Associate Vice President, Financial Planning & Analysis

The Opportunity

Merrimack College seeksa strategic, analytical, entrepreneurial, and technology-forward

Associate Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis (AVP,FP&A). Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, the AVP will lead enterprise analysis ofrevenue, costs, operating performance, and strategicinvestments—helping Merrimack accelerate sustainable growth,improve contribution margins, and strengthen financialaccountability.

The AVP will work alongside the Vice President, Financial Planning and Chief Budget Officer, who leads institutional budgeting, thehybrid responsibility-centered management model, and long-rangefinancial planning, and in close partnership with the AVP for Finance/Controller. This highly visible leader will provideforecasts, models, dashboards, and AI-enabled decision support that connect strategy, resource allocation, and operating results. Serveas a trusted advisor to the CFO and senior leadership, translatinganalysis into recommendations on growth, resource allocation,investment priorities, and financial risk.

• Revenue growth and revenue-center analysis. Analyzeundergraduate and graduate net tuition, financial aid, retention,research and sponsored programs, auxiliary operations,partnerships, and new ventures. Identify opportunities to increasesustainable net revenue and reduce revenue risk.
• Cost management and containment . Create transparentcost-center reporting, identify cost drivers, and develop actionable savings and productivity initiatives involvingworkforce, procurement, vendors, processes, technology, facilities,and shared services.
• Program economics and investment discipline. Developcontribution-margin, unit-cost, capacity, and portfolio analyses and evaluate strategic initiatives using market, revenue, cost,risk, break-even, payback, and return-on- investment measures.
• Forecasting and scenario planning. Build driver-basedforecasts and sensitivity analyses for enrollment, net tuition revenue, compensation, benefits, auxiliaries, research, and majoroperating expenses, and make recommendations on emerging financial risks & opportunities.
• Budget and hybrid RCM support. Provide the Chief Budget Officer with analytical models, forecasts, performance metrics, and recommendations that strengthen institutional budgeting,accountability, and the College’s hybrid RCM framework.
• Performance management. Deliver executive dashboards,variance analyses, and operating reviews that explain what changed,why it changed, and what actions are required.
• AI-enabled finance and analytics. Lead responsible useof predictive analytics, generative AI, automation, anomaly detection, and business intelligence with strong standards for data quality, validation, explainability, privacy, security, and human review.

• Establish standardized revenue-center and cost-centerdashboards and operating reviews.
• Build an integrated enrollment, financial-aid, and net tuition revenue forecasting model.
• Develop a College-wide cost-containment and productivitypipeline with accountable owners and measurable results.
• Implement a practical roadmap and governance framework forAI-enabled FP&A and reporting.

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics, business administration, data analytics, or a related field.
• At least 10 years of progressively responsible experience inFP&A, strategic finance, corporate finance, management consulting, higher education finance, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated success in revenue analysis, cost analysis,financial modeling, forecasting, scenario planning, performancereporting, and business-case development.
• Experience partnering with senior executives and operatingleaders in a complex, fast-moving, matrixed organization.
• Advanced proficiency with ERP, planning and forecasting,business-intelligence, data-visualization, and financial-modelingtools, including experience applying AI or advanced analytics to decision support.
• Exceptional communication, judgment, integrity, collaboration,and change-leadership skills.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including financial modeling, forecasting,…