Job Description

Art and Wellness Enterprises (AWE) is a professional services organization supporting non-profits founded by Alice Walton, including the Alice L. Walton Foundation, Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, Art Bridges Foundation, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Momentary, and Heartland Whole Health Institute.

Job Description:

Job Title: Senior Financial Analyst, Bentonville Institute of Technology

Reports to: Vice President for Finance and Administration

FLSA Classification: Exempt

Location: Bentonville, Arkansas (On-site)

About Bentonville Institute of Technology

Bentonville Institute of Technology (BIT) is a new higher education institution being developed in Bentonville, Arkansas to advance new models of STEM education and workforce development. The university is designed to deliver a flexible, experiential educational model that combines rigorous STEM instruction with an entrepreneurial and business-infused mindset.

The institution will focus on areas such as artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, mobility, health technology, energy systems, and entrepreneurship. Through strong partnerships with industry and regional organizations, the University aims to prepare students with practical, high-demand skills needed for the evolving knowledge economy.

The university will develop a distinctive educational model based on experiential learning, stackable credentials, flexible entry and exit pathways, and strong industry engagement. The University plans to enroll its first undergraduate class in 2029 and establish a new national model for innovative STEM higher education. Additional information about the university’s founding vision can be found here: https://www.bentonvilleinstituteoftechnology.org/

Initially, faculty and staff will be hired by Art and Wellness Enterprises and immersed in a broader ecosystem on the Crystal Bridges Campus for Art and Wellness, providing shared operational services and subject matter expertise, in close proximity to the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM).

Founding Context

• Bentonville Institute of Technology operates a five-term academic year consisting of five eight-week terms. Per-cycle payroll, billing, and budget reconciliation volumes are multiplied relative to traditional semester institutions; budget and reporting workflows must be designed for this cadence from initial setup.
• Workday Financials is the University’s confirmed enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The University partners with the Art and Wellness Enterprises (AWE) shared services team on platform administration. A financial planning and analytics platform, such as Anaplan or Workday Adaptive Planning, has not yet been selected.
• Enrollment is expected to ramp gradually from a founding cohort of approximately 200 students in Fall 2029 to a steady state of approximately 1,500 undergraduates, requiring budget models to accommodate rapid changes in revenue, headcount, and program mix across successive ramp years.
• Faculty hiring follows a cohort/wave model with non-standard appointment structures, including 48-week contracts and non-tenure-track appointments, requiring position budgeting to accurately reflect these parameters from initial Workday configuration.
• Bentonville Institute of Technology is an artificial intelligence (AI)-native institution, with AI automation expected to be embedded in budget workflows and analytical tools from initial implementation.
• All systems and reporting tools must be validated for interoperability with AWE shared services infrastructure before adoption; standalone tools that cannot integrate with AWE platforms are not viable solutions.

About The Position

The Senior Financial Analyst supports the design and operation of Bentonville Institute of Technology’s budget and accounting function. This position owns the institutional budget process, leads financial analysis and scenario modeling, and serves as the primary budget resource for functional departmental leaders—all in Workday Financials from initial implementation.

This is a hands-on, high-ownership role at a lean institution that does not separate strategy from execution. The Senior Financial Analyst builds the models, maintains the budget, produces the analyses, and trains others—while shaping what budget and financial planning infrastructure at the University ultimately looks like.

Success in this role requires strong financial planning and analytical capabilities, sound judgment, adaptability, and the ability to build effective financial processes and systems in a developing institutional environment.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Budget Development and Administration

• Own and execute the annual institutional budget process from kickoff through board adoption: calendar management, unit submissions, consolidation, scenario analysis, and presentation to senior leadership and the Board.
• Build and maintain the institutional operating budget in Workday Financials, including chart of accounts mapping, budget entry, position-level budget tracking, and actuals monitoring.
• Design budget submission templates, process documentation, and training materials for division leaders and department administrators; build the budget office function from first principles.
• Administer position budgeting for all faculty and staff—tracking hiring plan execution against approved budget in coordination with Human Resources and the Art and Wellness Enterprises (AWE) human capital management (HCM) team—with particular attention to non-standard appointment types and the faculty cohort hiring model.
• Monitor delegation-of-authority budget thresholds in Workday; enforce budget policy, flag exceptions, and escalate risks to the Vice President for Finance and Administration.

Financial Planning and Analysis

• Build and maintain multi-year financial models and enrollment-driven projections in coordination with the Vice President for Finance and Administration and the Vice President for Enrollment Management.
• Produce scenario analyses supporting institutional decisions—enrollment ramp adjustments, program expansion, staffing acceleration or deferral, and capital planning assumptions—with documented assumptions and sensitivity ranges.
• Monitor actuals-to-budget monthly; produce variance analyses with narrative explanation and identify emerging risks and opportunities for senior leadership.
• Support development of board-quality financial presentations and management reports; translate financial data into clear narrative for non-financial audiences.
• Support grant budget development for federal and private grant applications, coordinating budget templates and financial data in compliance with sponsor requirements and, where applicable, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance (2 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Part 200).

Financial Systems and Data

• Serve as Workday Financials power user and budget module subject-matter expert; deliver training, reporting guidance, and decision support to division administrators; represent institutional budget interests in Workday configuration decisions with AWE.
• Evaluate and implement artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools for budget automation, variance analysis, scenario modeling, and financial dashboards; serve as the internal champion for AI adoption in financial planning workflows.
• Design and maintain management reporting infrastructure—dashboards, standard reports, and ad hoc analytical tools—in Workday and connected platforms (Snowflake, MuleSoft integration layer); no reporting tool is selected without validating AWE integration compatibility.
• Participate in evaluation and implementation of a financial planning and analytics platform; serve as functional lead for budget module design, chart of accounts alignment, and data integration with Workday.

AWE Shared Services Coordination

• Serve as the primary budget and financial planning counterpart to the AWE finance team; coordinate on budget data, Workday configuration, and financial reporting outputs to ensure institutional accuracy and control.
• Ensure budget and planning data flows accurately between Bentonville Institute of Technology’s institutional Workday configuration and AWE-administered platform functions; surface discrepancies to the Vice President for Finance and Administration and Controller.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned to support evolving organizational needs.

Qualifications and Requirements

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, economics, business administration, or a related field required. Master’s degree in finance, accounting, business administration, or a related field preferred. Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or other relevant professional designation is a plus.
• 5–7 years of relevant experience in financial planning and analysis, corporate finance, budgeting, forecasting, accounting, or a similar financial role required.
• Demonstrated experience owning a multi-unit or institution-wide budget process, including managing submissions, consolidation, variance monitoring, and executive-level reporting.
• Experience in a research university, liberal arts institution, mission-driven organization, or other higher education environment preferred.
• Experience with position budgeting for academic workforces, including non-standard appointment types such as multi-term contracts, fractional appointments, or non-tenure-track faculty, preferred.
• Experience designing or administering budget processes for non-standard academic calendars, including term-based, competency-based, or accelerated-format institutions, preferred.
• Experience in a Workday Financials implementation or migration, including chart of accounts design, budget module configuration, or management reporting setup, preferred.
• Familiarity with grant budget development and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance (2 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Part 200) financial reporting requirements preferred.
• Familiarity with Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) financial reporting and Arkansas Division of Higher Education (ADHE) or comparable state higher education financial reporting requirements preferred.
• Experience deploying artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools in a financial planning context, such as AI-assisted forecasting, automated variance reporting, natural-language query tools, or workflow automation platforms, preferred.

Skills and Abilities

• Proficiency in Workday Financials or a comparable enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, with demonstrated ability to function as a systems power user, build reporting, and train others.
• Experience with financial planning and analytics tools, such as Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning, Workday Prism, Oracle Business Intelligence, or equivalent, with the ability to build financial models and scenario analyses.
• AI fluency, including hands-on experience or willingness to learn applying AI tools to budget workflows, financial modeling, reporting automation, or process improvement.
• Strong analytical and communication skills with the ability to build defensible financial models, surface assumptions explicitly, and translate data into clear narrative for non-financial audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to build processes and reporting infrastructure where none exist and work effectively in blank-page environments and unstructured institutional contexts.

Competencies and Attributes

• Builder’s mindset — Designs budget processes and reporting infrastructure from a blank page; energized, not frustrated, by the absence of pre-existing systems or precedents.
• Analytical rigor — Produces accurate, defensible financial analysis; surfaces assumptions explicitly; maintains intellectual honesty under pressure to shade or smooth numbers.
• Systems fluency — Treats enterprise resource planning and planning tools as strategic assets, not data entry systems; actively seeks to automate, improve, and extend reporting capabilities.
• AI-forward operator — Actively uses AI tools in daily budget and analytical work; designs workflows with automation embedded from the outset; evaluates new tools with Art and Wellness Enterprises (AWE) platform compatibility and institutional scale in mind. At this institution, AI fluency is a core operating requirement, not a differentiating preference.
• Translator — Converts financial complexity into clear narrative for non-financial audiences; adjusts depth and format fluidly for executive, board, and operational contexts.
• Collaborative executor — Works effectively across Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Academic Affairs, and AWE; builds trust with unit administrators while maintaining institutional budget discipline.
• High ownership — Takes full accountability for the quality and timeliness of their own work; does not wait for direction, process, or headcount that does not yet exist.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those required by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions.

Physical Demands: In the work environment described, this position requires utilizing a computer and a telephone for prolonged periods of time, good hand-eye coordination, bending and stretching, and the physical stamina to lift and transport a minimum of 10 pounds. Visual acuity to review written materials is required for this job.

Work Environment: Work is performed on-site (Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.) in a professional, climate-controlled office environment with standard office equipment, including computers, printers, and telephones. This role requires working in an open setting near colleagues. The noise level is typically low to moderate. The role also requires regular interaction with both the public and internal team members in a professional and courteous manner. Some travel will be required, including overnight trips on occasion. A flexible schedule may be necessary to accommodate business needs, including occasional evening and weekend work hours.

About Art and Wellness Enterprises

Art and Wellness Enterprises (AWE) supports operating non-profits founded by Alice Walton, including the Alice L. Walton Foundation, Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, Art Bridges, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Momentary, and Heartland Whole Health Institute.

Art and Wellness Enterprises, LLC is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a workplace that is free of discrimination and harassment of any kind. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.

All offers of employment are contingent on successful completion (where permitted by state law) of a confidentiality agreement and background check. In addition, the employee must provide proper identification verifying eligibility to work in the United States.