Budget Director

Budget Director
University of Puget Sound
Job ID: 8841
Location:
Full/Part Time:  
Regular/Temporary:  

Staff Posting Details

Appointment: Regular, full-time (1.0 FTE) position.

Work Location:
This position is based in Tacoma, WA.

Please note that we generally do not sponsor applicants for work visas for staff positions. Therefore, we generally require applicants for staff positions to be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.

Position Summary:



The University Budget Director leads the institution's financial planning and budgeting functions, including coordination of the annual operating budget, maintenance of the long-range financial planning (LRP) model, and delivery of strategic financial analysis to senior leadership, Cabinet, and the Board of Trustees.

Working in close partnership with academic and administrative leaders across the University, the Budget Director develops integrated, forward-looking financial models that reflect a tuition-dependent, enrollment-sensitive operating environment and incorporate endowment draw strategies, balance sheet considerations, and multi-year sustainability planning.

The Budget Director translates these inputs into clear budget projections, scenario analyses, and variance reporting that support institutional decision-making and long-term financial health.

The Budget Director exercises significant independent judgment in the development and interpretation of financial models, forecasts, and scenarios that directly inform institutional strategy, resource allocation, and Board-level decision-making. Accuracy, rigor, and sound judgment are critical, as errors or omissions could have material financial and operational consequences for the University.

Essential Job Functions and Responsibilities:



Financial Planning and Budgeting

• Financial Model Development: Maintain the long-range financial planning model (LRP), understanding and updating its underlying planning variables to ensure its consistency with the university's financial strategy. Make improvements to the model, its platform and related executive summaries.
• Identify external and internal trends, issues, planning considerations, and recommendations. Identify potential areas for cost reduction, revenue enhancement and risk reduction, and assist with coordinating related execution in these areas.
• Annual Budget Coordination: Coordinate the process to build and load detailed budgets into the PeopleSoft system, ensuring consistency and alignment with institutional goals and the LRP. Help lead development, streamlining and automation of a holistic university process.
• Operating and Balance Sheet Management: Develop a thorough understanding of the university's operating activities and balance sheet to inform planning and budgeting.
• Staffing and Compensation Budgeting: Collaborate with the Human Resources team to maintain detailed staff position and contingency budgets that reconcile to both PeopleSoft HR and Financials.
• Budget Variance Reporting (BVR): Manage maintenance and updates to the Budget Variance Report, including reconciliations between PeopleSoft Financials and the LRP. Coordinate the process of gathering, reviewing, and reporting projections from budget managers. Provide regular, detailed analysis of variances to leadership and to the Finance and Facilities Committee, as requested.
• Coordinate budget and/or budget variance projections for:
  • Net Tuition and Fee Projection: Coordinate budget and/or budget variance projections for tuition, fees, and financial aid (net tuition).
  • Educational and General Compensation: Coordinate Educational and General (E&G) faculty and staff salary/wage budgets and university-wide benefits budgets with Finance, HR, and Academic Dean(s), as appropriate (budget and BVR).
  • University Relations Budget: Manage Quasi-endowment funding for campaign and university relations expenses in coordination with the VP for University Relations or designee (budget and BVR).
  • Auxiliary Budget: Coordinate Auxiliary Services budget and BVR with the Director of Auxiliary and Business Services and auxiliary budget managers.
• Executive Support: Provide information and perform other FP&A functions as required by the CFO, Cabinet, Budget Task Force (BTF), board committees, and others.

Endowment Management and Modeling

• Investment Understanding: Collaborate with the Finance team to ensure a shared, clear understanding of investment activities.
• Financial Modeling: Develop and maintain endowment financial modeling, which requires a solid understanding of endowment and/or mutual fund unitization or the ability to quickly learn this skill.
• Payout Projection: Oversee the endowment payout budget projection & modeling for individual and pooled endowment investments.

Financial Review

• Financial Reconciliations: Perform selected reviews of financial information as assigned, including Reconciling Commitment Control (KK) and General Ledger (GL) Actual in PeopleSoft.
• Discretionary Fund Tracking: Track presidential and other discretionary funds.
• Assist with Associated Students of University of Puget Sound (ASUPS) budget development, management and financial reporting.
• Assist with student employment budget for compliance and reporting.
• Designated and Restricted Fund Monitoring: Track project funding and communicate balances to budget managers to ensure awareness of available funds and to make adjustments throughout the year.

Board and Committee Support

• Committee Liaison & Trustee Reporting: Provide support to the Finance & Facilities Committee, specifically assisting in drafting the financial projection and budget-related materials. Provide other financial analysis and reports to the Board of Trustees as needed.
• Support BTF process annually as needed by CFO & AVP Finance.

Projects and Other

• Administer PeopleSoft budget training sessions to new hires and others, as needed.
• Lead projects as assigned by AVP Finance or the CFO.
• Conduct research, prepare analysis and write executive summaries as assigned by AVP Finance or the CFO.
• Perform selected reviews of financial information as assigned by AVP Finance or the CFO.

Budget Responsibilities

While this position does not have direct spending authority, the Budget Director holds substantial fiduciary responsibility for the integrity, accuracy, and reliability of the University's financial plans, forecasts, and budget models. The analyses and recommendations produced by this role directly inform senior leadership and Board decisions related to tuition pricing, financial aid strategy, compensation planning, endowment draw levels, and long-term financial sustainability.

Supervisory Responsibilities

The Budget Director does not have direct supervisory responsibilities, however may be asked to supervise student employees as needed.

Qualifications:



Candidates must be able to explain and/or demonstrate that they possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities to safely perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation.

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field; CPA licensure preferred.
• Minimum of five years of progressively responsible professional experience in financial management, budgeting, accounting, treasury, endowment accounting, financial modeling, or related areas. Experience in a private, not-for-profit higher education environment is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated understanding of endowment accounting, endowment draw policies, and/or mutual fund unitization, or the ability to rapidly acquire this expertise.
• Experience developing, maintaining, and analyzing multi-year financial models, including long-range financial planning, scenario analysis, and sensitivity modeling related to enrollment, tuition and fee revenue, financial aid/discount rates, compensation costs, and endowment support.
• Proven ability to manage multiple complex projects concurrently and work effectively with a broad range of institutional stakeholders' including academic leaders, enrollment leadership, advancement, and governing bodies' in a collaborative and service-oriented manner.
• Demonstrated integrity, sound judgment, and adherence to the highest standards of professional and ethical conduct.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills, with the ability to investigate and synthesize complex financial and operational information, identify key risks and tradeoffs, and develop clear, actionable recommendations.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to translate complex financial data into clear narratives, visualizations, and executive-level summaries for senior leadership and boards.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint (or equivalent Google Workspace applications), including the use of Excel for financial modeling and scenario analysis.
• Experience extracting, organizing, analyzing, and presenting data from complex enterprise systems (e.g., ERP, budgeting, or student information systems) in clear graphical and summary formats.
• Experience working with relational databases, including writing queries and using reporting or analytics tools.
• Working knowledge of core economic and financial concepts relevant to higher education finance (e.g., CPI, net present value, discounting, cost escalation).
• Experience with business intelligence and data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau or comparable platforms) preferred.
• Ability to respectfully work, communicate and provide leadership within a diverse campus community

Compensation and Benefits:

Career Framework Information:
Job Family: Finance
Level: C5
Pay Grade: 10

The anticipated range for this position is $115,000 to $130,000 annually. Decisions about starting salaries are made based on the extent and relatedness of the candidate's education and experience and on internal equity and market considerations.

Puget Sound offers a generous benefits package for eligible staff employees, including:

• Medical, dental, and vision
• Life insurance and long-term disability
• Employee Assistance Program
• Retirement plan options and 403(b) contributions
• Paid vacation, sick leave, floating holiday, campus holidays and bonus holidays
• Education benefits, such as full tuition for eligible employees and their families
• Access to university facilities and entertainment (fitness center, pool, library, concerts, lectures and more!)

Please note:
-Positions that work less than .75 FTE (1,560 hours per year) do not qualify for long-term disability or education benefits.
-Positions that work less than .50 FTE (1,040 hours per year) will accrue paid sick leave but are not eligible for additional benefits.
-Temporary positions that work at least .50 FTE (1,040 hours per year) will be eligible for benefits.

This position is exempt from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

For more information on Puget Sound's exempt staff benefits package, visit: Summary of 2026 Benefits for Staff Members in Exempt Positions.pdf - Google Drive

For the Campus Holiday and Bonus Day Schedule, visit: https://www.pugetsound.edu/human-resources

Application Deadline:
Review of applications will begin immediately. Search and selection procedures will be closed when a sufficient number of qualified candidates have been identified.

Required Documents:

• Resume
• Letter of Interest
• 3 Professional References (At least 2 supervisors)

Applications submitted without the required attachments will not be considered.

All offers of employment are contingent on successful completion of all required background checks.

University Diversity Statement

We Acknowledge:

• The richness of commonalities and differences we share as a university community.
• The intrinsic worth of all who work and study here.
• The investigation and reflection enhance that education upon multiple perspectives.

We Aspire:

• To create respect for and appreciation of all persons as a key characteristic of our campus community.
• To increase the diversity of all parts of our university community through a commitment to diversity in our recruitment and retention efforts.
• To foster a spirit of openness to active engagement among all members of our campus community.

We Act:

• To achieve an environment that welcomes and supports diversity.
• To ensure full educational opportunity for all who teach and learn here.
• To prepare citizen-leaders effectively for a pluralistic world.

Puget Sound is committed to an environment that welcomes and supports diversity. We seek diversity of identity, thought, perspective, and background in our students, faculty, and staff. To learn more please visit: https://pugetsound.edu/about-puget-sound-0/mission-core-values/institutional-equity-diversity

The University of Puget Sound is an equal opportunity employer.


How to Apply
For complete job description and application instructions, visit: www.pugetsound.edu/employment

About Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a selective national liberal arts college in Tacoma, Washington, drawing 2,600 students from 48 states and 20 countries. Puget Sound graduates include Rhodes and Fulbright scholars, notables in the arts and culture, entrepreneurs and elected officials, and leaders in business and finance locally and throughout the world. A low student-faculty ratio provides Puget Sound students with personal attention from faculty who have a strong commitment to teaching and offer 1,200 courses each year in more than 40 traditional and interdisciplinary fields, including graduate programs in occupational and physical therapy and in education. Puget Sound is the only nationally ranked independent undergraduate liberal arts college in Western Washington, and one of just five independent colleges in the Pacific Northwest granted a charter by Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most prestigious academic honorary society. Visit "About Puget Sound" (http://www.pugetsound.edu/about) to learn more about the college.

As a strategic goal and through our core values, University of Puget Sound is committed to an environment that welcomes and supports diversity. We seek diversity of identity, thought, perspective, and background in our students, faculty, and staff. EOE/AA



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