Senior Manager, Finance Operations and Controls, Office Vice President Research

Position: 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…