Assistant Director of Central Business Operations

About the role

The Assistant Director of Central Business Operations will lead the CU Denver Central Business Operations unit, supporting administrative areas and collaborating with human resources, budget, executive assistants, and finance leaders across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain strong working relationships with leaders of the Central Services Administration (CSA) and Academic and Student Affairs (ASA) areas served to ensure alignment, proactive communication, and clear understanding of operational and financial needs, including workforce planning, major procurements, and strategic initiatives.
• Collaborate with campus and University Subject Matter Experts, such as CU Denver Human Resources, Budget, Fiscal Compliance, Controller’s Office, and CU System Procurement Service Center to ensure compliance and alignment with new and existing policies and procedures in the SME areas.
• Develop and implement communication strategies through website updates, emails, and meetings to keep departments apprised on campus processes, incorporating relevant updates from Procurement, Financial Services and Budget where appropriate.
• Lead the development, standardization, and continuous improvement of shared services processes and workflows to enhance the work and operational efficiency of the service delivery.
• Leverage data, reporting tools, and performance metrics to assess service effectiveness, including workload analysis, transaction types (journals entries, PETs, procurements, etc.) and turnaround times. Utilize data-driven insights to identify risks, recommend solutions, and implement process improvements and proactive mitigation with customer departments.
• Provide strategy and recommendations to unify disparate processes amongst the CSA and ASA teams.
• Lead, train, and manage the Central Business Operations team, including collaboration on process enhancements, distribution of work, understanding of pain points, development of growth and training plans, and annual performance evaluations.
• Provide oversight and management of procurement, expenses, travel, and associated contracts for administrative departments in CSA and ASA. Ensure purchase orders are kept current with funds and are closed in a timely manner. Review and approve (or delegate when necessary) travel reports, expense reports, and other invoices. Recommend efficiencies based on review and monitoring of contracts and spending patterns. Identify Payroll Expense Transfers (PETs) and Journal entries (JEs) as needed in compliance with internal and external policies and procedures. Lead large scale procurement processes to assist department managers with competitive/sole source processes and any expenditures requiring purchase orders. Serve as Approving Official for CSA or ASA department procurement card holders; monitor, allocate, and evaluate department’s expense reports, department travel request forms in accordance with internal and external policies and procedures. Partner with Financial Services-Fiscal Compliance to provide training on policies and procedures to administrative departments.

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in business, business administration, finance, accounting, public administration, or a directly related field from an accredited institution; Five (5) years of extensive, diverse, and progressively responsible professional fiscal management experience at the manager level.
• Leadership level experience working within the University of Colorado system in a Business Services, Finance, or Budget role in a department or academic unit.
• Experience developing Standard Operating Procedures in areas of procurement, contracts, accounts payable and finance.
• Experience supervising professional employees.
• Experience with PeopleSoft or other financial system is highly desired.
• Experience training others on processes, procedures and tools.
• Experience with process improvements within responsibility areas.
• Demonstrated ability working with business functions in a complex organization.
• Outstanding customer service skills.
• Demonstrate an exceptional understanding of access and engagement with commitment to developing equitable practices.
• Must be able to initiate communication and communicate work effectively with leaders across campus.
• Ability to analyze and interpret financial data to support decision making.
• Demonstrate adaptability and flexibility.