Director of Administrative Finance & Strategic Planning

This position is located on the Cornell University Campus in Ithaca, New York. You will be expected to work in Ithaca, although you may be permitted to perform a portion of your work remotely.

Note:

No Visa sponsorship is available for this position.

Who we are:

Located in Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University is a bold, innovative, inclusive, and dynamic teaching and research university where staff, faculty, and students alike are challenged to make an enduring contribution to the betterment of humanity. Cornell University is one of the largest and most diverse institutions in the Ivy League. We are a community of 22,000 students and more than 10,000 faculty and staff members representing more than 80 countries and hundreds of disciplines-global cultures, backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and ideas.

The Division of Budget and Planning supports Cornell University's academic mission and long‑term sustainability through institutional budgeting, financial and strategic planning, resource allocation, and analysis. The Division is responsible for developing planning assumptions; preparing and consolidating operating and capital budgets across the Ithaca campus, Cornell Tech, and Weill Cornell Medicine; supporting space and capital planning; and overseeing institutional research, accreditation, and external reporting.

Within the Division, the University Budget Office works closely with colleges and administrative units to develop, implement, and report on the Ithaca campus operating plan. The office serves as a steward of institutional resources by forecasting revenue and expenses; providing analytical context for planning assumptions and budget policies; coordinating allocation and policy issues with senior leadership; monitoring resource use; modeling the impact of program and policy changes;

and providing specialized budget services to meet New York State (NYS) and SUNY requirements. The Budget Office also maintains budget schedules, systems, and tools, and provides training to support the annual budget development process.

Additional information about the Division of Budget and Planning and the University Budget Office is available at Division of Budget and Planning website.

What you will do:

Reporting to the Associate Vice President of the University Budget Office, the Director of Administrative Finance & Strategic Planning is the primary financial lead for the University's Allocated Units portfolio, responsible for bringing consistency and clarity to a complex administrative financial environment and providing leadership to a team of financial professionals supporting these functions.

A key priority for this role is consolidating budget staff currently spread across decentralized units into a single, cohesive team. The Director will lead, supervise, and develop this centralized team, managing centralized reporting structures while ensuring that functional area leaders across HR, the Provost's Office, Financial Services, and others continue to receive responsive, high‑quality financial support. Navigating these cross‑functional relationships effectively is central to the role.

The Director holds end-to-end ownership of Sources & Uses reporting, including budget development and forecasting across both Operating and Capital portfolios. This includes standardizing financial processes and reporting frameworks to ensure revenue and expenses are clearly aligned and that cross-subsidization is transparent and well-documented. A core objective is establishing the data integrity and reporting infrastructure that gives University leadership an accurate, reliable picture of current financial conditions-reducing the need for ad hoc reconciliation and creating a stable foundation for strategic planning through effective coordination and oversight of team contributions.

The Director must be equally capable of building rigorous financial systems and communicating complex financial information clearly to senior leadership. This work is also critical to the University's upcoming implementation of Workday Adaptive Planning, making process standardization, clean data, and strong team leadership and accountability a…