Vice President, Finance and Administration
A Vice President for Finance and Administration, often serving as Chief Financial Officer, provides financial leadership, operational management, and fiscal stewardship for a university, reporting to the President as a key member of the executive team. This is a sample job description from Excelon Associates that you can adapt as a template for your own hire.
What does a Vice President, Finance and Administration do?
A Vice President for Finance and Administration, frequently serving as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), provides visionary financial leadership, operational management, and fiscal stewardship for a university. Reporting directly to the President, the role serves as a key member of the executive team, driving financial strategy, overseeing administrative operations, and ensuring the institution’s long-term financial health.
The position calls for a dynamic leader capable of aligning financial operations with the university’s mission and supporting its academic and strategic objectives. It is a senior executive role within the higher education sector and the business-side counterpart to the institution’s academic leadership.
A Vice President for Finance and Administration often serves as the institution’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), the senior executive accountable for finances and administrative operations. An endowment is the university’s invested fund supporting its mission long-term. The Board of Trustees is the governing body to which the role reports on financial matters.
What does the Vice President oversee?
Key responsibilities of a Vice President, Finance and Administration
- Lead the development, execution, and continuous assessment of the university’s financial strategies to support growth, sustainability, and operational efficiency.
- Oversee annual budgeting, long-term financial planning, and forecasting, ensuring resources align with institutional priorities and academic initiatives.
- Direct the preparation of accurate financial reports and ensure compliance with federal, state, and university policies, maintaining transparency through regular reporting to the Board of Trustees and stakeholders.
- Develop and maintain effective risk management strategies, financial controls, and policies to safeguard university assets and support regulatory compliance.
- Collaborate with the Board’s investment committee and external managers to ensure prudent oversight of the university’s endowment.
- Oversee the planning, funding, and execution of capital projects, ensuring they are financially viable and aligned with strategic goals.
- Provide oversight for critical administrative functions, including facilities management, human resources, campus safety, and auxiliary services, driving efficiency and continuous improvement.
- Work with advancement and development teams to align financial strategy with fundraising efforts and develop innovative partnerships that enhance university resources.
- Lead and mentor a diverse team of finance and administrative professionals, fostering a collaborative, inclusive environment that promotes professional growth.
What qualifications does the role require?
- Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business administration, or a related field; MBA, CPA, or advanced degree strongly preferred.
- Minimum of ten years of senior financial management experience, with at least five in a CFO or similar executive role in higher education, public sector, or a complex nonprofit organization.
- Proven strategic financial leadership, with expertise in budgeting, financial planning, and resource allocation, plus in-depth knowledge of higher education financial systems, endowment management, and capital financing.
- Experience managing diverse operational functions such as facilities, HR, and auxiliary services within a large organization, with a strong understanding of federal and state regulations and nonprofit accounting standards.
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders across all levels of the institution.
Why is the Vice President, Finance and Administration role important?
This role safeguards an institution’s long-term financial health. Its leadership over strategy, budgets, risk, endowment, and operations determines whether the university can fund its academic mission sustainably, not just this year but over decades.
Because the position bridges finance and the operational backbone of the campus, the strongest candidates pair deep financial expertise with the judgment to run facilities, HR, and auxiliary services well. They protect the institution’s assets while keeping resources flowing to the academic work that defines it.
A hiring note from Excelon
University CFO searches reward candidates who understand that higher education finance is its own discipline, endowments, fund accounting, capital financing, and Board governance work differently than in the corporate world. Through our higher education practice, we look for leaders with genuine higher-ed or complex-nonprofit experience and a CPA or MBA, since the regulatory and governance context is the part that trips up otherwise strong corporate finance executives.
The role protects the institution’s assets while keeping resources flowing to the academic work that defines it.
Related sample job descriptions
Vice President, Finance and Administration: frequently asked questions
What does a Vice President, Finance and Administration do?
A Vice President, Finance and Administration, often serving as Chief Financial Officer, provides financial leadership and operational management for a university. Reporting to the President, the role leads financial strategy, budgeting, reporting and compliance, risk management, endowment oversight, capital projects, and administrative functions such as facilities and HR.
What qualifications does the role require?
This sample role requires a bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, or business (MBA, CPA, or advanced degree strongly preferred) and at least ten years of senior financial management experience, including five or more in a CFO or similar executive role in higher education, public sector, or a complex nonprofit.
Is this role the same as a CFO?
Often yes. In higher education, the Vice President for Finance and Administration frequently serves as the institution’s Chief Financial Officer, combining financial leadership with oversight of administrative operations.
What is endowment management?
An endowment is a university’s invested fund that supports its mission over the long term. Endowment management is the prudent oversight of that fund, typically in collaboration with the Board’s investment committee and external investment managers.
Why is this role important?
This role safeguards an institution’s long-term financial health. Its leadership over strategy, budgets, risk, endowment, and operations determines whether the university can fund its academic mission sustainably.
Hiring a Vice President, Finance and Administration?
Excelon Associates recruits university CFOs, vice presidents of finance and administration, and senior business officers for colleges and universities across the United States through our higher education recruitment practice. Retained executive search since 2007, headquartered in Asheville, NC, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, FL.
More Sample Job Descriptions
Templates you can adapt for your own roles.