FP&A Sr Manager

We Impact Lives Through Purpose-Driven Work in A People First Culture

Ascend Learning is the connection between a powerful portfolio of brands serving students, educators, and employers with outcomes-based, data driven solutions across the lifecycle of learning.

Our values-driven culture unifies our teams and inspires a mindset of action, innovation, and collaboration, with a relentless focus on customers.

We're always looking for talented, passionate professionals to join us in our mission to help change lives. If this sounds like an environment where you'd thrive, read on to learn more.

Ascend Learning leads the way in innovation and solution creation to improve outcomes and deliver results for students, educators, and healthcare workers in the ever-changing field of healthcare. We offer advanced resources that drive nursing success, empower front-line certified allied health workers, help physicians pass boards and stay current, and provide education management tools for medical education programs.

Ascend Learning is hiring a hands‑on finance professional with strong technical and operational reporting skills to lead financial reporting, analysis, and planning for Ascend Learning’s Information Technology Services (ITS) and Instructional Learning and Assessment Solutions (ILAS) organizations. This role ensures accurate, consistent, and timely reporting of headcount, spend, and capital activity supporting effective forecasting, disciplined financial management, and transparency across teams.

The ideal candidate is detail‑oriented while also seeing the big picture and takes pride in delivering precise financial outputs that drive accountability and execution.

This position provides the financial backbone for Ascend’s technology and content development functions. The work directly supports capital planning, headcount management, and spend efficiency. The right candidate will ensure financial reporting serves as a reliable operational system of record that supports better decision‑making and disciplined execution.

• This position will work a hybrid schedule from our Leawood, KS office

• Own all financial reporting for ITS and ILAS, including monthly close support, forecasting, and variance analysis.
• Prepare accurate, reconciled reporting packages showing actuals vs. Plan and drivers of variance.
• Partner with ITS and ILAS leaders to maintain alignment on controllable P&L, headcount, and spend tracking.
• Maintain detailed documentation and ensure reporting consistency across accounting and FP&A teams.
• Analyze drivers and trends to inform decision making by the Chief Technology Officer and technology leadership team.

• Track all technology and content capital investments in accordance with capitalization policy.
• Maintain dashboards to monitor capitalization rates, project spend, and early warning indicators.
• Support ROI and cost‑efficiency analyses to inform resource allocation and project prioritization.

• Manage headcount and contractor forecasting in partnership with HR.
• Validate labor allocations and forecast models to ensure accurate view of total spend and productivity.
• Support reporting of spend by function, vendor, and cost type to identify efficiency opportunities.

• Maintain and continuously improve financial models and reporting templates.
• Streamline recurring reporting processes; identify automation opportunities to improve accuracy and timeliness.

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or related field required.
• 7+ years of progressive FP&A or financial reporting experience, preferably supporting technology or product orgs.
• Advanced Excel skills; familiarity with large‑scale financial systems and data visualization tools (e.g., Power
  
  BI).
• Strong attention to detail, ability to manage multiple deliverables under tight timelines, and comfort with ambiguity.

• Flexible and generous paid time off
• Competitive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance
• 401(k) employer matching program
• Parental leave
• Wellness resources
• Charitable matching program
• On‑site…