Job Details

Academic Finance Manager, Reporting and Analysis - Office of the Provost - UTK

Position Number: 6288149
Location: Chattanooga, TN
Position Type: Business - Finance

Academic Finance Manager, Reporting and Analysis - Office of the Provost - UTK
Knoxville, TN, United States

Job Identification: 3376
Job Category: Financial
Posting Date: 06/09/2025
Job Schedule: Full Time
Locations: 1331 Circle Park, Knoxville, TN, 37996, US

Job Description
This role is responsible for developing and maintaining comprehensive monthly reporting packages for use by the Provost to assess the performance of the colleges and academic affairs units. Additional reports include analytical and variance analysis reports, forecasts and projections, and scenario planning and modeling. Utilizing Power-BI and collaborating with the Institutional Research and Strategic Analysis team, this position is responsible for developing performance dashboards and graphics that "tell the story within the numbers," and continuously work toward improvements and efficiencies in gathering, processing, analyzing, reporting, and displaying data. This position is also responsible for creating tools for the colleges, such as calculating return on investment (ROI) and trend lines, and providing various performance ratios such as expense dollars per faculty FTE or student headcount, and operating margins.

Responsibilities
25% - Standard Recurring Reports:

Develop and maintain standard, recurring "monthly reporting package" of financial performance reports for each college and each Provost academic affairs unit.
Develop and maintain fiscal year forecasts from year-to-date actuals for each college and each Provost academic affairs unit.
Develop a set of comparative operating ratios (for example, $$/Faculty FTE, $$/Student FTE, personnel costs/total direct costs) for all colleges and other instructional units.

25% - Financial Analysis and Interpretation:

Create analytical reports that illustrate trends for revenues, direct expenses, indirect expenses, and operating margins for each college.
Create variance analyses for year over year changes to budgets, year over year changes to actuals, yearly comparisons of actuals to budgets.
Analyze the data and produce graphic reports that "tell the story within the numbers" and what the numbers mean about the current and future performance of each college. These explanations should be geared toward a non-financial audience, and support decision makers in developing strategy and managing university operations.

20% - Data Analysis and Display:

Collaborate with the Institutional Research group to develop performance dashboards on a host of performance metrics that compare financial data to personnel data to payroll data to student data.
Create dynamic reporting platforms to display these relationships at the college and departmental levels. Illustrate where a college falls above or below other colleges using statistical methods and standards such as means, medians, and standard deviations.
Create these dynamic reports using tools such as Power BI or other business intelligence and data analysis software such that they are user friendly and readily available on demand.
Prepare presentations of data to support strategic and operational planning and decision making.

20% - Future-facing Planning Scenarios and Calculating Return on Investment:

Develop comprehensive long range planning tools to allow studying "what-if" scenarios for changes in various inputs to the budget model (such as changes in enrollments, revenues, cost increases, etc.).
Develop models that can make projections of future financial positions given particular budget drivers.
Create tools that will calculate ROI of proposed new programs or changes in existing programs.
Create tools that can be delivered to the college business offices for them to use to study feasibility of new programs or changes to existing programs.
Create reports and analyses that show the limits of available resources, and conversely the level of resources required to reach a proposed goal. (In essence, create business plans and pro formas.)

10% - On Demand Reporting and Analysis ("other duties as assigned"):

Do ad hoc analysis as requested and when requested by the Provost or Asst Provost for Finance.
Support the Director of Academic Finance in their projects as requested.
Educate the general campus community members and other non-financial managers about financial best practices and concepts.
Continuously work toward improvements and efficiencies in gathering, processing, analyzing, reporting, and displaying data (for example, bringing in AI to provide analytical insights).

Qualifications
Required Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Analytics, Accounting, Math, Statistics, Economics, or other related field of study, or 7 years' experience in a similar position in Higher Ed or a large corporation.
Experience: 7 years of relevant, progressively responsible work experience of which 5 years' experience involves financial analysis, budgeting or modeling.
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities: Advanced experience with Microsoft Excel, Power BI, Power Query and other data transformational tools and techniques; experience with large enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (such as Oracle).
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without need now or in the future for sponsorship for employment visa status.

Preferred Qualifications

Education: Master's Degree in Business, Finance, Analytics, Accounting or other related field of study
Experience: Experience with Responsibility Center Management (RCM) budget model environment; experience with cloud-based budget, financial planning and analysis software (e.g., Oracle)
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities: Higher education, governmental or non-profit accounting or budgeting experience.

Work Location

Location: Knoxville, TN
Onsite

Compensation and Benefits

UT market range: MR13 - $65,810 - $118,457
Anticipated hiring range: $90,000 - $110,000
Find more information on the UT Market Range structure here
Find more information on UT Benefits here

Application Instructions

To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments. To be assured of full consideration, completed applications with all requested materials should be submitted on or before June 30, 2025. However, applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until a hire is made.

Resume
Cover Letter
List of 3 Professional References

About The College/Department/Division

The Office of the Provost is the central academic leadership unit, responsible for overseeing all academic matters and fostering academic excellence. It is responsible for overseeing the education of more than 30,000 undergraduate students and approximately 8,100 graduate students. The office is responsible for overseeing and coordinating academic affairs and activities within the institution. The Office of the Provost plays a central role in faculty recruitment, retention, and advancement. The Office also assists in the development of strategic academic initiatives for the campus. The Office of the Provost directs budget resources for academic units and partners with them on planning, development, implementation, and assessment of academic programs and policies.

About Us
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has shaped leaders, changemakers, and innovative thinkers since its founding in 1794. The university is home to more than 38,000 students and 10,000 statewide employees-the Volunteers-who uphold the university's tradition of lighting the way for others through leadership and service.

UT Knoxville offers over 900 programs of study across 14 degree-granting colleges and schools. As Tennessee's flagship land-grant university, its footprint spans the entire state. The university holds the highest Carnegie classification for research activity and has deep partnerships with industry leaders and the US Department of Energy's largest multidisciplinary laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The Knoxville campus serves and recruits for UT Knoxville, including the Institute of Agriculture and the Space Institute, as well as the UT Institute of Public Service.

UT Knoxville considers its employees its number one asset. With values that focus on work-life balance, compensation, and innovation leadership, all Vols are supported to advance professionally. Employees have access to career development and coaching, continued education, and an extensive list of development and training possibilities. The Volunteer employee experience implements structures and practices that attract and retain a diverse community and that support a culture where everyone matters and belongs.

The university holds a strong commitment to its land-grant mission of learning and engagement, with a tradition of service and leadership that carries that Volunteer spirit throughout the state and around the world. It has been ranked nationally as "Best Employer for New Graduates," "One of America's Best Large Employers," and "Best Workplace for Women," and has been designated as "Best Place for Working Parents" by Forbes Magazine.

Apply today and join the Tennessee Volunteer community!

To apply, visit https://fa-ewlq-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1/job/3376/?mode=location