Consultant, Higher Education

How you’ll make an impact 

As a Software Implementation Consultant, you lead projects and work in partnership with our higher education customers to implement our exciting portfolio of performance management solutions, including Budgeting, Forecasting, Strategic Financial Planning, Tuition Revenue Planning, Commitments, Allocations and more. You will manage the day-to-day activities with customers across the distinct phases of the implementation process, including system design, configuration, training, and deployment. You will be part of a highly collaborative team of consultants with a wealth of higher education finance experience, working to translate business needs into demonstrable capabilities in the application and modify our products to align with specific customer requirements. 

In this role, you will: 

• Lead multidimensional software implementation projects and develop valuable customer relationships 

• Collaborate with customers at all levels (executive to end-user) to understand their business objectives and configure optimal software systems to fulfill these goals 

• Train customer finance leadership teams on our software and our recommended best practices 

• Train customer system administrators to maintain systems post-deployment and enhance end-user adoption 

• Provide advisory services to help customers optimize their use of our software products 

• Use your industry knowledge, experience and technical skills to design and build tools tailored to customer requirements 

What we’re looking for 

• Advanced knowledge and use of Microsoft Excel 

• 3-5 years of relevant experience in a finance role (e.g., Financial Analyst/Budget Analyst, Senior Financial Analyst/Senior Budget Analyst, Assistant Budget Director, College Operations Manager, etc.), preferably involved in the higher education budgeting process. Your experience may include the following, or similar, activities: 

• Engagement in annual process and workflows for operational budgeting, labor planning, and/or capital budgeting 

• Involvement in tuition or fee revenue planning, pre/post-award grants administration 

• Development of complex analyses such as program profitability, forecasting or similar, bringing together data from various sources 

• Monitoring budget to actuals activity and/or communicating financial positions to stakeholders who are not finance professionals 

• Experience with data input or outputs to your institution’s ERP system 

• Excellent attention to detail and organizational skills 

• Excellent communication and people skills 

• Ability to work on multiple tasks simultaneously and meet deadlines while providing quality results 

• Highly organized and analytical, with the ability to adapt and think creatively to solve problems 

• High energy, entrepreneurial mindset, and enthusiasm for being part of a growing vertical 

• A continuous improvement mindset and willingness to contribute ideas and share insights 

• Willingness to travel within the U.S. to customer locations up to 10–25% as needed 

You can wow us with  

• Additional years of experience in higher education finance and/or budgeting 

• Experience working within academic medical centers or schools of medicine 

• Familiarity building relational databases, or using an existing relational database to create reports or other analytic tools  

• Experience leading or working within a software implementation committee as a customer 

• Software implementation consulting experience  
• Experience in creating financial models, such as revenue projections, new program profitability forecasts or similar  

Estimated Salary Range: $80,000-108,000

Actual salary will be determined based on factors including, but not limited to, skill set and level of experience. This salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Strata also provides discretionary variable pay programs based on role. In addition, Strata provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits, health and welfare benefits, paid time off, parental leave, life and accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits.

Find out more about Strata benefits here.  

How we work:
The preferred location for this role is in Chicago, IL or St. Louis, MO. We value our people spending time together and have campuses hosting in-person events located in both cities. We are truly a hybrid environment with all team members experiencing the flexibility to work from home. 

Thinking about applying?  
Research shows that women and underrepresented groups tend to apply to jobs only when they check every box on a job posting. If you’re currently reading this and hesitating to click “Apply” for that reason, we encourage you to go for it! A true passion and excitement for making an impact is just as important as work experience.

Should you require a reasonable accommodation in completing this application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please reach out to careers@stratadecision.com. 

Here @ Strata… 
Our culture is driven by our people solving problems together. We embrace learning, collaboration, and continuous career growth. Together, we lift our customers, our products, our company, and our community.  

We believe that each of our team member’s unique perspectives and experiences is what drives innovation and positive change. Our individual differences are what make us a more forward-thinking organization. We foster a culture of inclusion, equity and belonging, regardless of race, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.  

Our Core Values:
While we celebrate what makes each member of our team unique, our core values are what connect us. They set clear expectations for how we approach our work and how each of us can positively influence the experience of our team and our customers.

• We connect with positive intent.
• We are helpful.
• We own it.
• We get better every day.
• We are humble.