"Financial Planning & Analysis Specialist"

Financial Planning & Analysis Specialist

Company: Auburn University

Job Location: Auburn University, 36849-5207

Category: Business and Financial Services

Type: Full-Time

Requisition Number: S4788P

Home Org Name: Budget and Planning Services

Division Name: AVP, Budgets & Business Operations

Job Class Code: KA53/KA54

Appointment Status: Full-time

Limited Term: No

Job Summary

Join a team that helps shape the future of Auburn University! The Department of Budget and Planning Services is seeking a dynamic Financial Planning and Analysis Specialist to help drive strategic decision-making across the institution. In this pivotal role, you'll dive into creating financial models, management statements, and planning frameworks that support both university-wide initiatives and college/unit-level programs. If you're passionate about turning data into insight and want to make a meaningful impact on academic and operational success, we'd love to hear from you!

Selected candidates will be hired at the Specialist or Senior Specialist level, depending on education and experience.

Essential Functions

Essential Functions for the Specialist level include:

• Designs, builds, and validates third-party planning platform models for financial planning, forecasting, reporting, and consolidations, ensuring accuracy, scalability, and alignment with institutional goals and best practices.
• Configures and optimizes third-party planning platform lists, modules, dashboards, and actions; troubleshoots model issues and recommends technical enhancements based on user feedback and Third-party planning platform best practices.
• Integrates third-party planning platform models with enterprise data sources and automates data flows to support comparative and historical financial analysis, ensuring seamless and reliable data connectivity.
• Analyzes, compiles, and manipulates financial data within a third-party planning platform, applying logic and coding to identify trends, variances, and significant findings that inform decision-making.
• Maintains and enhances third-party planning platform models for annual planning, forecasting, reporting, and consolidations, ensuring technical robustness, data integrity, and continuous improvement.
• Prepares and analyzes weekly and monthly financial performance using third-party planning platform dashboards and reports to identify key trends and variances, supporting timely and informed financial decisions.
• Collaborates on quarterly reporting packages by leveraging the third-party planning platform's analytical capabilities to benchmark performance and track progress toward institutional goals and initiatives, presenting insights to management and stakeholders.
• Collaborates with finance teams to support all business functions by recommending and assisting in the building of business-specific dashboards for departments/leaders across the organization, including assisting in the building of long-term financial plans for auxiliary and other units.
• Assists in the preparation of detailed presentations of comprehensive materials. Prepares graphs, charts, etc., for presentations to effectively communicate financial insights and model outputs to stakeholders.
• May perform other duties as assigned.

Salaries are determined based on factors which include experience and education as they relate to the minimum qualifications of the position and departmental budget. A more realistic salary range that we would be able to offer to most well-qualified candidates is $63,620- $75,660.

Essential Functions for the Sr. Specialist level include:

• Leads cross-functional financial modeling initiatives, architecting and optimizing solutions using third-party planning platforms to deliver scalable, automated budgeting and reporting across university units.
• Oversees technical deployment, data validation, and system integration for new models within third-party planning platforms; applies advanced troubleshooting and implements enhancements based on stakeholder feedback to maximize platform performance.
• Aggregates and analyzes complex financial datasets using advanced analytics; designs and refines predictive models to support strategic planning. Leads automation projects to streamline Financial Planning & Analysis (FPA) workflows and integrates data sources for improved efficiency.
• Provides technical expertise in financial modeling and scenario analysis. Partners with campus finance teams to develop robust long-term financial plans and address complex financial challenges.
• Designs, implements, and maintains dynamic financial dashboards using visualization tools to enable real-time performance monitoring and data-driven decision-making for leadership.
• May perform other duties as assigned.

Salaries are determined based on factors which include experience and education as they relate to the minimum qualifications of the position and departmental budget. A more realistic salary range that we would be able to offer to most well-qualified candidates is $79,750- $96,540.

Why Work at Auburn?

• Life-Changing Impact: Our work changes lives through research, instruction, and outreach, making a lasting impact on our students, our communities, and the world.
• Culture of Excellence: We are committed to leveraging our strengths, resources, collaboration, and innovation as a top employer in higher education.
• We're Here for You: Auburn offers generous benefits, educational opportunities, and a culture of support and work/life balance.
• Sweet Home Alabama: The Auburn/Opelika area offers southern charm, vibrant downtown scenes, top-ranked schools, and easy access to Atlanta, Birmingham, and the Gulf of Mexico beaches.
• A Place for Everyone: Auburn is committed to fostering an environment where all faculty, staff, and students are welcomed, valued, respected, and engaged.

Ready to lead and shape the future of higher education? Apply today! War Eagle!

Minimum Qualifications

Specialist:
Education: Bachelor's Degree
Experience: 0 years of experience required. Experience in financial planning and analysis or financial modeling preferred.

Sr. Specialist:
Education: Bachelor's Degree
Experience: 3 years of experience in financial planning and analysis or financial modeling.

Minimum Skills and Abilities

• Knowledge of generally accepted accounting practices and principles.
• Knowledge and demonstration of best practices in budgeting and financial planning.
• Ability to analyze financial data.
• Ability to learn, navigate, and administer budget and long-term financial planning software.

Desired Qualifications

A degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Information Systems, Business Analytics or related field is desired.

Salary Range: $53,140 - $116,730

Job Category: Business/Accounting/Finance

City position is located in: Auburn

State position is located: Alabama

Equal Opportunity Compliance Statement: It is our policy to provide equal employment and education opportunities for all individuals without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by applicable law. Please visit their website to learn more.