Director, Finance Systems Strategy & Optimization

Director, Finance Systems Strategy & Optimization

College Board- Finance 

Location: This is a remote role. Candidates who live near CB offices have theoptionof being fully remote or hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office). All CB employees are required tooccasionally travel to meet in person for business purposes. 

Role Type: This is afull timeposition 

About the Opportunity   

As the Director, Finance Systems Strategy & Optimization, you will serve as the execution leader responsible for translating strategic vision into tangible system improvements across the College Board27s core financial platforms2D2DWorkday Financials, Adaptive Planning, and Strategic Sourcing 2D Workday Financials, Adaptive Planning, and Strategic Sourcing. You will focus on driving end-to-end delivery of technical solutions, coordinating complex projects, and ensuring our financial systems operate efficiently, accurately, and in alignment with business needs.  

You will partner with Accounting, Procurement, Strategic Finance, Investments, Technology, and Talent to ensure these systems are fully leveraged to deliver maximum value. You will play a critical role in owning the system roadmaps2D2Dtaking full responsibility for executing both immediate and long-term action plans. You will lead the investigation and implementation of new functionality, ensuring alignment with the needs and priorities of all major stakeholders. You will have a special focus on AI integration, ensuring our systems utilize the latest and greatest technologies to automate and innovate so Finance  teams can work faster and most efficiently and produce more critical insights with ease. Teams will rely on you to build custom dashboards in Workday Financials and maintain financial data integrity to help to drive business decisions. You will be responsible for developing enhanced reporting solutions. You will create and maintain a suite of staff-friendly resources to ensure system processes are clear and known to all users.  

Our ideal candidate is passionate about technology, along with prioritizing and simplifying 2D implementing the most impactful things and finding powerful solutions for complex problems. The ideal candidate has Workday Financials expertise, an excellent ability to anticipate user needs, an obsession with data, and the ability to manage the technical and people components of projects with attention to detail and speed.  

In this role, you will:   

Prioritize and implement technical solutions in Workday Financials to meet business needs (40%)  

• Translate functional needs into solutions, ensuring that our Workday Financials solutions meet business needs and are scalable, repeatable, automated, leverage AI and new and emerging technologies, etc.  

• Project manage the implementation of new features and enhancements, overseeing configuration, testing, deployment, and change management  

• Engage and manage external consultants, as needed  

•  Manage the intake and prioritization of product/systems requests, working closely with stakeholders to ensure we prioritize the most impactful work  

Maintain and optimize Workday Financials from a technological and usage perspective (25%)  

• Own business process enhancements of Workday Financials modules to support optimal user experience  

• Develop and monitor key performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of Workday Financials solutions and identify areas for improvement  

• Proactively analyze, identify, and correct technical problems and deficiencies  

• Stay up to date with industry trends and best practices to ensure our Workday Financials and Adaptive instances are optimized  

• Facilitate bi-annual Workday releases and liaise with our Workday account manager to understand their roadmap  

• Work with Technology to support the integrative and administrative needs of Workday Financials and Adaptive  

• Create and maintain detailed documentation and user guides on major system tasks, reports, custom BPs, etc.  

Execute comprehensive data/dashboard solutions for the Finance functions (20%)  

• Serve as the 22go to22 to develop reporting and data solutions within Workday Financials, Adaptive, and Strategic Sourcing (and in supplemental tools2D2Di.e., Tableau or PowerBI2Das needed)  

• Design and implement comprehensive dashboard solutions within Workday Financials to provide actionable insights and support decision-making for Procurement, Accounting, and Investments  

Lead roadmap development and drive execution across teams (15%)  

• Develop and maintain the finance product roadmaps in collaboration with functional Finance leadership, related SMEs, and Technology to optimize system use  

•  Provide status reports and updates to Leadership, as needed  

About You   

You have:  

• At least five to eight years working in finance operations, with at least three years specifically in Workday Financials  

• A Bachelor27s degree required in a related field required, Workday Financials and/or Adaptive  

• Planning certification is a plus  

• Proficiency in Financial Accounting, Procurement, and Expense modules within Workday Financials, as well as with Adaptive Financial Planning and Strategic Sourcing; and you are eager and able to learn continuously and grow in your Workday skills  

• Ability to pivot quickly, adapt to evolving requirements, and work in an Agile-2Dadjacent environment  

• Proficiency in Workday Worksheets and Discovery Boards; and, preferably, experience with Workday Prism and working knowledge of Tableau and/or PowerBI  

• Exceptional attention to detail and strong organizational skills, with the ability to manage a wide range of tasks effectively and see them through to the end  

• Enthusiasm for data, passionate about harnessing the power of large data sets to inform business decisions and capable of moving quickly to transform data  

• Ability to collaborate and work cross-functionally with different areas of an organization, and bring a team-first mentality and 22no job is too small22 perspective  

• Confidence in working on both sides of the system - with our users and our engineers - and feel comfortable translating practical needs to technical solutions  

• Great verbal and written communication skills  

• Excited about supporting educational opportunities for millions of students 

• Experience with Jira and Confluence preferred  

• The ability to travel 2-3 times a year to College Board offices or on behalf of College Board business  

• Authorization to work for any employer in the United States