School Finance Specialist
EdOps Finance Specialist
The school finance specialist position is ideal for an individual looking to apply business, analytical, and finance/accounting skills to the social sector. You will have the opportunity to support schools with their day-to-day operations as well as help drive strategic decisions with data-driven insights.
Reports to a Finance Team Manager. Location flexible.
Who we are:
EdOps is a Washington, DC-based B-Corp focused on minimizing the financial, operational, and compliance demands of running a school and supporting education leaders with data-driven insights to improve student outcomes. Simply put, we make it easier for school leaders to increase student achievement. We work with all the schools that need us. Our growing team of professionals work with over 100 schools and school networks nationwide. We are serious about being the best possible partners to schools, and it shows in our 97% annual client retention rate and rapid growth rate. We work hard at being a rewarding, enjoyable workplace where staff can grow professionally and make an impact, and we were recognized as a Washington Post Top Workplace 2020. We are looking for education focused, finance loving, collaborative people to join our team.
What you will do:
- Serve as an outsourced bookkeeper and financial advisor for a portfolio of schools, providing key information to these schools’ leaders and Boards on matters pertaining to financial and operational policies, strategic decisions, and long-term financial planning.
- Oversee all day-to-day financial aspects of the schools, including accounts payable, payroll, grants administration, and financial compliance.
- Maintain accounting books and prepare monthly financial statements and financial projections.
- Support the annual budgeting process in partnership with school leadership.
- Serve as schools’ primary contact during annual financial audits and 990 preparation.
- Analyze, model, and solve problems on a wide range of business issues.
- Liaise with the schools’ Boards, the state education authority (SEA), and the charter authorizer as needed.
- Invest in other members of the EdOps team, supporting their efforts and demonstrating a desire to contribute to the growth of the internal team.
What you will accomplish:
By Year 1 you will:
- Solve small, real problems for schools on a daily basis.
- Learn the annual cycle of school finance from audit preparation to annual budgeting.
- Work with several schools in different stages of growth and with different academic models.
- Own the day-to-day financial and monthly accounting close process for multiple schools.
- Serve as an integral part of several internal teams demonstrating a strong desire to help.
By Year 3 you will:
- Advise school leaders on nuanced, long term strategic financial decisions (e.g., facilities projects, staffing models, school expansion).
- Develop expertise in school finance from building multi-year budgets to navigating a smooth audit process.
- Independently manage the annual financial cycle for a portfolio of 3 or more schools.
- Train newer or junior staff on key financial processes and serve as a key resource to newer or junior staff on your school teams.
- Present important financial information to a school’s Board of Directors.
- Continue to solve small and real problems for schools every day.
Who you are:
- Find joy in solving financial problems for individual schools. The little things make schools actually work.
- Care about education and outcomes for students as much as you care about budgets, forecasts and well designed financial processes.
- Able to zoom in and out between high level strategic perspective and detailed, daily financial work.
- Desire to be involved in the financial processes from input to analysis. We are outsourced CFOs but also controllers, accountants, and everything in between.
- Strong in independent problem solving. We are a very collaborative community that supports each other, but our specialists solve new problems every day.
- Energized by being in a customer service role. We are here first and foremost to serve our school clients.
- <Nice to have> Knowledge of schools and how they work.
- Committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Open to learning and growing in these areas together so that each of us can contribute to building a culture of equity and support our schools in advancing these values. Please see more on EdOps's commitment here.
What you need:
- Strong organization and time management skills. There is a lot going on here.
- Intermediate Excel knowledge, such as formulas like vlookups and sumifs, because Excel will be your best friend in executing on everyday financial work.
- Previous exposure to finance and accounting.
- Strong quantitative analysis, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills, as every school is different, and approaches and solutions often have to be customized.
- Strong client communication and interpersonal skills. Comfort presenting and explaining info (both verbally and in writing) to people with varying financial literacy. A Specialist might in one day present to a Board full of finance and education professionals, email a payroll provider about a technical 403b issue, and help create a grant budget with a school’s development department.
- General comfort with technology systems (e.g., Google suite, financial systems) because we are not big fans of paper around here at EdOps.
- <nice to have> Coursework or experience in education, nonprofit management, or finance and accounting.
- Typically, Finance Specialists have 5-8 years of work or post-secondary educational experience.
- Typically, Finance Specialists have 5-8 years of work or post-secondary educational experience.
What you get:
- Purpose driven work focusing on student achievement through operational excellence. That is what it is all about.
- Chance to work every day with colleagues who are committed to kids and supportive of each other’s efforts.
- Check out other perks of working at EdOps here. And some details on benefits here.
We know that a team from a wide range of backgrounds with different life experiences, identities, opinions, and talents makes us better able to innovate and deliver on our mission of supporting schools to improve student outcomes. Every day we work to build an inclusive company culture where everyone can be themselves at work and do their best work.
Apply:
If you are passionate about our mission, skilled in your field, ready to learn, and looking for a place where you can be yourself, we want to hear from you! To apply, please complete our application.
What you can expect from the hiring process:
