Deputy Chief Financial Officer

Company Description

About KIPP Team and Family

KIPP TEAM & Family is our network office that includes support teams - such as Leadership Development, Recruitment, Advocacy, Facilities, Finance, HR and more - dedicated to empowering our schools and ensuring the success of KIPP students throughout New Jersey and Miami. Our schools are part of the nationally recognized “Knowledge Is Power Program” network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools dedicated to preparing students for success in college and in life in our schools located in Newark, NJ, Camden,NJ,  Paterson, NJ, and Miami, FL.

Job Description

The Deputy Chief of Finance plays a critical role in supporting the CFO and financial leadership team in developing and executing on KIPP New Jersey & Miami’s financial priorities. The Deputy Chief of Finance drives the financial teams’ planning and performance management systems, works relentlessly in service of the teams’ operational efficiency, and drives special projects on behalf of the CFO. They facilitate the annual resource allocation and budgeting processes for the organization, which has a ~$300 million annual operating budget, ensuring effective linkage to strategic priorities, adherence to fiscal requirements, strong collaboration across key stakeholders, and clear decision-making and communication processes. The Deputy Chief of Finance also ensures healthy and efficient financial operations within our schools and central teams, as well as streamlined and effective communication with our boards of directors and board finance committee. 

Annual Organization-Wide Financial Planning

• Facilitate the organization-wide annual resource allocation process, ensuring coherence with the organization- and region-level annual strategies, responsiveness to the organization’s financial context, and effective systems and structures for input-gathering and decision-making. 
• Work collaboratively with network- and region-based leadership team members to cascade key updates and decisions from resource allocation process to relevant stakeholder groups within the organization.
• Ensure all relevant leaders and others with budgetary responsibilities are trained to effectively participate in the annual budgeting process.
• Facilitate the organization-wide budgeting process, including ensuring that the outcomes of the resource allocation process are reflected in the upcoming year’s budget and that the budgets overall accurately reflect our priorities and expectations for the upcoming year. 

Fiscal Health in Schools and Central Support Teams

• Drive the development and, as needed, periodic revisiting of a vision for excellent fiscal health at the school and central support team level, which emanates from our metrics for fiscal health at the network/organizational level.
• Provide training, expectations, and tools to budget managers across our schools and central support teams on how to effectively manage a budget.
• Provide training, expectations, and resources to budget managers and other relevant leaders across our schools and central support teams on all topics related to financial operations in our organization, including, e.g., critical financial policies, purchasing, vendor payments, in-school cash management, etc.
• Partner with network- and region-based leaders to develop and support accountability measures and tracking for
• performance relative to fiscal health goals, as well as interventions where performance is not meeting the necessary standard.

Finance Team Planning, Goal-Setting, and Performance Management

• Support CFO and other financial leaders with the development of annual priorities that are responsive to organization-wide priorities and external requirements.
• Create and turnkey processes and systems to enable all of the CFO’s teams to set annual and quarterly goals, and track progress to goals.
• Support CFO’s teams in executing individual performance management in an aligned manner, including for leaders in accordance with the Talent team’s vision and milestones, as well as for individual contributors (may include creating aligned tools, calendar of deadlines, etc.).
• Design and execute cascading meeting structures and reporting mechanisms designed to support the effectiveness of our financial functions and to keep the CFO and other leaders apprised of our financial performance. 
• Proactively identify opportunities for strategic collaboration across the various financial functions.
• Proactively ensure financial teams are planning and operating with “frontline” input.

Board and Finance Committee Engagement

• Support CFO and other financial leaders with the development of annual scope and sequence for engagement with the various Boards of Directors and Board Finance Committee.
• Facilitate, as project manager, the agenda-setting, scheduling, and materials creation for discussions with the Boards and Board Finance Committee; on selected topics as requested by the CFO, create and/or present materials.
• Capture meeting decisions, action items, and commitments, and ensure follow-through by members of the management team. 

Special Projects

• Oversee the objective-setting, scoping, execution, and communications for special projects that require senior-level leadership and are not definitively best driven by a specific one of the financial functions.
• Ensure “special projects” work ultimately gets effectively embedded into financial functions’ steady state work

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above essential duties and responsibilities.

Qualifications

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree in a related field preferred
• 5 years of progressively increasing leadership experience in the context of a school network
• Relevant experience in organizations with $200 million annual budget preferred, ideally in education nonprofits

Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrated unrelenting commitment to continuous improvement, results-orientation, and prioritization of the most important tasks
• Ability to thrive in the face of ambiguity, and to support stakeholders through uncertainty and transition
• Excellent relationship-building skills with an ability to prioritize, negotiate, and work with a variety of stakeholders; track record of contributing to a collegial working environment
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to analyze financial data and provide actionable insights
• Ability to assess and enhance financial processes for efficiency and accuracy
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with a demonstrated ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment, lead projects, meet multiple concurrent deadlines and organize time and priorities
• Personal qualities of honesty, integrity, credibility, humility, commitment to quality, and dedication to the mission of KIPP New Jersey & Miami
• Robust knowledge of and passion for improving K - 12 public education

The usual and customary methods of performing the job’s functions require the following physical demands:

• Weekend and evening work will often be necessary to carry out the requirements of this job
• Travel to our schools in New Jersey/Miami or for work-related conferences and professional development will be required from time to time

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job.
 

Additional Information

The salary range for this role is $175,000 - $190,000. Salary ranges at KIPP are set based upon the role level and function using benchmarks in the education and non-profit sector and allow for growth within the role.  Individual compensation will be set  based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to: relevant professional experience and qualifications; education, skills and training; and market conditions.  

In addition to a competitive salary, KIPP offers a generous benefits package including, but not limited to, the following:  

• Robust benefits that include medical, dental, and vision 
• KIPP 403b retirement plan, including matching contributions
• A school-issued laptop
• Generous Time-Off Policy
• Up to 12 weeks 100% parental leave for primary caregivers
• Employer paid life insurance
• Extensive optional ancillary benefits including, short term and long term disability and accident and hospital indemnity

Our organization is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender, age, religion, national origin, citizen status, marital status, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Our organization will make a reasonable accommodation to known physical or mental limitations of a qualified applicant or employee with a disability unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the organization. No questions on this application are asked for any unlawful purpose.

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