Associate Director, Chemistry Business Office

Job Summary

A center for global excellence in undergraduate and graduate education and research, Northwestern's Department of Chemistry seeks an experienced financial administrator to support its mission. Chemistry is among the largest and most complex of the College's departments, with 43 tenure line and teaching track faculty, 250+ graduate students, 200+ annual research appointments, and undergraduate enrollments of 4,800+. The Business Administrator 6 leads the department's business office and manages the department's operating budget of $2M and oversees more than $60M in research spending on sponsored awards and faculty discretionary accounts within the department.

This is a full‑time position that works on the Evanston campus with limited opportunities for remote work. The target hiring range for this position will be between $100,000 and $130,000 per year. The salary offered will be determined by the applicant's education, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.

• Process Design and Improvement: Develops, implements, and enforces robust standard operating procedures for financial management, reporting, and transaction processing to ensure consistency and accuracy. Streamlines operations, making policies and procedures more transparent. Determines workflows that best support the smooth operations of research labs.
• Leadership and Management: Directly supervises a team of six financial staff. Takes a leadership role with peers and colleagues to optimize roles and responsibilities across the department to improve processes and efficiency. Promotes innovation, quality customer service, and respect for teamwork and open communication. Builds strong relationships with colleagues throughout the College and University.
• Financial Management: Tracks and evaluates financial health and performance of all accounts, including sponsored funds. Establishes proper accounting and audit trails for revenue and expenses. Manages completion of annual fiscal year‑end close. Monitors payroll, ensuring correct charges.
• Budget Planning and Forecasting: In partnership with departmental leadership, develops annual budget including resource allocation of appropriated, discretionary, endowment, and gift revenues. Ensures budget oversight of research grants.
• Post‑Award Financial Management: Builds relationships with Principal Investigators, advises on research policy and procedure, and creates systems and processes to monitor grant spending.
• Financial Analysis: Leads the development of quarterly and annual faculty spending projections. Recommends changes to tools to improve analysis, forecasting, modeling, and reporting. Reports on variances between approved budget and actual performance and recommends adjustments.
• Transaction Oversight: Oversees processing of all daily financial transactional activity. Ensures compliance with financial policies including the implementation and monitoring of financial controls. Trains team members who have financial responsibilities across the department. Coordinates with other schools and departments for proper tracking of cross school/department transactions and commitments.

Performs other duties as assigned.

• Successful completion of a full 4‑year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree; OR appropriate combination of education and experience.
• 8 years' administrative experience including budgets, finance, grants, facilities, &/or human resources; or other relevant experience.

• Financial acumen
• Strong analytical skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Supervisory skills
• Excellent Excel skills as well as knowledge of financial enterprise systems

• At least eight years budget and finance experience in a highly complex environment
• Experience with post‑award research administration
• Clear experience creating and implementing process improvements

• Ability to communicate financial policies and…