Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

Job
Title
:
Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

Team
:
People & Operations

Location
:
Hybrid in Atlanta (GA), Chicago (IL), New York (NYC), or Newark (NJ)

Employment
Type
:
Full-time

FLSA
Classification
:
Exempt

Start Date
: ASAP

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising college students to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students, followed by support that lasts through graduation.

Together, our ambition is to help rebuild the middle class and revitalize the American Dream.

To learn more, take a look at Braven's Jobs.

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80, Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring a Director, Financial Planning & Analysis professional who will serve as a trusted resource, leader, and collaborator across the organization on financial planning, forecasting, and decision-support topics.

As a member of the Finance team within the People & Operations department, you will lead organization-wide budgeting, forecasting, and financial decision support, translating program and operational strategy into actionable financial plans.

This role is on the People & Operations team and reports directly to the Chief Finance & Admin Officer (CFAO).

Budgeting & Forecasting - 40%

• Own the annual organization-wide budget process, partnering with department and program leaders to build realistic, defensible budgets.
• Maintain rolling multi-year forecasts incorporating enrollment, funding, and headcount assumptions.
• Build and maintain scenario models (best-case, worst-case, and most-likely) to support board and executive decision-making.
• Translate program and operational strategy into financial models that quantify costs, returns, and trade-offs for leadership decisions.
• Own and lead monthly budget-to-actual variance meetings with department and program leaders, flagging risks and opportunities to leadership.
• Own a rolling cash flow forecast that models grant and gift receipt timing against operating cash needs, partnering with Development on receipt timing and flagging liquidity risk to the CFAO.
• Serve as the organization's functional owner of its budgeting and planning systems (Workday budgetary controls, Adaptive Planning), maintaining model structure, hierarchies, and dashboards each budget cycle.

Management & Board Reporting - 25%

• Build and maintain KPI dashboards tracking organizational performance against plans for leadership, the Board, and Finance Committee(s).
• Partner with Development on revenue forecasting tied to funding pipeline and multi-year grant/gift commitments.
• Prepare Board & Committee materials, including budget presentations and variance narratives.

Cross-Functional Partnership - 25%

• Serve as the primary financial planning partner to non-finance department leaders, providing independent analysis and recommendations that shape their budget decisions, including training on budgeting and planning tools and troubleshooting support.
• Partner with the Finance grants lead to ensure that grant-funded program budgets are accurately reflected in organization-wide forecasts without duplicating compliance-level detail.
• Own compensation and headcount budget modeling, partnering with the People Team on underlying assumptions.

Other duties, as assigned - 10%

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, or related field
• 5+ years of experience in FP&A, Accounting, Finance, or a related field
• 3+ years of non-profit experience, specifically comfortable with budgeting, forecasting, and board-level financial reporting

Preferred Qualifications

• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Familiarity and knowledge of accounting principles/theories (GAAP, FASB)
• Prior experience with an ERP implementation or major system migration strongly preferred (Workday specifically a plus)
• Experience with budgeting/reporting tools such as Workday Adaptive Planning a plus
• Team player and business partner who demonstrates the ability to work in a collegial, collaborative, and fast-paced organization
• Strong listening skills, empathy, patience, and the ability to lead through influence and by example
• Effective project, time, process, and people management skills which enables them to manage multiple, changing priorities and initiatives, and to "get things done" in a timely manner
• Demonstrated…