Senior Financial Analyst

Overview

Reporting to the Director FP&A, the Senior Financial Analyst is responsible for the development of financial reports, models, projections, and analyses for Ascend Learning and its charter schools. The financial analyst will also support with grants management and grants compliance, including grant budget development and reporting.

Why extraordinary professionals teach at Ascend

Ascend is the largest Brooklyn-based public charter school serving over 5,000 K-12 students in 17 schools. We exist to serve every student – to help them embody their inherent excellence by providing rich, joyful learning experiences that unlock a life of boundless choice.

Access to education is a social justice issue. As educators, we center justice and live out our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism (DEIA) by ensuring that our students have the skills, tools, and confidence they need to thrive today and in the future. We are proud to have a workforce that mirrors the diversity seen in our students. Working at Ascend provides a community focused on developing an environment of support and belonging. Educators collaborate closely and encourage each other to achieve great outcomes.

Our schools honor, nurture, and challenge the whole child. Ascend fosters critical thinking skills and a love of learning through an inquiry-based learning approach, Responsive Classroom model, and anti-racist education. We are deeply committed to advancing educational equity for all of our students. Students at Ascend benefit from a rich and rigorous liberal arts curriculum that nurtures natural curiosity about the world and guides them to think critically and independently.

For more information on Ascend Public Charter Schools’ model, approach, and core values, please visit our website.

Responsibilities

• Budgeting and forecasting
• Support the school and network annual budget process, including creation of initial budgets and collaborating with school teams and network leadership to develop budgets
• Own the use and development of Ascend’s budgeting and modeling tools, including Adaptive Insights, a robust corporate performance management product
• Maintain and manage long-term financial model and corresponding capital structure analysis
• Work with school operations staff to update monthly projections and ensure accurate forecasts
• Reporting and Analysis
• Prepare and analyze school and network financial statements, including Balance Sheets, Income Statements and Cash Flow Statements
• Lead the bi-monthly meetings with school and network budget owners
• Perform analyses on various financial and operational issues such as: evaluation of third-party versus in-house service providers, vendor and contract comparisons, and other ad-hoc reporting; and use these analyses to identify potential cost savings measures
• Grants Management
• Collaborate across Ascend departments to develop budgets and projections for all public and private funding
• Prepare grant reports and amendments for submission to funders and agencies

Staff and reporting relationships

The Senior Financial Analyst reports to Ascend’s Director FP&A and will collaborate closely with the chief financial officer and the director of finance, as well as other members of the Ascend network team and School Operations teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor degree required
• Superb organizational, project management, and self-management skills, and the ability to handle multiple responsibilities effectively and flexibly; effective problem-solving skills
• Highly skilled in the use of Excel
• Excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing, favoring direct, plain, and concise communications
• Excellent work habits, including a willingness to do what is necessary to get the job done, especially when important deadlines cause greater than normal departmental pressures
• Acute attention to detail
• Maturity, humility, strong work ethic, sense of humor, and “roll-up-my-sleeves” attitude
• A hunger for feedback and an openness to engage in a process of self-improvement
• Passion and commitment to urban education and Ascend’s mission of closing the achievement gap
• A commitment to transparency in all dealings, exacting ethical standards at all times, and a sensitivity to the level of scrutiny to which Ascend and its schools are subject, as recipients of public funds
• Alignment with the educational philosophy and core beliefs of Ascend
• A professional style that respects all members of Ascend’s community

Compensation

Initial salary offers for this position range from $70,000 - $80,000. Salaries are determined using an equitable compensation scale that accounts for years of experience and levels of attained education.

Diversity at Ascend

Ascend is committed to building a diverse and inclusive community, both through our hiring practices and our focus on creating a culture and environment where diverse perspectives, ideas, and identities are valued and integrated into our way of working and educating students. Ascend staff represent a wide diversity of racial, socio-economic, gender, religious, and national identities—opening a window to the entire Ascend community on the richness of humanity. We welcome all applicants who share our mission and vision to join us in our deeply consequential work.