Be an early applicantLess than 25 applicants

Company

University of Washington · 1 day ago

Program Operations Specialist

Seattle, WA

Contract

Remote

Mid Level

$5,810/mo - $8,714/mo

3+ years exp

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EducationHigher Education

H1B Sponsor Likely

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Responsibilities

Oversee the Finance Team shared inbox, using independent judgment in various scenarios as needed to troubleshoot financial problems and provide clarity on financial questions and concerns.

Oversee and manage day-to-day department operations/workload, ensuring that all activities and requests are completed efficiently, accurately, and in compliance with Federal, State, University, and sponsor policies.

Lead and provide guidance to the Team’s two budget/fiscal analysts and two fiscal specialists when performing centralized department activities, including purchasing, revolving fund, field advances, reimbursements, travel arrangements, invoicing, JV processing, reporting, reconciliation, and opening and closing UW Budgets. Provide feedback and support regarding compliance with Federal, State, University, and sponsor policies. Independently manage priorities and monitor workload progress against deadlines.

Collaborate with the department Financial Officer and Manager of Program Operations to identify and troubleshoot centralized financial service issues and implement solutions.

Knowledgably monitor and interpret financial policies and regulations to develop and maintain compliance procedures. Ensure compliance with Federal, State, University, and research project sponsors’ policies and regulations.

Manage and ensure effectiveness of the department intranet request system. Collaborate with the Associate Director of IT and Operations, and relevant staff, to identify efficiencies and quality improvement opportunities to increase customer service and improve workflows.

Monitor team transaction queue and delegate work. Review and approve team submissions of transactional processing duties including reimbursements, travel arrangements, supplier relations, and light ProCard purchasing. Provide feedback on errors and coaching for submissions that are not in compliance with policies/regulations.

Train department research staff on department financial procedures, including state regulations and use of Workday. Provide additional training to individual staff, research groups, and PIs on updates and policy changes, frequent submission errors, and other issues as they arise.

Oversee and prepare monthly and quarterly financial reporting for department operations and advancement budgets and present feedback to faculty and PIs/managers to provide guidance on spending, timelines, compliance, and other relevant information. Manage and use independent judgment to update the department Financial Data Model, ensuring work tags align with Department and University structure.

Review and complete department expense, funds and revenue transfers.

Oversee and manage the department’s ghost cards and tracking access and use. Monitor and ensure efficient completion of reconciliations by team members.

Serves as liaison with central purchasing office and SOM Shared Environment and will join committees to improve these services and have input on future University policy changes.

Ensure financial deadlines are being met, including timely payments and grant/fiscal year close is completed on time. Failure to meet these deadlines can result in loss of contracts, funding, services, etc.

This position is the lead compliance administrator and will provide compliance review for transactions submitted by department staff. Review and approve financial transactions, including reimbursements and purchasing, submitted on Workday. Collaborate with grant managers and staff on correcting and ensuring purchases are compliant with Federal, State, University, and sponsor policies.

Ensure compliance with Federal, State, University, and sponsor policies and regulations. Monitor new laws and directives and work with Department Chief Financial Officer and Associate Director of Research Operations to develop compliance procedures and update department policies and procedures as needed, including updates for the transition to Workday. Develop and maintain a schedule to provide ongoing reviews and updates of all policies and procedures and include updates on the department website, newsletters, and annual meetings. Provide additional policy and procedural updates to department leadership, PIs, and relevant research groups as needed.

This position will be responsible for creating a new system to manage delegated authority/GIM 2 approvals in the department and keeping the policies up to date.

Oversee and regularly run audits of department procedures, practices, and documents to identify possible weaknesses or risks. Collaborate with the Department Chief Financial Officer to discuss potential problem areas and develop procedural improvements as necessary.

Ensure new employees receive an orientation to applicable Department, SOM and UW policies and procedures, and provide contacts and resources to refer to for further information.

Develop and implement internal financial system controls to ensure the integrity of all financial transactions in accordance with applicable jurisdictions.

Build and maintain positive working relationships with UW central finance, GCA, internal audit, records management, equipment inventory, risk management, procurement, and travel office. Stay up to date on all policies by attending monthly procurement meetings, bimonthly SOM shared environment meetings, and other meetings as needed. Attend workgroups to collaborate and discuss financial process improvements and procedures in Workday.

Collaborate with shared environment supervisors and leads and outside department staff and leadership to troubleshoot shared vendor issues.

Collaborate closely with and provide support to department faculty, administrators, and research staff to ensure they are compliant with State and Federal guidelines.

Build and maintain positive working relationships with Seattle Children’s and other state agencies, providing quarterly invoicing/reports and communicating at biannual meetings.

Represents the department on UW and SOM on various committees and will assist in readiness projects from current state to future state.

Serves as a manager and provides mentoring to financial services staff.

Lead responsibilities include acting as the lead compliance administrator and leading the department's compliance with finance policies and procedures by overseeing/reviewing finance team transactions.

Manages financial reporting and finance team website.

Qualification

Find out how your skills align with this job's requirements. If anything seems off, you can easily click on the tags to select or unselect skills to reflect your actual expertise.

Financial Compliance ManagementWorkday Financial SoftwareFiscal AnalysisFinancial ReportingMicrosoft Office SuiteCustomer Service Skills

Required

Bachelor's degree in accounting, public administration, business, finance, or related field, AND three years of experience performing fiscal analysis, planning, and reporting, or equivalent combination of education/experience.

Preferred

Knowledge and experience with Workday Financial Software.

Knowledge of UW financial systems, procedures, policies, and offices.

Exceptional organizational and customer service skills.

Ability to communicate effectively with all levels of faculty, management, and clinical research staff.

Ability to convey complex policy, financial and scientific/technical information in a manner that is understandable to a wide audience.

Ability to prioritize and organize work independently.

Strong working knowledge Microsoft Office Suite.

Benefits

Generous benefits

Work/life programs

Professional growth opportunities

Unique resources

Company

University of Washington

Glassdoor

4.2

University of Washington is an educational institution that provides undergraduate, graduate, and research programs.

Founded in 1861

Seattle, Washington, USA

10,001+ employees

http://www.washington.edu

H1B Sponsorship

University of Washington has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)

Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship

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Trends of Total Sponsorships

2023 (129)

2022 (161)

2021 (181)

2020 (165)