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EPIC - Adminstration and Operations

About the Department

The University of Chicago Institute for Climate and Energy (CEI) is a groundbreaking effort uniting faculty from across the university to advance society\'s understanding of our energy and climate future. The Institute combines faculty insights in energy markets and policy, climate systems engineering, and energy technology to produce world-changing ideas while also investing in the next generation of energy and climate thinkers, leaders, and innovators through novel educational programs.

Job Summary

The Finance Administrator will act as the primary financial and analytical liaison for assigned departments and initiatives, overseeing budget development and providing comprehensive financial management support. This role will drive the development and integration of unit-specific financial data analytics and reporting, focusing on establishing standardized metrics and methodologies to evaluate both University-wide and department-level financial performance. Additionally, the Finance Administrator will contribute to the formulation of long- and short-term financial goals, business strategies, and financial forecasts. The role involves coordinating quarterly and year-end reporting for the operating budget, leveraging a solid understanding of financial principles.

Responsibilities

• Analyzes, reviews, and tracks comprehensive financial activities for the Climate and Energy (CEI), Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), Climate Systems Engineering Initiative (CSEi), the Energy and Environment Lab (E&E Lab) and the various programs/initiatives, primarily in the areas of finance, auditing, budgeting and forecasting, purchasing, and other operational-related financial activities.
• Plans, develops, and manages budgets, including developing multi-year budget forecasts.
• Oversees the review, approval, and reporting of all expenditure goods and services, and costing allocations.
• Monitors and reconciles actual expenditures and revenue against budget and prepares monthly, quarterly, and annual variance reports for the Finance Manager and leadership. Works closely with departments to understand variances and develop recommendations for programmatic changes or cost containment strategies to avoid deficits.
• Reviews financial reports for consistency and accuracy. Flags potential errors to be investigated and corrected. Prepares and submits account corrections as necessary, including both payroll and non-payroll.
• Oversees and tracks multi-year faculty fund support packages. Provides faculty periodic reports of spend and available balance.
• Works in close partnership with UChicago Global and UC Trust to oversee, process, and manage transfer of funds for international programmatic activities.
• Prepares and submits financial transactions through the University systems in Oracle and Concur.
• Assists staff with the GEMS system and runs reports to ensure that transactions are reconciled at regular intervals.
• Builds and maintains complex financial models using Excel and other analysis and reporting tools and systems as necessary.
• Assists and prepares various presentations/trainings to convey financial and administrative matters to leadership and members of the assigned departments.
• Coordinates and manages Calls for Proposals and awarding of internal grant funds to faculty. Assists faculty and staff with review and execution of contracts and data use agreements; works to understand needs, assesses contract suitability to meeting those needs, and negotiates with vendors to ensur contracts comply with university standards and guidelines.
• Assists the Finance Manager to develop and implement metrics and methodologies toolkits for evaluating financial performance for both the unit overall and specific assigned departments.
• Assists the Finance Manager in the annual budget process such as preparing departmental budget packets and inputting budgets into Oracle Planning Module, UCPlan.
• Helps to develop and maintain a Financial Administration manual for staff with relevant University policies and procedures.
• Assists with various payment processing in Oracle and may work with other team members on the procurement process.
• Liaise as necessary with staff and Financial Services.
• Acts as a primary account administrator for account owners in an intensive customer service environment.
• Routinely prepares budgets, creates accounts, and works with the financial accounting system to allocate, authorize, monitor, and control expenses.
• Helps to prepare monthly reports, conducts and correct errors in accounts using existing procedures that are in place, and provides advice on the financial impact of human resources and academic affairs decisions.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education:

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related f