Capital Planning & Financial Modeling Consultant

Interim Capital Planning & Financial Modeling Consultant

Location: New York, NY (2 days/week on site)

Duration: 3 months (highest urgency in first month)

Hours: Full-time, 8:30am-5:30pm

Pay Rate: $65-75/hour

Start: ASAP

Overview
Columbia University's School of Engineering is seeking an experienced interim finance professional to support a high-priority capital planning initiative. This role will partner closely with the Director of Finance to help finalize and pressure-test a short-term capital plan tied to a potential new campus initiative (confidential).
This is a hands-on, analytical role focused on building and refining Excel-based capital budgets, identifying gaps and opportunities, and helping leadership understand the financial viability of the initiative in an uncertain economic environment.



Key Responsibilities

• Build, refine, and maintain capital project budgets and financial models in Excel
• Develop a short-term capital plan that clearly quantifies knowns, assumptions, risks, and opportunities
• Consolidate and organize inputs across multiple workstreams (construction costs, internal resources, development conversations, staffing considerations, etc.)
• Support scenario modeling and cost/benefit analysis, including both expense and potential revenue impacts
• Think holistically about downstream financial implications (e.g., staffing/faculty costs, long-term operating impacts, potential grant or research revenue)
• Identify gaps in existing models and proactively propose solutions
• Prepare materials and insights to support leadership discussions, including an upcoming April budget review
• Interface with internal stakeholders including Finance leadership, Deans/Vice Deans, and select central partners
• Collect, structure, and validate data from multiple sources to ensure defensible assumptions

Ideal Background

• 10 years of finance experience, ideally in capital budgeting, FP&A, project finance, or strategic financial planning
• Strong Excel expertise required (complex models, pivot tables, lookups, scenario analysis)
• Experience operating in ambiguous, discovery-oriented environments where not all inputs are known upfront
• Background in higher education, healthcare, real estate, construction finance, or other large CapEx environments is a plus (but not required)
• Highly analytical, detail-oriented, and able to work independently with minimal oversight
• Strong communicator who can translate complex financial concepts to non-finance stakeholders

Why This Role

• High-visibility project with direct exposure to senior leadership
• Opportunity to shape a foundational capital plan from near-final stages through leadership review
• Short-term, clearly defined engagement with meaningful impact
• Collaborative partnership with an experienced Director of Finance

Interview Process

• One interview with the Director of Finance
• One interview with Vice Deans
• Process is intentionally streamlined

Vaco by Highspring values a diverse workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply.

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Pay Transparency Notice


Determining compensation for this role (and others) at Vaco by Highspring depends upon a wide array of factors including but not limited to:

• the individual's skill sets, experience and training;
• licensure and certification requirements;
• office location and other geographic considerations;
• other business and organizational needs.

With that said, as required by local law, Vaco by Highspring believes that the following salary range referenced above reasonably estimates the base compensation for an individual hired into this position in geographies that require salary range disclosure. The individual may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses.