Financial Analyst

Job Description
Please Note:-

• These positions can be remote
• Client required Health system/hospital experience

Executive Summary:

The Financial Analyst serves as a core hands-on resource bridging operational finance, budgeting, and financial planning and analysis (FP&A). This role is designed for a highly analytical professional capable of evaluating complex financial data, forecasting operational performance, and developing data-driven insights to support decision-making across academic, administrative, or clinical units.

Positioned in a hybrid operational finance and planning role, the Financial Analyst works directly with multi-dimensional data sets, ledger reconciliations, budget modeling, and system- level reporting. The ideal candidate combines strong technical mastery of financial systems and data tools with the communication skills required to translate financial metrics into actionable operational recommendations.

Key Responsibilities:

Operational Finance & General Ledger Analysis

• Perform monthly, quarterly, and annual financial variance analysis, evaluating actual results against budgeted, forecasted, and historical trends.
• Conduct hands-on general ledger review and cost-center tracking to ensure accuracy in transaction posting, account coding, and revenue/expense allocations.
• Support month-end close activities by analyzing operational metrics, preparing accrual inputs, and performing balance sheet/income statement reconciliations.
• Assist department managers and operational leaders with daily financial inquiries, purchasing approvals, and budget tracking.

Financial Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting

• Contribute directly to the annual operating and capital budget preparation processes across assigned departments or health system units.
• Build, maintain, and refine rolling financial forecasts, headcount models, and multi-year projection spreadsheets.
• Evaluate operational business cases, return-on-investment (ROI) proposals, and capital expenditure requests.
• Develop dynamic scenario models to assess the financial impact of operational changes, volume shifts, or policy adjustments.

Reporting, Business Intelligence & Automation

• Extract, clean, and model complex financial datasets from enterprise platforms using business intelligence and data visualization tools (e.g., Qlik, Power BI, Tableau).
• Generate routine and ad-hoc financial reporting packages, executive dashboards, and operational KPI scorecards.
• Identify opportunities to automate manual data collection, streamline spreadsheet workflows, and eliminate reporting defects.

Stakeholder Collaboration & Compliance

• Partner with non-financial operational managers, department chairs, and administrative leadership to explain financial performance and variance causes.
• Ensure all budgeting, reporting, and operational finance practices comply with university policies, state regulations, and U.S. GAAP/GASB standards.
• Support internal and external audit requests by gathering financial schedules, supporting documentation, and analytical commentary.

Systems, Analytics & Operational Tools

• Enterprise Systems: Hands-on proficiency using enterprise ERP systems, specificall Oracle PeopleSoft Financials (alongside familiarity with Workday Financials, Oracle Cloud, or SAP)-for transaction inquiries, ledger analysis, and journal processing
• FP&A & Budgeting Software: Direct experience working with financial planning tools-specifically Workday Adaptive Planning or Anaplan-for budget entry, forecast updates, and scenario modeling.
• Business Intelligence & Data Visualization: Experience utilizing reporting software such as Power BI, or Tableau to build analytical reports and visual dashboards.
• Advanced Spreadsheet Modeling: Mastery of Microsoft Excel (e.g., Advanced Formulas, XLOOKUP/INDEX-MATCH, Pivot Tables, Power Query, scenario managers, and financial modeling standards).

Requirements

Qualifications & Requirements

Must-Have Qualifications (Required)

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or a quantitative discipline.
• Experience: Minimum of 2-4 years of progressive experience in financial analysis, operational accounting, budgeting, or corporate/higher education FP&A.
• Minimum 2+ years of financial analysis experience specifically within a health system, hospital, or academic medical center environment.
• ERP today is Peoplesoft
• Client required Health system/hospital experience
• Analytical Capability: Advanced analytical and data-modeling skills, with a proven track record of synthesizing large, complex financial datasets into clear narrative reports.
• Technical Mastery: High proficiency in Microsoft Excel and hands-on experience using enterprise ERP and reporting systems.
• Communication Skills: Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex financial concepts to non-financial operational partners.

Recommended Certifications & Professional Development

Good-to-Have / Industry Certifications

• Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate or Excel Expert certification

Good-to-Have Qualifications (Preferred)

• Prior experience working within a higher education institution, academic medical center, healthcare system, or public sector agency.
• Practical familiarity with Workday Financials, Workday Adaptive Planning, or Business Intelligence
• Fundamental understanding of public sector accounting standards (GASB) and fund accounting principles.
• Familiarity with continuous process improvement (CPI) techniques (e.g., Lean, Root Cause Analysis) to streamline financial workflows.