be considered.
• 7 years of Finance related work experience in total, with at least 5 years of that experience be in Financial Planning and Analysis (budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling).
• Experience in:
  
  
  
  • Creating, maintaining and presenting complex revenue and/or expense financial models with input from stakeholders across the organization.
  • Composing targeted and concise reports in the form of narratives, tables, and graphs, and comprehending and translating strategic and tactical goals into assessment measures.
  
  
  
  
• High strategic and analytical skills, including proficiency in data extraction and analysis.
• Competency with Microsoft Office Suite, and proficiency with Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, including development of analytical tools through use of Pivot Tables, VLOOKUP, formula automation, financial model creation, etc.
• Strong understanding of the three main financial statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash flow) as well as key financial metrics used in financial reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to:
  
  
  
  • Build relationships at all levels of the organization perform in a leadership role.
  • Work effectively and communicate complex, dynamic financial and operational information clearly and succinctly to the senior leadership and executive teams.
  • Manage and prioritize multiple projects to ensure successful, timely completion and issue-resolution.
  • Work independently with minimal supervision and perform in a leadership role.
  
  
  
  
• Excellent organization, attention to detail, communication and effective presentation skills.
• High intellectual curiosity, and strong track record of problem solving and decision making based on data-driven analytics.
• Demonstrates the Clearinghouse's core competencies: customer focus, optimizes work processes, communicates effectively, collaborates, and is open and authentic.
• Must live within a commutable distance to Herndon, VA or in one of the Clearinghouse's approved States for hiring purposes. Refer to our HR Policies Page, located on our Careers site at https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/careers/human-resource-policies/, for more details.

Additional Desired Requirements:

• Coursework or job experience using financial planning software (i.e., Workday Adaptive), Tableau, or other data-analysis/visualization software.
• Experience working with and creating agile budgets/forecasts.
• Cash flow and balance sheet analysis and forecasting knowledge and experience.

Physical Demands:

• Use of a computer for 8 or more hours a day.
• Use of a copy machine and telephone.
• Frequently required to sit for 7 or more hours per day in close proximity to others in an open office environment.
• Occasionally required to use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach.
• Vision abilities include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.

Benefits and Related Information:

The National Student Clearinghouse provides a robust benefit program designed to help meet the needs of each employee and their family, both now and in the future. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life and disability insurance benefits, for employees and their qualified dependents. Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts, as well as a health savings account, are options available for employees to set aside pre-taxed dollars for certain qualifying expenses. We offer a very generous 401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions for those who are eligible! We are proud to offer a competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time, as well as paid holidays. Vacation time will accrue based on length of service, and new full-time hires can accrue up to 13 days of vacation and up to 10 days of sick time per year. On an annual basis, new employees may use up to 32 hours of accrued sick time as personal time. Additionally, the Clearinghouse observes at least 11 paid holidays per year.

Another perk is that employees have the option to get reimbursed for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships (e.g., Costco and AAA) and to request a buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation based on tenure and certain other qualifications. Employees can further their education and professional development by using our Employee Education Assistance Program, which establishes reimbursement for qualified education expenses upon successful completion of the program, and leveraging the enterprise-wide LinkedIn Learning subscription. There are additional employee benefits, to find out more, please request a copy of our complete benefit package!

We reasonably believe that the salary range for this position is between $114,000 to $130,000 annually.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)