Job Description

Location

SAINT LOUIS, MO 63105

Scheduled Hours

40Reporting directly to the Chancellor and serving as an officer of the university, the Executive Vice Chancellor for Finance and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is the senior enterprise financial executive for Washington University in St. Louis, with financial oversight spanning both the Danforth campus and WashU Medicine. Is accountable for the financial strategy, integrity, and long-term sustainability of the university as a unified enterprise — ensuring that financial planning, budgeting, treasury management, capital strategy, and internal controls are sound, coordinated, and aligned with institutional priorities across all mission areas.

Serves as the university's principal financial advisor to the Chancellor, the Board of Trustees, and senior leadership, and as the university's senior representative to rating agencies, financial institutions, and the external financial community. Engages with the Board on matters of fiduciary responsibility and serves as the university's credible institutional counterpart on endowment governance and investment strategy. Leads the university's finance organization and is responsible for building financial capability, discipline, and accountability across a complex, multi-mission institution encompassing education, research, and academic medicine.

As a member of the university's senior leadership team, the CFO translates financial strategy into institutional decision-making, partners with operational, medical and academic leadership to align resources with strategic priorities, and represents the university's financial interests with the rigor and credibility the role demands — before the Board, in the external financial community, and across the enterprise.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

Financial Leadership

• Ensures financial viability and sustainability of the university's financial position — as a unified enterprise and of its major components — through timely, accurate financial reporting and analysis.
• Serves as the key financial advisor to the Chancellor, senior leadership, and Board of Trustees.
• Manages and optimizes the university's treasury function, including liquidity, working capital, and debt strategy.
• Represents the university's financial interests externally with credit rating agencies, banking partners, and the broader capital markets community, optimizing credit facilities and banking relationships in support of the university's capital strategy.
• Ensures robust internal controls throughout the institution.

Finance Organization Leadership

• Leads the university's direct finance organization across six functions: Treasury & Insurance, Accounting Services, Sponsored Research Accounting, Shared Business Services Hub, Financial Planning & Budget, and Workday Finance Support.
• Ensures the financial sustainability and effectiveness of the Shared Business Services Hub — measuring performance and driving accountability for shared services cost and service outcomes.
• Partners with WashU Medicine leadership on the selection, development, and integration of finance leadership across the medical enterprise. Partners with the Executive Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs in the search for the WashU Medicine Vice Chancellor and CFO.

Strategic Leadership

• Partners with the Chancellor, COO, and university leadership to develop and implement financial plans and strategies that support university-wide strategic initiatives and institutional sustainability.
• Engages with the Board and university leadership on matters of fiduciary responsibility.
• Provides strategic financial input on issues affecting the university, including structure, evaluation of potential business relationships, growth opportunities, and new business models.
• Evaluates and advises on the financial impact of short- and long-range planning, new programs and strategies, and legislative and regulatory actions.

Partnership and Institutional Leadership

• Builds and sustains a trusted partnership with the COO — engaging as genuine collaborators on financial strategy and institutional priorities.
• Serves as an active and credible member of the university cabinet — a full institutional leader who contributes to the broader strategic direction of the university.
• Works collaboratively with the full Mission Stewardship Council to ensure resource decisions reflect institutional priorities across all mission areas.
• Builds trust with faculty and academic leadership by translating financial realities into terms that resonate with the academic enterprise; develops genuine curiosity about and respect for academic culture, shared governance, and the rhythms of university life.

Endowment Governance and WUIMC Relationship

• Serves as the university's credible, well-prepared counterpart to WashU Investment Management Company (WUIMC), which manages the university's endowment under an independent Chief Investment Officer.
• Engages substantively at the Board level, negotiating on behalf of the university's liquidity and capital needs and ensuring investment strategy conversations reflect institutional priorities.

Budget Strategy and Resource Allocation

• Develops and maintains the university's budget model as a strategic tool that links financial resources to institutional priorities and measurable performance.
• Ensures budget processes surface explicit trade-off decisions grounded in data, and drive transparency in decision-making, funding usage, and unit-level financial accountability.
• Aligns incentives with strategic priorities across research, innovation, and clinical activities, and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration through the university's resource allocation methodology.
• Leads this work in close coordination with the COO and in collaboration with the full Mission Stewardship Council.

Board Engagement

• Provides input and support to the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees and the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Committee.
• Serves as a senior institutional voice at the Board level — credible, proactive, and capable of translating financial complexity for lay trustees without losing rigor — representing the university's financial interests with equal credibility in rating agency meetings and WUIMC governance.

Working Conditions:

Physical Environment

• Normal office environment

Physical Effort

• Typically sitting at desk or table
• Repetitive wrist, hand or finger movement
• Ability to move to on and off-campus locations

Equipment

• Office equipment

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all job duties performed by the personnel so classified. Management reserves the right to revise or amend duties at any time.

Required Qualifications

Education:

Bachelor's degree

Certifications Professional Licenses

No specific certification/professional license is required for this position.

Work Experience:

Senior Financial Leadership In Higher Education (10 Years)

Skills:

Not Applicable

Driver's License:

A driver's license is not required for this position.

More About This Job

• Bachelor's degree and ten years of senior financial leadership and executive management, including meaningful experience in higher education or academic medicine — either as a practitioner within an academic institution or as a trusted advisor to presidents, CFOs, and boards of higher education institutions. Demonstrated familiarity with academic disciplines, shared governance, and the rhythms of the academic enterprise.

• Demonstrated track record of building and elevating a finance organization — developing talent, establishing rigorous operating rhythms, and creating a function that is a genuine strategic asset.

• Financial depth: command of balance sheet management, liquidity and debt strategy, capital allocation, and endowment governance in a complex institutional setting.

• Experience working at the Board level with accomplished trustees; ability to translate financial complexity without losing rigor.

• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills — written, verbal, and presentation — including the ability to communicate complex financial matters credibly across diverse audiences and engage as a collaborative partner with institutional peers.

• Demonstrated ability to develop budget policy and align programmatic priorities with current and future financial resources.

• Experience in multi-year financial planning, modeling, and forecasting, with the ability to connect long-range financial scenarios to institutional strategy.

• Strength of character to take and sustain difficult positions; ability to say no without alienating others.

• Commitment to WashU's values and the highest ethical standards.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in business administration, finance, accounting, or related discipline.

• Understanding of multiple budget models and experience working across centralized, hybrid, and decentralized environments.

• Experience with contract negotiation and municipal finance.

• Systems implementation experience, specifically Workday.

Preferred Qualifications

Education:

Master's degree - Accounting, Master's degree - Business Administration, Master's degree - Finance

Certifications/Professional Licenses

Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants , Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - Missouri Division of Professional Registration

Work Experience:

Central Leadership Role Within Academic Medicine (10 Years)

Skills:

Communication, Decision Making, Finance Tools, Financial Acumen, Financial Analysis, Financial Management Reporting, Financial Management System (FMS), Financial Modeling, Financial Principles, Financial Systems, Leadership, Operating Principles, Performance Measurement, Policy Development, Quality Control (QC), Risk Analysis, Risk Management Principles, Strategic Advisory, Support Management, Systems Development, Workday HCM

Grade

G00

Questions

For frequently asked questions about the application process, please refer to our External Applicant FAQ

Accommodation

If you are unable to use our online application system and would like an accommodation, please email CandidateQuestions@wustl.edu or call the dedicated accommodation inquiry number at 314-935-1149 and leave a voicemail with the nature of your request.

All qualified individuals must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily and, if requested, reasonable accommodations will be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job, absent undue hardship.

Pre-Employment Screening

All external candidates receiving an offer for employment will be required to submit to pre-employment screening for this position. The screenings will include criminal background check and, as applicable for the position, other background checks, drug screen, an employment and education or licensure/certification verification, physical examination, certain vaccinations and/or governmental registry checks. All offers are contingent upon successful completion of required screening.

Benefits Statement

Washington University in St. Louis is committed to providing a comprehensive and competitive benefits package to our employees. Benefits eligibility is subject to employment status, full-time equivalent (FTE) workload, and weekly standard hours. Please visit our website at https://hr.wustl.edu/benefits/ to view a summary of benefits.

EEO Statement

Washington University in St. Louis is committed to the principles and practices of equal employment opportunity. It is the University’s policy to provide equal opportunity and access to persons in all job titles without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, citizenship (where prohibited by federal law), age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information.