Director, Finance Systems Strategy & Optimization

Director, Finance Systems Strategy & Optimization 

College Board - Finance 

Location: This is a fully remote role.  

Candidates who live near CB offices have the option of being hybrid (Tuesday and Wednesday in office).  

Type: This is a full-time position 

 About the Team  

The Operational Excellence (OX) function at the College Board is a high-performing team, serving as a center of excellence in the Finance Division, led by the Executive Director, Operational Excellence. Situated directly under the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), OX brings deep expertise in project management, process architecture, product strategy, data analytics, and strategic communications. We are committed to driving organizational excellence by designing and optimizing integrated systems, enhancing cross-functional collaboration, streamlining complex workflows, and fortifying policy and communication frameworks. Our mission is to empower every function within the Finance Division to operate at peak performance—delivering exceptional value and measurable impact to the College Board. 

About the Opportunity   

As the Director, Finance Systems Strategy & Optimization, you will lead the strategy, optimization, and continuous improvement of the College Board’s core financial systems – Workday Financials and Adaptive Planning. You will partner with teams across all Finance functions (Accounting, Procurement, Strategic Finance, and 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 roadmaps—taking full responsibility for setting and 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 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 – 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, and deployment, working with and managing 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 (30%)  

• Own business process enhancements and configuration 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 

• In collaboration with Technology, 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.  

Lead product strategy around Finance systems (15%)  

• In collaboration with Finance Leadership, define product vision for Workday Financials and Adaptive and recommend short- and long-term strategies, with special focus on AI, to meet the vision and support the goals of both Finance and the College Board overall 

• Develop and maintain the Workday Financials and Adaptive 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 

Own comprehensive data/dashboard solutions for the Finance functions (15%)  

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

• As needed, partner with report-builders in Finance and Technology to develop custom reports 

About You  

You have:  

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

• Bachelor's 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, you are eager to learn continuously and grow in your Workday skills 

• Collaborative and able to work cross-functionally with different areas of an organization, and bring a team-first mentality and “no job is too small” perspective 

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

• A data enthusiast, passionate about harnessing the power of large data sets to inform business decisions 

• Great verbal and written communication skills, outstanding organizational skills, and diligence in seeing tasks through to the end 

• Excited about supporting educational opportunities for millions of students 

• Experience with Jira and Confluence preferred 

• Experience with comparable ERP and financial planning systems (e.g., Oracle Cloud ERP, SAP, NetSuite, Anaplan, or Microsoft Dynamics) will be considered, especially where candidates demonstrate strong process design, systems optimization, and reporting skills 

• 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 

About Our Process   

• Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled   

• While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes: resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks 

About Our Benefits and Compensation 

College Board offers a competitive benefits and compensation program that attracts top talent looking to make a difference in education. As a self-sustaining non-profit, we believe in compensating employees fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, their impact, and the relevant market.  

The hiring range for a new employee in this position is $88,000 to $165,000. College Board differentiates salaries by location so where you live will narrow the portion of this range in which you can expect a salary.  

Your salary will be carefully determined based on your location, relevant experience, the external labor market, and the pay of College Board employees in similar roles. College Board strives to provide our best offer up front based on this criteria.  

Your salary is only one part of all that College Board offers, including but not limited to:    

• A comprehensive package designed to support the well-being of employees and their families and promote education. Our robust benefits package includes health, dental, and vision insurance, generous paid time off, paid parental leave, fertility benefits, pet insurance, tuition assistance, support for professional development, retirement benefits, and more 

• Recognition of exceptional performance through annual bonuses, salary growth over time through market increases, and opportunities for merit raises and promotions based on increased scope of responsibility 

• Once you’ve hit the six-month mark at the College Board, we'll contribute double the amount you put in your TIAA retirement plan each year, up to 10% of your annual salary 

• A job that matters, a team that cares, and a place to learn, innovate and thrive 

You can expect to have transparent conversations about benefits and compensation with our recruiters throughout your application process.