Director of Financial Planning and Budget Operations

Director of Financial Planning and Budget Operations

Role Mission:

The Finance Team strives to support leadership at IDEA as we work together to meet and exceed our ambitious financial and student achievement goals. As the Director of Financial Planning & Budget Operations, you will serve as a key financial partner, providing actionable insights, financial discipline, and performance visibility to help leaders effectively manage resources and achieve strategic priorities supporting long-term sustainability.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop a team focused on financial analysis, forecasting, and performance management, establishing clear priorities, workflows, and quality standards for all FP&A deliverables
• This role is focused on analysis and performance management, working closely with the Financial Planning team to ensure strong coordination and alignment across budgets, forecasts, and actual results
• Support budget development and ongoing financial management by providing analysis, validation, and quality control on key assumptions and outputs
• Lead forecasting, variance analysis, and financial reviews, ensuring clear visibility into performance, drivers, and required actions
• Apply strong technical skills to analyze financial data, evaluate assumptions, and build targeted models/analyses as needed to support decision-making
• Partner with Accounting to maintain alignment between reported financials and budget structures, ensuring accurate and transparent reporting
• Establish and uphold standards for financial discipline, reporting quality, and performance management across the organization
• Monitor key drivers including staffing, compensation, and spending trends, and provide actionable insights
• Train and support stakeholders in understanding financial performance and effectively managing their budgets
• Establish and reinforce standard approaches for financial analysis, forecasting assumptions, and decision support to ensure consistency and quality across the organization

Location:

This is a full-time remote position based in Texas, with preference given to candidates who live in Austin, El Paso, Houston, Permian Basin (Midland/Odessa), Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, and Tarrant County (Fort Worth), or who are willing to relocate.

Travel Expectations:

Up to 20% of the time during the busiest parts of the year.

What You'll Do – Accountabilities:

Essential Duties:

• Lead monthly and annual forecasting processes, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and clear communication of changes

• Perform and deliver variance analysis tools with actionable insights and support

• Support and facilitate financial performance updates to supervisor, highlighting risks, opportunities, and recommended actions

• Partner with the Financial Planning team during the annual budgeting process, providing analytical support, assumptions validation, and quality control

• Monitor financial performance across departments, including spending trends, cost drivers, and staffing impacts

• Provide visibility into financial risks and opportunities, recommending proactive adjustments

• Recommend and support financial decisions and tradeoffs, ensuring alignment with budget constraints, organizational priorities, and long-term sustainability

• Evaluate existing forecasting and planning methodologies and recommend enhancements to improve accuracy, efficiency, and decision support

• Ensure consistent and accurate linkage between budgets, forecasts, and actual financial results

• Translate financial data into clear, actionable insights for non-financial leaders

• Serve as a trusted advisor to leaders, helping them understand performance and manage tradeoffs

Additional

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain standard reporting packages, dashboards, and KPIs to track financial performance

• Improve variance analysis and forecasting methodologies to increase reliability and usability

• Identify and implement process improvements across FP&A workflows to enhance consistency, efficiency, and quality of financial planning and analysis outputs

• Strengthen organizational capability in financial literacy and performance management

• Support cross-functional initiatives requiring financial analysis and evaluation

• Ensure consistency and quality across financial reporting outputs

• Additional Duties as assigned.

Knowledge and Skills –

Competencies:

• Make Strategic Decisions:
  This team member uses data and trends to drive decisions that impact multiple teams, while anticipating risks and planning contingencies for key initiatives. They apply strategic frameworks to clarify challenges and guide coherent action, and they actively support others in strengthening their strategic thinking and decision-making capabilities.

• Manage Work and Teams:
  This team member builds and maintains systems to track progress toward team goals, ensuring clarity through defined roles and responsibilities. They implement structured processes that support smooth team operations and strategically allocate time and resources to drive goal…