Senior Manager, Finance Operations and Controls, Office of the Vice President for Research

The Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Virginia advances research, scholarship, creative arts, and innovation that serve the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and the world. OVPR catalyzes, supports, and safeguards the University’s research enterprise, providing leadership and infrastructure for responsible, high-impact discovery. This role contributes directly to that mission by strengthening the financial operations, controls, stewardship, and decision-support practices essential to a complex research environment.

OVPR seeks an experienced finance operations and controls professional to strengthen its finance infrastructure , support sound financial stewardship, and serve as a trusted advisor to the Senior Director of Finance and decentralized OVPR finance and administration teams. This full-time exempt role requires strong judgment, technical finance capability, proficiency with Workday or comparable enterprise finance systems, budget and research administration experience, and the ability to provide credible guidance in a complex research finance environment.

The position combines senior-level controls, analysis, issue resolution, process improvement, and selected transactional execution to ensure financial activity is accurate, timely, well documented, appropriately reviewed, and escalated when judgment, policy interpretation, or corrective action is required.

Key Responsibilities:

Finance Operations Controls and Risk Management

• Develop and implement finance operations processes, controls, documentation standards, review protocols, escalation criteria, and recurring quality checks.
• Review Workday and related financial activity to identify exceptions, recurring errors, policy concerns, process gaps, and opportunities to strengthen account review, reconciliation, workflow, and escalation practices.

Budget, Reporting, and Decision Support

• Lead or support budget planning, variance analysis, payroll validation, scenario planning, budget development, and decision-support materials.
• Prepare, review, and improve reports, dashboards, trackers, reconciliations, and decision-support resources that are accurate, actionable, and appropriate for management review.

Research Administration and Compliance Support

• Support sponsored and non-sponsored research administration through budget alignment, proposal- or award-related financial analysis, payroll costing review, compliance documentation, funding questions, and central-office coordination.
• Identify and escalate research finance, compliance, funding, documentation, or policy issues that require interpretation, corrective action, or coordination with central administrative offices.

Transaction Execution, Documentation, and Follow-Up

• Execute selected finance operations activity, including purchasing, supplier payments, reimbursements, journals, budget entries, transfers, payroll costing updates, and related Workday activity.
• Maintain trackers, status logs, documentation, follow-up notes, and budget, payroll, and commitment records to support review, reconciliation, reporting, and escalation.

Stakeholder Guidance, Process Improvement, and Operational Support

• Provide senior finance operations guidance to decentralized OVPR units by clarifying requirements, reviewing complex activity, resolving issues, and strengthening consistent finance and business practices.
• Communicate clearly with OVPR leadership, decentralized units, faculty, staff, central administrative offices, vendors, and partners; perform other finance operations, controls, analysis, and administrative responsibilities as needed.

Operating Model and Expectations:

This role requires a professional who can move fluidly between senior-level finance operations review and selected transactional execution, documentation, and follow-up. The position is expected to strengthen controls, improve visibility into financial activity, support budget and research administration needs, and ensure issues are resolved or escalated with appropriate documentation and judgment.

The successful candidate should be comfortable working independently, creating structure where processes are evolving, and building productive relationships with stakeholders who do not report to this position. Success will require credibility, diplomacy, persistence, strong documentation habits, practical judgment, and timely communication with the Senior Director of Finance regarding risks, recommendations, unresolved issues, and progress.

Required Qualifications:

Education and Professional Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business administration, public administration, or a related field and at least seven years of professional experience in a financial discipline; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
• Demonstrated subject matter expertise in financial operations, accounting, budgeting, research administration, internal controls, financial analysis, or related business operations.

Finance Operations, Controls, and Analysis

• Demonstrated ability to analyze, reconcile, interpret, and document complex financial information with accuracy, discretion, and attention to detail.
• Experience strengthening financial review processes, controls, workflows, escalation practices, and operational accountability, including transactions, account reviews, reconciliations, budget entries, payroll costing updates, or purchasing/payment workflows.

Systems, Tools, and Process Improvement

• Advanced Excel or comparable spreadsheet proficiency, including complex formulas, reconciliations, pivot tables, lookups, data validation, and analysis templates.
• Ability to use financial systems, reporting tools, spreadsheets, and structured workflows to improve accuracy, visibility, accountability, and operational efficiency.

Judgment, Communication, and Stakeholder Coordination

• Strong judgment, independence, organization, documentation habits, follow-through, and ability to manage multiple transactions, requests, deadlines, open items, and stakeholder follow-ups simultaneously.
• Ability to coordinate across decentralized stakeholders, resolve routine issues, ask timely questions, escalate exceptions or policy-sensitive matters appropriately, and communicate requirements and next steps clearly to technical, non-technical, and senior leadership audiences.

Preferred Qualifications:

Advanced Credentials and Complex Environment Experience

• MBA, CMA, CPA, or other relevant advanced degree, certification, or professional credential related to finance, accounting, business administration, research administration, or operations.
• Experience in higher education, research administration, academic medical centers, government, nonprofit organizations, or similarly complex environments with significant financial, operational, policy, or compliance requirements.

Enterprise Systems and Research Finance Operations

• Experience with Workday, Adaptive Planning, Anaplan, planning systems, reporting tools, research administration systems, or other enterprise finance platforms.
• Experience with research finance operations, budget administration, payroll costing, purchasing/payment workflows, transaction tracking, account reviews, or reconciliations.

Process Improvement, Tools, and Decentralized Support

• Experience documenting procedures, maintaining trackers, organizing transition materials, improving finance workflows, and developing dashboards, exception reports, checklists, control frameworks, training materials, or decision-support resources.
• Experience supporting decentralized finance, administration, research, or business operations teams through guidance, training, review, escalation, or process improvement.

Compensation and Work Requirements:

This role functions as a senior individual contributor with significant independence, subject matter expertise, and responsibility for strengthening finance operations, controls, and cross-functional issue resolution.

The role is hybrid-eligible, with on-site presence required as needed for meetings, stakeholder engagement, operational coverage, and University business needs; occasional travel across Grounds or to other University locations may be required.

The anticipated hiring range is $120,000-$135,000 annually, commensurate with experience and subject to internal equity, market review, job profile alignment, and applicable approvals.

This position will remain open until filled. This is an exempt level, benefited position. The University will perform background checks on all hires (if required) prior to employment. Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States. For this role, the University will not sponsor or consider candidates requiring sponsorship for employment visas now or in the future.

Please apply online , and search for R0085536. Complete an application online with the following documents:

• Resume
  
• Cover letter
  

Upload all materials into the resume submission field; multiple documents can be submitted into this one field. Alternatively, merge all documents into one PDF for submission. Applications that do not contain all required documents will not receive full consideration.

Internal applicants: Search and apply for jobs on the UVA Internal Careers website .

For finalists, references will be completed via UVA’s standardized process using SkillSurvey. A total of up to five references will be requested via SkillSurvey for top candidates during the final phase of the interview process. A total of three references is required.

For questions about the application process, please contact Daniel Strong, Senior Recruiter at das6zb@virginia.edu.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

Education: Bachelor's degree required.

Experience: 7+ years of professional experience in a financial discipline required.

Licensure: None, unless as required by position as specified.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

This is primarily a sedentary job involving extensive use of desktop computers. The job does occasionally require traveling some distance to attend meetings, and programs.

The University of Virginia is an equal opportunity employer. All interested persons are encouraged to apply, including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Learn more about UVA’s commitment to non-discrimination and equal opportunity employment .