All Candidates

Permanent - Full-time

40

12

001735

77

Business Officer - Advanced

Business Officer

$60,518 - $80,518

$60,518 - $80,518

Exempt

Academic Affairs

College of Engineering (Col)

College of Engineering

8:00 am – 5:00 pm; Monday – Friday

The Business Officer (BO) administers and manages a broad range of business, human resources and financial affairs (budget) of the College of Engineering. COEN is the academic home to 5 departments, and 12 research centers and interdisciplinary programs. As a direct report to the Dean, the BO serves as a member of the Dean’s Office executive team. S/he is expected to have substantive knowledge of the academic goals of the college, division, and University in relationship to broader higher education trends and adeptly connect strategic, tactical and change management plans and initiatives for college budget and personnel resource planning.

This position supports the College of Engineering in management of state resources, state funded personnel, equipment, purchases, inventory to ensure most efficient use of state funds, while applying a broad knowledge of accounting, budget, human resources, and business practices to perform a range of business-related duties associated with accounting, budgeting, personnel, auditing, risk management, compliance, and special projects/initiatives for the Dean of the College of Engineering. The position is also responsible for fiscal strategic planning and forecasting, training departmental staff and faculty, and serves as their primary resource on budget and personnel matters.

Required Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in business administration, public administration, or related business area; or equivalent combination of training and experience. All degrees must be received from appropriately accredited institutions.

University Preferred Qualifications:

Advanced: Graduation from a four-year college or university with a degree in Business Administration, Public Administration or related business area and three years of administration management or business management experience; or an equivalent combination of training and experience

The College of Engineering Business Officer (BO) administers and manages the business, human resources and financial affairs of the College. Responsibilities include information and data analysis, reporting, problem solving and decision making, facilitation and management of financial resources that may be state appropriated, from contracts and grants, discretionary and/or receipt generated. S/he is also intimately involved in supporting the College’s research enterprise, working closely with research staff both in the College and in the University’s Office of Research and Economic Development.

The BO role requires awareness of and sensitivity to the diversity within the College in terms of its students, faculty and staff, department and college-wide organizational cultures, and expansive range of degree, research and engaged- community and engaged-scholarship programs. S/he works in close collaboration with college leadership, and is expected to be well-positioned to assess, organize, justify, submit, and represent its resource needs to a critical-path of division and campus leadership partners.

The BO adeptly facilitates an “all funds, all resources” management approach to ensure student and faculty success through the optimization of resources. S/he provides current- and multi-year reports and information insights to advise leaders on actionable options that ensure sustainable program and operations. The BO is the staff lead for the cyclical budget call process and a range of ad hoc budget and personnel appointment and compensation requests submitted to or through the division of academic affairs. The BO helps weigh the resource needs for capacity-building infusions with those that are refinements to existing commitments. S/he serves an essential advising, communication, and implementation role during periods involving broader environment disruptions or directional changes that impact the University, College, or, program. Solutions often require a mix of short- and long-term budget planning solutions with implications for permanent or temporary funding/budget.

The BO serves as the primary internal resource to interpret policies and procedures of the University and a host of authoritative entities — both internal and external —which direct or influence how campus and college leaders and teams navigate options, make decisions, and do business. S/he fields inquiries and researches solutions to complex challenges busy academic and staff leaders face. University compliance requirements and expectations align to a range of external sources that include the UNC System Office (SO), state and federal government offices, sponsored research and accreditation agencies, and corporate and individual donors. The BO oversees or coordinates activities associated with internal or external agency audits.

The BO must be a highly effective, engaging communicator with abilities to distill, translate and share a range of technically oriented, compliance-rich “need to know” information, mandates, policies and procedures. S/he serves as a liaison to department chairs and other administrative faculty and staff as fiduciary and hiring manager heads and a range of employee supervisors. The BO further distributes notifications, announcements, status reports and lists, and information requests from campus partners. S/he serves as a liaison to department chairs and other administrative faculty and staff as fiduciary and hiring manager heads and a range of employee supervisors and program and operations managers and their teams.

Business officers in the colleges, as granted by the Provost, possess delegated review and signature authority as a proxy for the Dean(s) as granted by the Provost. The foundation for this span and level of authority is to support academic leaders, college-wide, enabling them to (re)focus on academic priorities in keeping with their shared fiduciary and compliance responsibilities. This responsibility is especially important given the campus model for budgeting, human resources and business administrative actions is highly distributed. The BO directly supervises professional level employees and possesses authority for the indirect supervision of others in departments. S/he provides support, training, and creates and revises college-specific procedural guidance for department business services coordinators and administrative assistants, among others, involved in business administration activities.

BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION/INFORMATION ANALYSIS / COMMUNICATION
The BO progressively innovates and standardizes the financial/budgeting, personnel and business administration work of the college in partnership with campus administrators and their teams. The BO interfaces with a variety of leaders and managers within the division Academic Affairs and in addition to other divisional and campus partners including Business Affairs, Advancement, Institutional Integrity, Research and Economic Development, and, OneIT, among others. S/he works in partnership with Academic Affairs Budget and Personnel (AABP) and the Office of the Provost and is a member of the division’s Business Officer Council. The BO provides essential stakeholder input associated with divisional and campus business process or systems improvement projects and broader change management initiatives to help ensure solutions are designed and implemented with the interests of the college in mind. The BO provides guidance and advice on a daily basis to departments and programs to make sure rules and regulations are followed.

This position must advise the Dean and all chairs on the most efficient methods of accomplishing goals while staying compliant with all human resources and financial policies. This analysis might include travel regulations being applied appropriately, improper uses of state funds in certain circumstances. Research involves reading policies and consulting with AABP and other collaborators at the university and other colleges. The BO works with auditors to correct any detrimental findings and uses education to prevent recurrence.

In ever-increasing ways, the BO assists with the collection of information to coordinate or directly develop summary or status reports and justifications for the request of budget-or personnel-related resources or actions to submit to or through the division of academic affairs. Often, additional Chancellor or UNC System Office (SO) management review and approvals are required.

It is necessary to communicate with a variety of offices in the University on behalf of the College and Dean, such as the Division of Academic Affairs, Financial Services, Research Services, Institutional Research, Office of Business Affairs, Human Resources, and Payroll. The individual in this position is the primary resource for the College in understanding University, UNC system, state requirements related to budget and personnel, in addition to the requirements for fiscal management from a variety of foundations, and state and federal funding sources. As a result, it is necessary to work with a variety of individuals. A broad range of contacts from faculty, staff and students within the campus community are routine. On and off campus contacts are involved with providing statistical data in national surveys. Develops and keeps current SHRA Reference Manual online for administrative assistants in the College of Engineering. The manual consists of budget, personnel, etc. that is relevant for Administrative Assistants to perform duties. Conducts monthly meetings for administrative assistants. Topics include budgets, preparation of hiring temporaries, and any information that will assist them in preparing their jobs more effectively.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
The BO guides leaders and their teams to frequently review their monthly, quarterly, annual and multi-year revenue and expenses and remaining balances to understand their overall budgeting position. S/he develops internal guides and instructions, tools and services for modeling out various views and allocation changes that allow the department or college to practice responsive management in terms of assessing options, making decisions and directing the actions of budget staff.

Additional budget management duties include: b) direct management of Dean’s Office budget and the oversight and coordination of departmental-level budgeting and cash, receipts, and fee management including daily accounting and frequent reconciliation; a) review and approval of college-wide purchasing and expense activity including salaries and wages, contracting related to purchased services, equipment, software, or leasing, subscriptions, telecommunications, and, supplies, etc., c) forecasting, reporting and analyses by fund type, department, and college-wide but also further organized by various combinations of primary cost centers to examine patterns, trends, and add context notes to understand opportunities for resource optimization; d) establishment of new or close out of inactive fund numbers; and, e) submission of fund- and systems-access actions to maintain role authority updates based on role changes, and separations, among others.

Personnel expenses represent ~75% of the division’s— and most colleges’ —total expenses. Therefore, the BO is required to have a command of and his/her ability to responsively advise others on the full range of position budgeting, accounting, weekly reconciliation, and frequent reporting. Position budget actions vary greatly based on employment type, appointment basis, length of employment, employee classification/title/rank, and the purpose, type, level, timing, and fund source, among other factors and policy governance. The BO works in close coordination with key college and campus offices regarding this broad set of personnel budgets and employment factors. Examples include: The Graduate School, Treasury Services, and Academic Affairs. Other employee-related expenses can involve searches and relocation moves, faculty start-up, professorship operating funds, stipend pays for additional duties, and professional development and training, among others.

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Regarding human resources management duties, the BO oversees personnel actions that support the full employee life cycle. For example, recruitment, contracting, hiring, and onboarding; compensation which may include salary or wages, benefits and leave administration, stipend (special pays), workplace accommodations or other employee relations considerations based on University policies and procedures, employee recognition programs and awards, annual reviews, education tuition waivers, campus learning and development offerings, retirements or resignations and related leave payouts due to separations, and a host of faculty-specific programs and options supported by University, division or college policies and procedures.

The BO assists with the development and updating of the college’s Resilience Planner business continuity plan as a risk management shared responsibility with leaders. The BO ensures the planning for staff-related professional development and training to: a) continually advance role- and team-based proficiency levels; b) develop cross-functional capability between roles; c) ensure business administration service continuity (including vacancy coverage); d) implement targeted initiatives for continuous improvement (college-specific or adoptions on behalf of division or campus); and, e) succession planning for key roles.

Relatedly, the BO conducts comprehensive, cyclical organizational structure and staff composition reviews and develops resource and implementation plans that require the Dean’s and additional levels of pre-review and approval. More specifically, s/he will complete or coordinate department and college-wide staffing changes in partnership with department chairs to address changing program and business needs through a comprehensive lens. These actions often merit long-lead periods to accommodate resource (re)allocations, the coordination of other potential adjustments and pre-review by the Dean and Division. The BO is responsible for ensuring the timely, cyclical review of new and existing staff regarding career progression changes and related position description and or salary/wage modifications.

•Master’s degree preferred or bachelor’s degree with a minimum of two years of budget and funds management experience with various types of funds: general funds, institutional trust funds, receipt-based funds, and discretionary funds.
•Ability to supervise and manage professional level employees.
•Experience in Human Resources compliance with recruitment and selection policies, procedures, and software.
•Experience with strategic budget planning and budget presentation.
•Comprehensive experience and knowledge of accounting and budgeting practices, and ability to provide budgetary planning, forecasting, and presentation.
•Experience in audit, compliance, project management and risk management are preferred.
•Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
•Strong problem solving and analytical skills.
•Excellent computer skills including proficiency with Banner, Visio, Microsoft Office and Google suite.
•Proficiency in Excel required at the high intermediate level.
•Good organizational skills. Ability to work under pressure of deadlines.
•Ability to independently manage a broad range of business functions and self-directed organization/work prioritization.

Duke 315

04/30/2021

05/30/2021

07/06/2021

Please ensure your full range of knowledge, skills, abilities, experience and education are listed on your application.

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