Financial & Business Intelligence Analyst

Job Function Summary:

Involves providing analytical, financial and training activities in support of contract and grant proposal development, grant-writing, funding, administration, and budget development. Activities may include pre-award proposal initiatives, management of funds post-award, and closeout activities for federal, state, local and private sponsors. Involves activities associated with analyzing research funding trends and sources, forecasting, planning, and managing of research portfolios by performing some or all of the following: coordinating and identifying and developing and / or presenting proposals, contracts and other agreements; reviewing proposals to ensure institutional compliance and program success; negotiating, administering and monitoring contract and grant awards, including compliance with regulations, terms and conditions; financial management and reporting; and sub award / subcontract issuance and administration.

Generic Scope

Recognized organization-wide expert. Has significant impact and influence on organizational policy and program development. Regularly leads projects of critical importance to the organization; these projects carry substantial consequences of success or failure. Directs programs with organization-wide impact (or may have impact beyond the University) that include formulating strategies and administering policies, processes, and resources. Significant barriers to entry exist at this level.

Custom Scope

The Department of Neurological Surgery seeks an experienced Financial & Business Intelligence Analyst (FBIA) to lead post-award management and business intelligence efforts.

This role is recognized as an organization-wide expert in research administration and financial management, with deep expertise in post-award operations, compliance, and business intelligence. The incumbent provides authoritative guidance on the financial stewardship of sponsored funds-including grants, gifts, and endowments-and plays a key role in shaping and standardizing post-award policies, processes, and controls across the department and the broader institution.

The FBIA exerts significant influence on organizational policy interpretation and program development, partnering closely with Contracts & Grants Accounting (CGA), the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR), School leadership, and departmental stakeholders to resolve complex award administration issues, ensure audit readiness, and maintain full compliance with federal, state, university, and sponsor requirements. Additionally, the incumbent will partner with the department's affiliated hospitals to ensure accurate and timely billing per agreement terms and support effective financial oversight and reconciliation processes.

This role regularly leads high-impact, mission-critical initiatives, including oversight of complex research portfolios, implementation of process improvements, and development of advanced business intelligence tools that inform decision-making that support UCSF missions. These efforts carry substantial consequences, directly affecting financial performance, regulatory compliance, and the integrity of the research enterprise.

Operating with a high degree of autonomy, the FBIA may direct programs and initiatives with organization-wide impact that supports the UCSF Health growth mission formulating strategies, administering policies, and optimizing resource allocation across both research administration and clinical financial analytics. The role integrates financial oversight with data-driven insights, developing dashboards and KPI reporting that track clinical productivity, divisional performance, and research funding trends, participate in workgroups that influence processes and systems.

Success in this role requires advanced subject-matter expertise in research administration, strong analytical and technical capabilities in business intelligence, and the ability to influence senior leadership and cross-functional teams. Significant barriers to entry reflect the depth of experience, regulatory knowledge, and strategic leadership required to effectively manage complex portfolios and drive institutional impact.

Primary responsibilities:

• Manage post-award administration for assigned portfolios, ensuring accurate financial management and compliance with sponsor, federal and university policies.
• Act as departmental expert and liaison with OSR, CGA, and the School of Medicine on policy interpretation, audits, and escalations.
• Monitor award performance, identify risks and variance, recommend corrective actions, and implement resolution plans with the CFO and stakeholders.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in research administration and advising PIs, administrators, and leadership on complex funding and compliance issues.
• Lead quality monitoring, data management, and reporting processes for post-award oversight.
• Provide targeted training and guidance to faculty, staff, and labs on post-award requirements and best practices.
• Develop, maintain and distribute business intelligence dashboards and KPI reports covering clinical productivity, divisional financial health, and research funding metrics.
• Contribute to process improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and compliance in the areas of research administration and financial management

%

of time

Essential Function (Yes/No )

Key Responsibilities

(To be completed by Supervisor)

70%

Post-award/Financial Management

• Independently responsible for the financial management and analysis of complex grants and contract budgets and awards. Funding portfolio includes NIH, industry studies, clinical trials, subcontracts to and fromoutside institutions, fellowships, intramural grants, gifts and opportunity funds. Ensure that expenditures comply with federal, state, and university policies and procedures, OMB Circular A-21, and CAS.

• Function as an organization expert for policies and procedures relating to sponsored projects issues andconcerns. Provide suggestions to CGA, OSR, and otherbusiness units regarding organization-wide procedures when inefficiencies are identified.

• Ensure the fiscalmanagement of extramural and philanthropic fundsare in compliance with university, stateand federal policies and regulations.

• Develop and analyze budget plans, create monthly projections of expenses and balances to support decision making and that are consistent with the award terms and that allow efficient administration to minimize audit risk. Analyze all budgets and expenditures for any variances to ensure that spending is in accordance with the sponsor's terms and conditions and UCSFpolicies. Independently analyzeproblems, make recommendations and initiate any needed corrections.

• Ensures complete and accurate collection of research management administration data at all stages of the contract and grant life cycle. Independently oversees award reporting and closeout and report to the PI and CFO on the status.

• Prepares, reviews and / or approves financial transactions such as payroll expense transfers, cost transfers or financial journals. Assure that journals comply with agency requirements, particularly regarding cost transfer justifications by PIs utilizing sponsored research funds.Independently gathers information as needed to perform financial analysis.

• Maintains professional relationships with sponsor representatives. Maintains timely and effective communication with all relevant parties throughout the entire post-award process (e.g., agencies investigators, department administrators, Contracts and Grants, other campus units, etc.) of new contract requirements and changes.

• Prepare award closeout reports to ensure all award activity is captured and reported to sponsors in a timely fashion to maximize available funding.

• Prepare annual facultysalary plans for the yearlycompensation review for department leadership.

• Serve as a resource and liaison for principal investigators (PI) during pre-award grant preparations working in conjunction with RFAs, teammembers in Research Management Services and others in the Office of Sponsored Research (OSR)

• Provides guidance and counsel on wide varietyof highly complex research administration matters, such as the clinical trials projects and training grants, to principal investigators, senior departmental administrators and less experienced department staff. They will serve as a subject matter expert in all aspects of financial portfolio management, including federal, state, and private contracts and grants, as well as gift and discretionary funds.

• Provide administrative andanalytical guidance as needed to RFAs andPIs.

20%

Business Intelligence

• Design, build, and maintain BI dashboards and executive reports (clinical productivity, divisional/department financials, research funding metrics).

• Define, track, and report KPIs and metrics for providers, divisions, and the department (RVUs, revenue, productivity benchmarking).

• Integrate and validate data from multiple sources (Cognos/DART, Clarity, UCPath, etc) to ensure accuracy and reconciliation.

• Perform ad hoc and recurring analyses to identify trends, risks, variances, and opportunities; provide actionable recommendations to leadership.

• Build and maintain data dictionaries, metric definitions, and documentation to ensure consistency and reproducibility.

• Implement and enforce BI governance, access controls, and data quality standards; coordinate with IT and central analytics teams.

• Create self-service reporting tools and templates; train faculty and staff on dashboard use and data interpretation.

• Partner with CFO and the team to translate business questions into measurable analytics requirements.

• Support strategic planning and forecasting (scenario modeling, budget vs. actual analyses, run-rate projections).

• Monitor dashboard usage and continuously improve UX, performance, and visualization clarity.

• Lead or participate in BI-related projects (new tool rollouts, system integrations, process automation) and manage stakeholder communications.

• Collaborate with Radiology and Pediatric Brain Center to provide patient centric data for reporting and analytics to support informed decision-making and contribute towards increasing volume and revenue.

• Serve as the liaison between the UCSF Faculty Practice Organization, Medical Group Business Services, other revenue cycle teams and the department to ensure all clinical revenue is captured.

• Support network finances by collaborating with the department's network sites to ensure all volume is being captured through billing, and through reconciliation efforts.

• The position will implement an improved workflow and process for volume and billing capturing between network sites and UCSF.

• The position will support the development/identification of a network management tool to better manage network sites account receivable and account payable that will be piloted within Neurosurgery and then rolled out to other departments.

10%

Other Duties

• Work withthe pre-award team to provide necessary information for the completion of progress reports (i.e., average percentage efforts for personnel, carryover amounts, explanation for carryover amount).

• Provide currentsponsored effort information to the pre-award team for PIs Other Support page.

• Independently manages special financial projects as they arise. Ad hoc financial analysis and recommendation in support of the research administration team and decision support for the CFO. Typical assignment would involve using high-level skills as an experienced professional witha full understanding of university practices and organizational policies and procedures, resolving issues in imaginative as well as practical ways.

• Provide financial management support of the department's profees, affiliation

• agreements, and operating budget,as needed.

• Develops and maintains knowledge of faculty research interests and strengths to align with potential funding sources.

• Consults with senior leadership and researchers in the development and submission of complex research proposals for extramural funding, including those involving multiple PIs and partnerships with other entities.

• Independently detects areas where new regulations need to be understood and implemented.

• Provides mentorship and guidance to junior Research Financial Analysts and/or Academic Assistants

• Participates in the monthly School of Medicine finance meetings

0

100%

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in related area and / or equivalent experience / training
• Minimum of 10 years of related experience
• Expert knowledge of pertinent federal and non-Federal sponsor regulations including OMB Circulars, the NSF and PHS Grants Policy Statements, Federal Acquisition Regulation, patent and copyright law, and cost-accounting standards.
• Expert knowledge and understanding of the compliance and sponsor policies related to research administration.
• Expert knowledge of federal, state and non-profit sponsor regulations, policies, requirements, procedures and areas of interest.
• Strong analytical skills- forecasting and scenario modeling, financial and operational analytics, trend and variance analysis, data validation and reconciliation, ad hoc data analysis
• Demonstrated expert level competence in the use of spreadsheet and database software in financial analysis, fiscal management and financial reports.
• Advanced Excel: Pivot tables, Power Query, Power Pivot, complex formuals
• Leadership and mentoring skills to develop and oversee less experienced analysts.
• Expertise in the areas of fiscal management, human / animal subject compliance, intellectual property, conflict of interest, procurement, property management, environmental health and safety, and human resources (for academic and staff positions).
• Demonstrated advanced knowledge of generally accepted accounting, fiscal and reporting principles.
• Expert knowledge of effective grant funding processes, procedures and techniques
• Demonstrated skills developing complex large scale research initiatives, proposals and techniques.

• Expert knowledge of techniques for identifying and securing funding opportunities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Clarity certification or obtain certification within 6 months of hire

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in related area and / or equivalent experience / training
• Minimum of 10 years of related experience
• Expert knowledge of pertinent federal and non-Federal sponsor regulations including OMB Circulars, the NSF and PHS Grants Policy Statements, Federal Acquisition Regulation, patent and copyright law, and cost-accounting standards.
• Expert knowledge and understanding of the compliance and sponsor policies related to research administration.
• Expert knowledge of federal, state and non-profit sponsor regulations, policies, requirements, procedures and areas of interest.
• Strong analytical skills- forecasting and scenario modeling, financial and operational analytics, trend and variance analysis, data validation and reconciliation, ad hoc data analysis
• Demonstrated expert level competence in the use of spreadsheet and database software in financial analysis, fiscal management and financial reports.
• Advanced Excel: Pivot tables, Power Query, Power Pivot, complex formuals
• Leadership and mentoring skills to develop and oversee less experienced analysts.
• Expertise in the areas of fiscal management, human / animal subject compliance, intellectual property, conflict of interest, procurement, property management, environmental health and safety, and human resources (for academic and staff positions).
• Demonstrated advanced knowledge of generally accepted accounting, fiscal and reporting principles.
• Expert knowledge of effective grant funding processes, procedures and techniques
• Demonstrated skills developing complex large scale research initiatives, proposals and techniques.

• Expert knowledge of techniques for identifying and securing funding opportunities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Clarity certification or obtain certification within 6 months of hire