Staff - Non Union
Job Category
M&P - AAPS
Job Profile
AAPS Salaried - Accounting, Level D
Job Title
Portfolio Finance Manager
Department
VPRI budget | Institutional Programs Office
Compensation Range
$7,622.83 - $11,886.67 CAD Monthly
The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge, qualifications and experience for the position. In the normal course, employees will be hired, transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.
Posting End Date
August 15, 2025
Note:Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.
Job End Date
Ongoing
This position is expected to be filled by promotion/reassignment and is included here to inform you of its vacancy at the University.
At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.
Job Description Summary
The role of the Portfolio Finance Manager is to provide high level financial and budgetary analysis, data management and reporting for VPRI, in support of strong budget management. The Portfolio Finance Manager reports to the Director, Finance, VPRI and works closely, as part of the VPRI Finance senior leadership team.
This role provides portfolio-wide technical leadership for complex budget, reporting and financial processes, including preparation of the annual budgets and five-year plans, year-end reporting and year-end financial processes. The role will be responsible for reporting of the comprehensive VPRI portfolio with an annual consolidated budget of $110 million including operating, research, special purpose, endowment and trust funds. The role will also be directly responsible for operational budgets of $25 million that include central VPRI resources and strategic programs that span across multiple units. Central VPRI resources includes Executive Leadership, Communications, Human Resources, Institutional Chair Programs, and Strategic Initiatives. The role also includes any ad-hoc financial modelling or analysis that arises at the portfolio level. The incumbent participates in developing and driving its strategic direction, policies and procedures. This is a senior role in the VPRI Finance Team of the portfolio.
UBC is a major research-intensive university in Canada with over $1 billion dollars in research infrastructure funding and an annual research budget of over $750 million. The Vice President, Research & Innovation portfolio oversees UBC s research infrastructure, strategy and innovation engagement, a central component of the UBC s mandate as a public university.
The Portfolio Finance Manager, works in an office environment but local travel between distributed members of the VPRI Finance team and within the UBC campus may be required. A significant portion of each day will be spent dealing with technical and complex financial and data issues. The Portfolio Finance Manager, must be able to deal with changing priorities and multiple deadlines and build relationships, provide support from a client-service perspective, and support portfolio priorities.
Organizational Status
The Portfolio Finance Manager reports to and receives direction from the Finance Director, VP Research and Innovation. This position may also represent the financial interest of VPRI through participation on various portfolio and UBC committees.
The Portfolio Finance Manager is a key member of the Finance leadership team that includes the Finance directors and managers. The incumbent provides strategic financial and budget planning advice for the various operating units within the portfolio.
Work is done in collaboration with the Treasury Office, Budget and Planning Office, Payments and Procurement Services, IT Services, Internal Audit, Associate Directors, external customers, provincial and federal governments, municipalities and external auditors.
Work Performed
Management Reporting, Financial and Budget Analysis
Oversees the portfolio’s financial processes including year-end processes, and through leadership and guidance throughout the VPRI Finance team, ensures that budget, forecast and accounting practices are aligned.
Prepares, analyzes, and presents financial and business performance data to management for decision-making, necessitating strong analytical skills, proficiency in financial reporting, and the ability to communicate insights effectively; this includes variance analyses, forecasting, budgeting, and ensuring data accuracy and integrity.
Works collaboratively with data/report requestors to gather and understand needs, propose solutions, and develop data sharing agreements; Design and configure reporting and data application security to meet business data requirements; Develop solutions and reports that respond to a breadth of data needs making the most efficient and effective use of resources; Support data and reporting needed for research support, including multi-year financial scenarios, and other central decision-making and general campus needs; Develop and maintain report documentation to support technical maintenance and end-user needs;
Develops Financial Business Intelligence for the portfolio through the collection and analysis of data patterns, trends, and anomalies through visualization tools and reporting to enhance decision-making through data-driven and actionable insights; leveraging data from systems using Workday, Adaptive, Calumo, Power BI, and like solutions to automate and track key metrics for the portfolio.
Builds financial models as required to assess the financial viability and impact of new and existing strategic initiatives. Involved in the development of business plans for new programs and activities.
Guides and co-ordinates the implementation of UBC initiated financial reporting systems in the portfolio, including implementing new processes and systems, providing communication, training and assistance.
Develops best financial management practices together with the VPRI Finance senior leadership team.
Participates in business process analysis, documenting process flows and facilitating workshops to elicit improvement, and in training in new systems and structures.
Will act as the primary point of contact in the portfolio for liaising with provincial auditors in assessing query requirements, determining adherence to security and privacy, and coordinating actionable responses in a timely manger; this also includes appropriate coordination with the UBC financial reporting team, and the Comptroller’s financial planning and analysis team to ensure alignment with accepted UBC policy and practices.
Represents VPRI at senior University committees related to financial, budgeting and accounting systems.
Undertakes special projects at the request of the Director, Finance, VPRI.
Performs other duties as required.
Consequence of Error/Judgement
The Portfolio Finance Manager must have a thorough understanding of the principles of accounting and sound financial management skills. They are required to apply this theoretical knowledge to research the information needs of portfolio management, develop structures to collect the data required, and create processes to compile the data into meaningful reporting formats which enable financial results and risks to be readily determined. The position is required to use judgment to interpret financial information received from a variety of sources, assess financial risks and problems, and make recommendations to manage the risks and resolve financial issues.
The position must make decisions regarding non-standard or new accounting data and analytical questions.
Reports developed by this position must be correct, contain the appropriate, complete information, and present the information in a manner that enables them to be easily understood by portfolio leaders. Errors in the information/reports prepared by this position could result in poor financial decisions by Senior Leadership. If reports to funders are incorrect, this could damage the relationship with the funder, cause significant reputation losses to the portfolio. In addition, if the information presented does not support appropriate financial monitoring, then problems could be overlooked and continue to worsen over time and thus jeopardize the financial health of the portfolio and the University.
Supervision Received
Works with a high degree of independence under the broad direction of the Director, Finance, VPRI.
Supervision Given
Manages two support staff responsible for portfolio-wide financial processing and transactional support; one Senior Financial Specialist and one Finance Clerk.
Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Completion of the CPA accounting program (CA, CGA or CMA). Minimum of seven years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own
Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion
Preferred Qualifications
University degree in Commerce or Business Administration preferred.
Experience in financial and budgetary analysis and development of financial tracking and reporting systems.
Experience in post-secondary education preferred.
Experience in fund accounting, budgeting, management of accounting systems and teams is preferred.
Experience working collaboratively with senior leadership and management and other professionals.
Experience with and ability to consolidate and interpret financial data, present findings and assist non-financial managers in understanding financial reports.
Extensive experience with data analysis in large ERP systems and/or large data sets is required, including demonstrated ability to build reporting tools, performance indicators and other analytical tools.
Ability to consolidate data from various sources to develop budgets and financial reports to support senior management decision making.
Demonstrated ability to develop appropriate and effective financial reports
Proven oral and written communication, interpersonal and organizational skills.
Be able to deal with sensitive issues with tact and diplomacy.
Advanced computer skills preferred.
Initiative, creativity and flexibility to develop options for the resolution of complex financial issues.
Ability to work independently and within a team environment.
Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
Ability to maintain accuracy and attention to detail while maintaining an overall big picture perspective.
