CFO & VP of Sustainability

Organizational Overview: College Unbound (CU) is an accredited and state-approved college whose mission is to reinvent the higher education experience for underrepresented returning adult learners. Through rigorous and engaged scholarship, College Unbound integrates students’ own purposes for learning with the needs of their workplaces and communities, improving the lives of the students and the lives of those they touch. Started in RI, College Unbound now supports students across multiple states and looks to continue to develop an infrastructure to support strategic growth and long-term sustainability.

Position Summary: For College Unbound, “sustainability” is not about remaining what we are as an institution but about continually reasserting what we need to be in order to ensure students can thrive as full participants in their learning. The VP of Institutional & Student Sustainability is a critical partner in helping the college build capacity to get there and to steward the institution to its next iteration.

Reporting to the President and serving as Chief Financial Officer, the Vice President of Sustainability is a core member of the College’s leadership team, championing institution‑wide sustainability initiatives that advance our mission and empower students to lead in building a more sustainable future. The CFO & Vice President of Sustainability facilitates the strategic alignment of student, institutional, and community priorities; ensuring the College functions in a manner that is authentic to the equity imperative that drives College Unbound’s student success work. The individual in this unique position is responsible for ensuring the College can effectively support and advance programmatic initiatives that promote student success, as well as the development, implementation, and maintenance of the necessary operational, administrative, and financial infrastructure of the College to support a thriving community and institution with national impact.

The VP of Sustainability acts as the Chief Financial Officer of the college by overseeing the business and finance operations of the college (strategic oversight of financial accounting, payroll, accounts payable/accounts receivable, tax, grant accounting, compliance, bursar functions), as well as areas of the College that support operational success in service of student success. The VP of Sustainability also helps the college move toward new financial models and technological services that are not yet in place but may support the values of CU and the needs of its students, faculty, and staff. Possibility and imagination drive the work of this role as much as the current realities of the school and its allocation of resources.

Embedded Values:

Goal #2 in College Unbound’s Strategic Plan points to how CU can grow into a Sustainable Institution with Systems that Foster Equity and Student Success. To advance that mission, the work of the Vice President of Sustainability is grounded in the following values:

• Relationality - learning and growing in the context of kinship and community.
• Social Justice - advancing human rights, access, participation, and equity.
• Accountability - holding ourselves responsible for understanding and transforming behaviors that do not advance individual and community well-being.

The CFO & Vice President of Sustainability work collaboratively with the President and members of the Leadership Team to consider the following questions:

• What resources do we need to be a sustainable institution? How do we garner resources from entities that are aligned with our values?
• How do we work with students, alumni, and community collaborators to better understand how we might better align institutional operations and functions with what “equity” and “student success” look like over time?
• Which funding partnerships advance equity and which inadvertently perpetuate inequity?
• If we are resources to one another, how do our notions of “sustainability” shift? What does intersectional investment in people look like?
• What could it mean to steward the college to its next iteration and through its next strategic plan?

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: College Unbound’s student body is currently 530+ students with a full-time staff of 28 colleagues and a part-time faculty of 68 Lab Faculty and 120+ Instructional Faculty. The college leans into growing its student community to serve thousands of students. The VP of Sustainability will sit within a leadership team of 8-9 colleagues and support a group across finance.

College Unbound’s team has been built around a Rhode Island presence with national impact and is now growing into a more national leadership structure connected to regional hubs in New England, the Midwest, the MidAtlantic, and the Pacific Northwest. As the college continues to grow, the VP will have a hand in building the team around them and the sought-after reach of the organization.

Institutional Sustainability (Operations, Budget, and Finance):

• Support the President and other members of the leadership team in the effective management and enhancement of the College’s financial resources and operations, in support of the success of staff and students across the College Unbound community.
• Oversee the business, finance, and administrative operations of the college (strategic oversight of financial accounting, payroll, accounts payable/accounts receivable, tax, grant accounting, compliance, bursar functions, and financial aid)
• Lead strategic efforts to enhance and streamline the College’s existing systems and financial processes, and design and implement a financial infrastructure (financial, staffing model, infrastructure, policies, and practices) necessary to effectively support the College’s sustainability, growth, and scaling.
• Provide guidance and leadership in the selection and acquisition of a new enterprise resources planning (ERP) system, critical to the College’s efforts to implement best-in-class business processes, improve financial controls, and deliver precise reporting and data analytics to support stakeholders across the college, grantors, and accreditors.
• Oversee system and process modernization and redeploy assets as College Unbound transforms its financial and business operations with the implementation of a new ERP system.
• Guide the College’s budget development process on an annual basis and support the College in developing and advancing participatory budget processes.
• Work collaboratively with CU’s institutional advancement functions to support the diversification of revenue streams and engage in budget modeling and forecasting consistent with the institution’s scaling and growth goals.
• Communicate effectively with internal and external partners, as requested, regarding the status of revenue streams, spending trends, and opportunities to increase efficiency and organizational effectiveness.
• Identify opportunities for re-engineering business processes and services such that they improve coordination of functions and programs, and leverage technologies effectively toward meeting institutional goals of providing an enhanced, equitable, and streamlined experience for students, staff, and the CU Community.
• Support College Unbound’s growth into a national institution with a national impact.
• Performs other duties as needed or assigned.

College Unbound offers a generous benefits package, including 29 days of combined vacation, personal, and sick time; employer-paid medical and dental coverage; a 401(k) with up to a 5% employer match; and employer-paid life, short-term disability, and long-term disability insurance.

Required Qualifications:

• Demonstrated cultural competence and evidence of a deep commitment to equity and social justice.
• Master’s degree with 7-10 years of relevant leadership and administrative experience in an organizational setting that is community-centered and service-oriented, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Significant budget and financial management expertise and experience, preferably at an institutional level within higher education.
• Ability to recommend and develop financial models that are responsive to evolving conditions, including changes in potential revenue streams as well as shifts in national and student conditions.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively in writing and verbally with a wide range of individuals and audiences, both internal and external, in a clear, concise, and easy-to-understand manner.
• Ability to lead effectively in the context of a diverse, engaged, and highly relational college community.
• Demonstrated ability to think creatively and expansively about what is possible; knowledge of “best practices” along with the temperament to question and improve upon them.
• We recognize that strong candidates may bring expertise beyond the areas listed and welcome relevant additional skill sets. (i.e., General Counsel, Technology, Development, etc.)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Terminal Degree in a related field.
• Previous experience in the non-profit sector.
• Previous experience in educational settings, preferably higher education.