Financial Analyst

Sophisticated Work. In a Great City. Making a Difference.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) manages more than $178 billion in assets, including those of the fully-funded Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). SWIB operates at a level more often seen in top-tier global asset managers than in typical public pension funds. SWIB is a home for top talent. Approximately 61 percent of SWIB’s investment professionals are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holders.

The City of Madison, the state capitol and home of Wisconsin’s flagship university, makes regular appearances on lists of best places to live, eat, and play. SWIB offers a modern workspace, hybrid work options, and competitive compensation and benefits.

Serving over 703,000 WRS beneficiaries, SWIB is driven by a clear mission: securing the financial future of those who serve Wisconsin. When you work at SWIB, you know your work matters.

Job Description:

About the Team The Finance Division (Finance) serves the entire organization and is under the direction of the Chief Financial Officer. Finance is responsible for several critical functions at SWIB and comprises five teams:
Fund Administration (FA), Finance Operations (Fin Ops), Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Vendor Engagement and Oversight (VEO), and Performance.

This position is within FP&A. FP&A provides business finance support to SWIB divisions and teams and serves as a consultative arm of the Finance Division. The team leverages financial data and analytics to support budgeting, expense management, cost allocations, cost benchmarking, and enable business decision-making. FP&A also manages various compensation-related deliverables, including incentive compensation, salary analysis, and other compensation analytics.

Position Overview The Financial Analyst will support the Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) function through budgeting, cost allocation, financial reporting, and analysis that helps inform business decisions. The role will help develop and monitor SWIB’s annual expense budget, analyze financial results and key business drivers, and provide timely and accurate financial information to business partners and Finance leadership.

The Financial Analyst will work cross-functionally to understand financial performance, identify and explain variances and trends, and support ongoing planning and decision-making, while helping improve the efficiency and effectiveness of FP&A processes.

This role is well suited for a finance professional who has developed a solid foundation in financial analysis and is ready to take greater ownership of assigned analyses and planning activities while continuing to build business partnership, financial modeling, and FP&A capabilities. The position’s essential activities and attributes that the ideal candidate will possess are included below.

Essential activities:

Support the development of SWIB’s annual expense budget, including working with business partners to understand expense needs and assumptions and ongoing budget monitoring and analysis.

Execute SWIB’s cost allocation processes, including maintaining allocation models, analyzing allocation methodologies and results, and working with stakeholders to support accurate and appropriate allocation of costs across the organization.

Perform agency, division, and team level reporting and analysis of actual expenses compared to budget.

Compile and analyze data for SWIB’s annual cost of management benchmarking process, which evaluates SWIB’s expenses relative to industry peers.

Assist with various compensation deliverables, including incentive compensation, salary analysis, and other compensation analytics.

Collaborate with management and other stakeholders to identify and implement…