Operations Financial Analyst

About Red Deer: 

Red Deer sits at the heart of Central Alberta along the QEII corridor, perfectly positioned between Calgary and Edmonton. With more than 100,000 residents and a regional reach of over 300,000, it’s a growing hub for business, services, and opportunity.

Here, big-city amenities meet small-city ease. Enjoy abundant parks and trails, vibrant arts and culture, excellent recreation and education, and a strong sense of community.

With easy access to lakes, outdoor adventures, and the mountains, plus a thriving economy and high quality of life, Red Deer is an inviting place to live, work, and grow.

About The City of Red Deer Municipal Government:

The City of Red Deer is a dynamic municipal organization with a $480M operating budget, a $60M capital program, and a workforce of nearly 1,700 employees. It is focused on growing with purpose by attracting talented, community-minded people who want to make a difference.

Guided by the vision “Our City, One Voice,” Red Deer is building a thriving, inclusive, and connected community, with priorities centered on a vibrant economy, community wellbeing, and strong engagement.

At its core, the City values its people, embracing diverse perspectives and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and shared success

The Opportunity:

The Operations Financial Analyst provides analytical, systems, business process and financial support to the Utilities department, helping ensure the long-term financial sustainability of Water, Wastewater, Electric, Waste Management, and other essential municipal services.

This position requires the ability to utilize past exposure to business environments to successfully manage multiple priorities within a complex utility environment, including utility rate modeling, capital and operating budget planning, utility reserve management, debt financing analysis, business process improvement, regulatory compliance, and infrastructure investment decision-making. Reconciliation, analysis and decision making based on complex financial data is necessary. Project development and leadership, reporting and presentations to senior management, committees and City Council is required to support utility rates, capital investment, and strategic infrastructure decisions.  An analytical nature, exceptional communication skills, proven leadership, superior critical thinking, demonstrated project management, strong problem solving and effective persuasion skills are essential in this role. This is largely a self-directed position and requires the incumbent to take initiative, seek opportunities, exercise a high degree of professional judgment, develop strong working relationships and work independently.  Decisions made in this role have impact across the department, organization, on City Council and the public.

Top Key Responsibilities:

• Provide financial analysis, forecasting, budgeting, utility rate modelling and reporting to support utility and organizational decision-making, including variance analysis, financial projections, business cases, and management reports.
• Lead accounting and financial management activities, including account reconciliations, complex accounting entries, utility budget development, financial monitoring, and interpretation of contracts and agreements.
• Manage and lead utility-focused projects and business improvement initiatives, including utility modernization, asset management initiatives, process improvements, system enhancements, software evaluations, and cross-departmental project coordination.
• Develop, evaluate, and strengthen business processes and internal controls to ensure operational efficiency, financial accuracy, risk mitigation, and compliance with legislative and accounting standards.
• Research, develop, and interpret utility policies, procedures, bylaws and legislation, providing guidance and training to departments on financial, business, and regulatory requirements.
• Build and maintain stakeholder relationships by collaborating with internal departments, supporting external partners and customers, facilitating training, and resolving complex issues and inquiries.
• Coach and mentor staff by providing expertise on financial processes, business operations, and continuous improvement initiatives.

As our preferred candidate, you will have:

• Chartered Professional accounting designation (CPA) and a university degree with a focus in business, accounting or project management. Equivalent education and experience may be considered.
• Five years’ progressively related experience in a sophisticated and integrated system environment preferably in a large organization, with a strong knowledge of business models, decision making tools, accounting principles, financial and management systems and business processes.

Demonstrated experience in the following areas:

• Project management including coordination and leadership of multi-disciplinary teams 
• Business process development and documentation
• Development and monitoring of internal controls
• Risk and gap analysis, critical thinking and evaluation of complex utility, financial, regulatory and infrastructure funding concepts
• Formal report preparation, including utility rate impacts, financial impact analysis and evaluation and recommendation of alternatives
• Proficiency in MS Excel and MS Word. Familiarity with MS Access, MS PowerPoint and MS Outlook
• Proven aptitude for understanding software system configurations and operations.

The following experience would be considered an asset:

• Experience with internal or external auditing
• Implementation experience for systems including setup and testing
• Experience in municipal fund accounting including the requirements of the MGA (Municipal Government Act) and PSAS (Public Sector Accounting Standards)
• Experience with forecasting and variance analysis
• Exposure to interpreting and applying complex legislation
• Exposure to financial accounting and other software including JD Edwards, EPM Cloud & Tempest.

In addition to the 9 Core Competencies identified for all employees of the City of Red Deer, following are specifically required in the position:

• Ability to listen effectively to understand the needs of a wide range of users, synthesize information and prepare and present analyses and business cases to support recommendations 
• Superior demonstrated accuracy and attention to detail.
• Apply advanced accounting and business management principles, knowledge and skills to the maintenance of a multifaceted set of accounting, budgeting and management records.
• Perform financial and budgetary analyses, prepare complete financial reports and complex account reconciliation.
• Communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with the public, other City departments and agencies, including during situations of conflict.  Must regularly communicate with customers, contractors, suppliers and other organizations such as the City’s external auditors, legal providers, etc.
• Ability to work with considerable independence and to demonstrate initiative and resourcefulness in establishing and achieving business objectives.
• Handle sensitive and confidential subject matter, which, if improperly handled, could have a significant negative impact on the City.
• Prioritize, plan, organize and react in situations of competing activities to ensure deadlines and goals are achieved efficiently and effectively.
• Display strong interpersonal, teamwork and flexibility skills.
• Create and maintain a safe work place, adhering to the policies and procedures outlined by the City.
• Demonstrate leadership and actively participate in building a respectful workplace environment.

Affiliation:

Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 417

Remuneration:

$51.72 to $54.44 per hour.

Hours of Work:

75 hours biweekly, Monday to Friday. Some evening and weekend work may be required. 

The City of Red Deer does not permit the use of unauthorized internet resources or Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools  (for example, Copilot, ChatGPT or any other form of AI) during interviews or any supervised or timed assessments.  Any violation may be investigated and result in serious consequences, including the rejection of your application.

We thank you for your application. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.