Chief Financial Officer

About the role

The CFO serves as a trusted advisor and strategic partner to the President and Board, ensuring that institutional goals are supported by sound and sustainable financial strategy. They oversee Juilliard's financial infrastructure, lead an enterprise-wide risk management process, and develop long-range financial plans that tie together operating plans, capital requirements, and strategic objectives.

Responsibilities

• Serves as a trusted advisor and strategic partner to the President and Board, ensuring that institutional goals are supported by sound and sustainable financial strategy.
• Serves as the primary management interface with the Investment Committee of the Board; oversees the relationship with Juilliard's outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO), ensures investment performance and portfolio positioning are reported clearly to trustees, and monitors adherence to Board-approved investment policy and endowment spending guidelines.
• Serves as the primary management interface with the Audit and Risk Committee; proactively keeps the Committee informed of environment changes, audit findings, risk exposures, and remediation actions.
• Serves as the primary management interface with the Budget Committee of the board ensuring trustees have timely, accurate, and decision-ready financial information at every stage of the budget cycle.
• Oversee Juilliard's financial infrastructure: financial planning and policies, forecasting, accounting practices, treasury management, and relationships with financial and/or business partners.
• Lead an enterprise-wide risk management process: identifies, assesses, and prioritizes financial, operational, and reputational risks; develops mitigation strategies; presents a risk register to senior leadership and the Board annually.
• Develops and maintains long-range financial plans that tie together operating plans, capital requirements, and strategic objectives.
• Ensure that key sensitivities, risks, and uncertainties in the annual budget and financial strategic plan are appropriately called out for review and oversight by key constituents.
• Ensure that the annual budget process incorporates expense control aligned with the mission to provide for full tuition scholarships.
• Proactively identifies innovative financing approaches, revenue diversification opportunities, and cost structures that expand rather than constrain institutional ambition.
• Partner closely with Development and the senior leadership team to structure, execute, and monitor an ambitious capital campaign that is underway as well as growth in annual giving.
• Continue to develop the school’s Enterprise Resource Planning platform (Oracle), in partnership with the Chief Technology Officer.
• Manage and drive the annual budget process, monitoring budget schedules and workflow, working with management staff to prepare budget information, and developing budget documents and accompanying memoranda for presentation to senior administration and the Board.
• Strengthen the capabilities of the Finance organization, particularly to offer actionable business insights, through a combination of people development and skills development.
• Install a spirit of continuous improvement in the Finance organization with its people, processes, and technologies.

Competencies

• Shaping Strategy: Enabling organizations to make informed choices about their strategic focus and modes of engagement.
• Driving Results: Consistent delivery of year-over-year improvement in financial results in environments characterized by a sense of urgency, continuous improvement, and the importance of detail orientation.
• Driving Change: Innovative thinking oriented towards exploring new approaches and pushing existing structures and processes to make it possible for innovation and continuous improvement to happen across boundaries and throughout the entire organization.
• Influencing Collaboratively: Effective in working with peers, partners, and others who are not in the line of command, to positively impact business performance as well as to resolve issues in a constructive way.

Requirements

• B.A./B.S. in Accounting required, with a minimum of seven years of progressive work experience in internal accounting, including familiarity with financial structures and budgeting.
• Experience in successfully leading and directing financial planning, budgeting and forecasting, and fiscal risk management at a selective higher education institution, conservatory, or other organization.
• Knowledge of higher education, conservatory, or nonprofit financial management, including an understanding of the current economic challenges facing colleges and universities.
• Excellent attention to detail and verbal, written, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to partner, work effectively, and closely with a diverse group of constituents.
• Demonstrated passion for excellent customer service and commitment to exceptional quality.
• Sound judgment, with an open and collaborative style that encourages teamwork and cooperation and being a strong role model and coach.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or comparable advanced degree.
• Not-for-profit work experience with understanding of fundraising, endowment management and budgeting.
• Experience overseeing all required government filings for accuracy and timeliness.