Accounting Director Principal

University of Kentucky

Equal Employment Opportunity/M/F/disability/protected veteran status.

The University is seeking a strategic and service-focused leader to oversee student account services for more than 38,000 enrolled students. This role provides leadership for tuition and fee assessment exceeding $739 million, financial aid disbursements exceeding $296 million, billing, accounts receivable, financial reporting, analysis, and compliance.

This position plays a key role in ensuring that student financial operations are accurate, efficient, compliant, and centered on the needs of students and families. The successful candidate will lead university-wide efforts to safeguard complex financial resources, strengthen internal controls, and ensure compliance with federal, state, and institutional requirements.

The role also provides technical and operational leadership for the SAP Student Accounting system, including process improvement, system enhancements, data integrity, and service delivery improvements. This position will have the opportunity to identify and implement solutions that improve the student financial experience and support the University's broader strategic goals.

In addition to operational oversight, this leader will manage and develop a team, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous learning, and high performance. The position serves as a trusted advisor on student financial policies, partners closely with internal and external stakeholders, represents the University in professional organizations, and leads special projects that advance institutional priorities.

• A bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field is required. A master's degree is preferred.
• Significant, progressively responsible experience in higher education student financial services, bursar operations, student accounting, or a closely related area.
• Strong knowledge of student billing, financial aid processes, accounts receivable, financial reporting, compliance, and internal controls is essential.
• The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience leading teams, developing staff, managing complex operations, and improving processes in a large, service-oriented environment.
• Experience with enterprise financial systems, such as SAP or a similar platform, is strongly preferred.
• Excellent communication, analytical, problem-solving, and relationship-building skills are required, along with the ability to work collaboratively with students, families, campus partners, and external stakeholders.

Does this position have supervisory responsibilities? Yes.

PI