Senior Director of Finance and Administration

About the role

SUMMARY

Gann Academy’s Senior Director of Finance and Administration is responsible for the school’s financial management, business office operations, budgeting, financial reporting, institutional data, administrative systems, and long-term financial planning. The Senior Director has ultimate accountability for the accuracy and integrity of the school’s books and records.

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, the Senior Director works closely with the Head of School and school leaders to support responsible stewardship of Gann’s resources. This includes helping the school make clear, disciplined decisions about tuition, financial aid, staffing, compensation, facilities, technology, fundraising assumptions, department budgets, capital needs, and long-term sustainability.

The Senior Director supervises Finance and Business Office staff, the Director of Operations, and the Director of Human Resources. Through these areas, the Senior Director provides financial and administrative oversight for the school’s core administrative operations while ensuring that department leaders retain day-to-day responsibility for their areas.

This role requires strong financial judgment, advanced Excel and data analysis skills, broad technological fluency, excellent writing and presentation skills, sound management skills, and the ability to explain complex financial information clearly to school leaders, trustees, employees, families, vendors, and other partners.

*Please note: Review of applications and resumes to start in September 2026

What you'll do

Essential Functions

Financial Leadership

•        Lead Gann’s annual budget process and long-term financial planning.

•        Build financial models and forecasts related to enrollment, tuition, financial aid, staffing, compensation, benefits,

fundraising assumptions, operating expenses, capital needs, and cash flow.

•        Monitor budget performance and help department leaders understand spending, forecasts, constraints, and tradeoffs.

•        Manage financial reporting, accounting processes, cash management, reserves, banking relationships, internal controls,

segregation of duties, accounting policies, and fraud-prevention processes.

•        Manage the annual external audit, including serving as the principal staff liaison to the Audit Committee, coordinating

with the independent auditors, reviewing audited financial statements, responding to management-letter findings, and

overseeing GAAP/nonprofit accounting compliance.

•        Support resource allocation decisions, including what the school can fund, delay, reduce, or decline.

Finance Committee and Board Support

•        Prepare Finance Committee agendas, reports, dashboards, forecasts, presentations, and follow-up materials.

•        Present financial information clearly to trustees and school leaders.

•        Help the Finance Committee and Board understand budget assumptions, risks, tradeoffs, and decisions.

•        Serve as the principal administrative liaison to the Investment Committee, coordinate with investment advisers,

custodians, and banks, monitor liquidity, reserves, endowment draws, investment performance, and policy compliance,

and help connect operating, capital, reserve, and endowment planning.

•        Regularly attend Board meetings and present the annual operating budget for Board approval.

Administrative Oversight

•        Supervise and support the employees responsible for Finance, Operations, and Human Resources.

•        Provide financial and administrative oversight for operations, facilities, food services, technology, campus operations,

transportation, safety, and related vendor relationships.

•        Partner with the Director of Operations on capital planning, deferred maintenance, facilities priorities, technology

planning, operational risk, and major projects.

•        Oversee the Human Resources function and partner with HR on compensation planning, benefits costs, staffing

budgets, payroll accuracy, compliance, onboarding systems, and personnel-related financial analysis.

•        Review, approve, and sign contracts and financial commitments within established school policies, approval limits, and

internal control procedures.

Technology, Systems, and Data

•        Maintain strong working knowledge of Gann’s major finance, HR, operations, enrollment, development, and technology

systems.

•        Understand how data moves across departments and where current tools create risk, inefficiency, or weak reporting.

•       Partner with Operations and IT leaders on system renewals, vendor evaluation, platform changes, data quality,

cybersecurity-related budgeting, and implementation planning.

•        Collect, clean, reconcile, analyze, and explain data from multiple systems and departments.

•        Create dashboards, reports, and presentations that help leaders understand financial trends, risks, and decisions.

Financial Aid, Affordability, and Revenue Planning

•        Oversee financial aid modeling, budget impact, reporting, and award strategy.

•        Support affordability planning, net tuition revenue analysis, and financial aid strategy.

•        Work with Advancement on budgetary matters, including enrollment assumptions, fundraising projections,

campaign-related financial modeling, department budgets, and expense planning.

Qualifications

COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS

•        Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree, CPA, MBA, or comparable experience preferred.

•        At least 10 years of relevant professional experience.

•        Strong budgeting, accounting, audit, internal controls, cash management, and financial reporting skills.

•        Advanced Excel and data analysis skills.

•        Deep technology fluency and comfort working across administrative systems.

•        Ability to build, maintain, and explain financial models, forecasts, dashboards, and presentations.

•        Experience managing teams and working collaboratively across departments.

•        Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

•        Ability to communicate difficult decisions with professionalism, clarity, and empathy.

•        Strong judgment, discretion, follow-through, and attention to detail.

•        Ability to ask good questions, learn complex systems quickly, and make practical recommendations.

•        Experience in educational, nonprofit, Jewish, or mission-driven organizations is valued but not required.

LANGUAGE SKILLS

•     Must be proficient in English to carry out work as assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

•     Supervises 4–5 employees, including the Director of Business Operations, Senior Accountant, Sr. Director of Human

Resources, and Director of Operations.