ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, ACCOUNTING SERVICES

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty. 

The College of Education Finance and Administrative Support Team (EDFAST) is part of the College’s Shared Environment Core team (EDSECT) of experts performing financial transactions and reporting on behalf of the College and its centers and programs.  EDSECT’s mission is to ease the administrative burdens that can bog down the educational and research missions of our unit, and its goal is to be a leader in customer service and continuous improvement.

EDFAST achieves high standards by working together in an integrated team culture. The pace of our work is brisk, and performance expectations are high.  We are eager learners, excellent communicators, diligent workers, and creative thinkers.

Our team is expanding in concert with the University’s Finance Transformation initiative, taking on new business processes such as grant close, month-end close, reconciliations, and journal entries.  We are seeking candidates for the role of Assistant Director to help lead this expansion through the launch of Workday Finance and, afterward, to oversee the EDFAST Accounting Services group.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The College of Education has an outstanding opportunity for Assistant Director of Account Services to join our team and help steward and manage a multi-function shared service program.  The Assistant Director of Accounting Services will be responsible to manage the College’s shared environment taking on new business processes such as grant close, month-end close, faculty effort certifications, reconciliations, payroll costing, and journal entries on behalf of all programs within the College.

The position will be responsible to support and follow UW wide business processes, and support compliance with state, federal, University and College of Education policies and procedures.  Long term goals include increasing the efficiency of administrative support, ensuring cost savings over time, while maintaining customer satisfaction and operation compliance.  The shared environment is a collaborative effort that aims to build a sustainable academic business model and is focused on developing lean business processes, online tools to support processes, and create efficiencies across the College of Education.

Management and oversight

•          Acquire and maintain high-level subject matter expertise in Workday Finance business process flows and policies.
•          Collaborate with EDSECT to develop timelines, staffing models, business process flows, website resources, ticketing tools, performance goals, and service level agreements in association with the University Finance Transformation teams and UW IT.
•          Ensure policies and procedures meet customer needs and university, state, federal, and College of Education compliance requirements.
•          Manage and oversee day to day activities of the shared environment processing high volume transactions in the anticipated following areas:
• Budget reconciliations, costing allocations, expense, and salary transfers and using ONARF to hire for HR processing.
• Month-end and reporting activities completed in a timely manner to meet UW requirements.
• Receive, review, and process requests for non-payroll cost transfers.
• Review journal status report and pending transactions.
• Review all effort reports for compliance before certification using the OFEE.
• Assist with the final award reconciliation before working with Grant and Contract Accounting to close out the award in Workday.
• Creation and approval of journal vouchers to support CoEd business and reporting processes.
• Additional processes as determined through ongoing design, implementation, and stabilization.
•          Responsible for full analysis of financials, perform proper trial balance analysis, identify and record missing accrual entries.
•          Responsible for review and request of Workday work tags.
•          Using the College budget database, ensure that all final financial reconciliations are completed and prepare for financial closeout.
•          Understand Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) requirements and prepare required adjusting entries accordingly.
•          Support financial statement generation and analysis as well as account certifications reconciliation.

Operations and Training

•          Manage the EDFAST helpdesk for accounting related activities. Serve as subject matter expert lead and escalation point for accounting -related questions and challenges. Further escalate issues to EDSECT as appropriate.
•          Exemplify team values and set the tone that creates a productive, fast-paced, fun, and successful work culture.
•          Work with peers across campus and central units to develop a training plain and tools to support CoEd shared services and UWFT compliance requirements.
•          Research, design, deploy and monitor record to report specific training; serve as the College liaison with FT and ISC training teams; verify staff completion of training programs.
•          Use continuous process improvement methodologies to document and maintain robust workflows on the College’s ticketing, budget, ONARF, and OFEE system with a focus on accuracy, timeliness, and excellent customer service.
•          Collaborate with EDSECT to develop timelines, staffing models, business process flows, website resources, performance goals, and service level agreements in association with the University Finance Transformation teams and UW IT.
•          Provide ongoing communications to both internal and external stakeholders.

Strategic Leadership

•          Help establish program goals and initiatives for the shared environment by gathering data, stakeholder engagement, deployment and change management.
•          Work with EDSECT to develop and maintain a structure that supports positive customer experience, resolves issues, and builds trust.
•          Create tools and metrics, including but not limited to surveys, focus groups and interviews that aim to collect feedback and input, ensuring a collaborative process that prioritizes timely completion of all accounting functions.
•          Work with EDSECT to make long-range plans, which consider design changes in services or processes to meet changing priorities, requirements, and/or budgetary constraints/concerns.
•          Review Record to Report and Grant Award to Close end-to-end process and recommend changes to current policies and procedures in anticipation of Workday to EDSECT; develop and maintain training and procedure materials.
•          Collaborate with EDSECT to modify and update staffing needs as additional information is learned during testing and training prior to UWFT go live on July 1, 2023.

Supervision and Management

•          Hire, train and supervise multiple classified and professional staff positions.
•          Set priorities and performance expectations for accomplishing EDFAST work, provide training and direct the activities of the team.
•          Provide regular coaching, feedback regarding employee performance; conduct performance evaluations, make recommendations for promotions/salary adjustments, disciplinary actions/complaints/grievances/terminations.
•          Monitor and measure team workload, assure adequate staff coverage and, when necessary, shift staffing to cover gaps.

Other Duties as Assigned

•          Participate in University, College and program lead meetings and actively serve as College’s liaison
•          Participate in all Workday trainings e.g. “Train the Trainer”, Adaptive and other trainings
•          Other related duties.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

•          Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience), to include a minimum 4-5 years’ experience working in a highly collaborative, fast-paced team environment dedicated to customer service, continuous improvement, and innovation and managing financial reporting and/or grants in the education or not-for-profit sectors.
Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

•          Demonstrated success leading colleagues and customers through organizational, technological, or policy change initiatives.
•          Demonstrated excellence in communicating cordially and effectively with diverse audiences in-person, over email and instant messaging applications, and using Zoom and other remote work applications.
•          Demonstrated ability to analyze data using Excel pivot tables; document workflows using Microsoft Visio or other process mapping applications; create effective presentations using PowerPoint; and lead meetings using Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
•          Demonstrated success synthesizing diverse data sources to reach personnel and policy/procedural recommendations.

DESIRED:

•          Demonstrated familiarity with Washington State and UW financial reporting policies and practices.
•          Experience using the Workday HCM and/or Workday Financials platforms.
•          Familiarity with the diversity of business needs in an organization the size and complexity of the College of Education.

Application Process:
The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process.  These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others.  Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.