Job Description
Finance, Planning, and Budgeting (FPB) has an outstanding opportunity for an Assistant Director to join their Financial Shared Services team.
About this Opportunity
Finance, Planning & Budgeting (FPB) seeks an Assistant Director of Financial Shared Services (FSS) to help build a new shared services organization at the University of Washington. This role exists to make it easier for faculty, researchers, students, and staff to advance teaching, learning, discovery, and public impact through responsive financial services that reduce administrative burden and protect University resources.
Reporting to the Executive Director, this position is one of three Assistant Directors forming the operational leadership team for finance operations and accounting services serving UW schools. Each directs one or more customer-aligned hubs, generally through Hub Managers and 18 to 25 Shared Services employees, and may lead enterprise service lines or initiatives across hubs.
This is a build-and-operate leadership role. The Assistant Director will keep essential financial services running while helping design the processes, roles, decision structures, service standards, and culture the organization will use in the future. We seek a hands-on leader who listens carefully, stays curious, and exercises sound judgment as the organization evolves. Decisions must reflect the University's mission, FSS guiding principles, customer impact, service commitments, available data, UW policy, and internal controls.
Key Responsibilities
Operational Leadership and Service Delivery 25%
- Direct accurate, timely, compliant services that support faculty and staff. Take ownership of service problems and intervene when commitments or controls are at risk.
- Balance workloads and expertise; establish clear intake, prioritization, quality review, escalation, and coverage practices so customers know who owns an issue, what happens next, and when to expect resolution.
- Stay fluent in core workflows and systems, periodically perform representative transactions, and work alongside teams to diagnose problems, test improvements, and maintain service during demanding periods.
Strategy and Change Leadership 25%
- Translate FSS strategy into implementation plans and service standards. Navigate uncertainty by identifying assumptions, dependencies, risks, and escalation needs; involve the right people and persist through barriers with practical alternatives.
- Investigate root causes across policy, people, processes, systems, and data. Listen to those affected, challenge assumptions, pilot solutions, and adapt to evidence; standardize where useful while preserving justified mission-specific practices.
People Leadership and Organizational Development 20%
- Coach and develop managers and staff through clear expectations and decision authority, constructive feedback, performance management, recognition, and succession planning.
- Unite employees from different organizations in an inclusive, accountable service culture through effective onboarding, cross-training, career development, and sustainable workloads. Establish consistent leadership and workforce practices across hubs.
Stakeholder Partnership and Governance 15%
- Build trusted partnerships with faculty, staff, academic leaders, and central offices. Understand mission impacts, Demonstrate audience fluency: adapt communication to different roles and levels of financial expertise, from accountants addressing complex controls to staff helping a student arrange travel. Translate requirements into clear, respectful, practical guidance without sacrificing accuracy.
- Represent operations in governance and resolve barriers across units. Share information and capacity with peer Assistant Directors, resolve disagreements constructively, and consistently support collective decisions and accountability across FSS.
Systems and Performance Management 15%
- Use Workday Finance and operational data to improve workflows, transparency, and customer experience. Measure timeliness, accuracy, rework, customer effort, service recovery, and trust alongside transaction volume.
- Strengthen internal controls, address risks and recurring failures, and responsibly expand automation and analytics.
Required Qualifications
To be considered for this opportunity your application must demonstrate you meet both the minimum qualifications and additional qualifications listed below. Equivalent education and/or experience may substitute for minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license, certification, and/or registration.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Public Administration, Organizational Leadership, or a related field, and five or more years of progressively responsible experience leading financial, administrative, shared services, or program operations in a large or matrixed organization, including three years of formal supervision of managers and/or staff. Equivalent education and experience providing comparable knowledge and skills may substitute for the degree.
- Experience directing complex, multi-unit operations with accountability for service quality, capacity, internal controls, resource allocation, and customer outcomes.
- Demonstrated ability to translate strategy into implementation, lead change across groups with different priorities, and make sound decisions in evolving or ambiguous environments.
- Experience using financial and operational data to assess performance, prioritize work, and evaluate results.
- Experience developing managers and staff through coaching, performance management, and career development, with a collaborative, inclusive, service-oriented approach to diverse teams and stakeholders.
- Strong communication and partnership skills, including explaining accounting, policy, controls, and systems to varied audiences, inviting differing perspectives, and building trust across organizational boundaries.
- Experience achieving results within a peer leadership team through shared accountability, constructive conflict, influence without authority, and consistent communication.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience with Workday Finance implementation, optimization, or stabilization.
- Experience in higher education, the public sector, or another complex mission-driven organization.
- Experience designing, integrating, or leading shared services or multi-unit service delivery.
- Formal experience with process improvement, service management, change management, or related methodologies.
- Demonstrated curiosity, resourcefulness, and persistence in solving unfamiliar problems across functions.
About the Team
Finance, Planning, and Budgeting (FPB) encompasses the major central financial, planning, analytical, and budgeting functions for the University of Washington, including:
- Financial Stewardship & Operations
- Institutional Analytics & Decision Support
- Budget, Policy & Strategy
- University Business Service
We will begin screening completed application materials upon receipt through the close date.
Compensation, Benefits and Position Details
Pay Range Minimum:
$92,520.00 annual
Pay Range Maximum:
$160,008.00 annual
Other Compensation:
-
Benefits:
For information about benefits for this position, visit https://www.washington.edu/jobs/benefits-for-uw-staff/
Shift:
First Shift (United States of America)
Temporary or Regular?
This is a regular position
FTE (Full-Time Equivalent):
100.00%
Union/Bargaining Unit:
Not Applicable
About the UW
Working at the University of Washington provides a unique opportunity to change lives – on our campuses, in our state and around the world.
UW employees bring their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to building stronger minds and a healthier world. In return, they enjoy outstanding benefits, opportunities for professional growth and the chance to work in an environment known for its diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.
Our Commitment
The University of Washington is committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful and welcoming community for all. As an equal opportunity employer, the University considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship, sex, pregnancy, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, or veteran status consistent with UW Executive Order No. 81.
To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 or dso@uw.edu.
Applicants considered for this position will be required to disclose if they are the subject of any substantiated findings or current investigations related to sexual misconduct at their current employment and past employment. Disclosure is required under Washington state law.