SENIOR FINANCIAL PLANNING ANALYST FIN

Job Responsibilities:

• Provides corporate financial planning, budgeting, analysis and control services to support the City's capital budgeting and monitoring processes.
• Monitors and analyzes capital budget performance by co-ordinating city-wide quarterly variance reporting, including performance measurements and benchmarks; Prepares the capital variance memos to programs and agencies.
• Provide various analysis on the City's capital budget and plan such as the funding sources, capital targets, unmet needs, debt service costs, historical trending,spending rates, major project status, state of good repair backlog, etc.
• Contributes to the preparation of the manuals of instruction for capital budgets. Supports the delivery of financial management training for financial program staff as well as training for budget staff City-wide
• Prepares and presents reports, policy papers, briefing notes and/or presentations regarding strategic, variance, financial and capital issues that are either within the purview of assigned programs, or corporate in nature to senior management and/or Committees of Council, providing comprehensive corporate budget data and analysis; identification of all relevant issues and appropriate recommendations for decision-making
• Manages and track the City's in-year capital budget adjustments and make sure the adjustments are in compliance with the City's financial management and control policies
• Provides business analysis support under the direction of the Manager to developers when necessary.
• Participates in special projects where required, such as performing research on assigned subject matter and writing capital related reports and/or briefing notes.
• Contributes to the provision of media releases and background information to the media, Councillors and the public regarding the City budget/budget process as well as City financial planning and management policies and other financial or service-based information on behalf of the City
• Keeps abreast of the Corporation’s changing strategies, priorities, policies and programs, as well as provincial legislation, to ensure that the design and delivery of service plans and budgets are linked to strategic objectives and Council priorities; to provide effective financial analysis and advice to client City Program and Agency staff as well as senior management, individual Councillors, Committee and Council, and to assess potential financial issues and funding strategies
• Provides senior-level counsel in the budget review process, responding to and/or anticipating budgeting issues and requests for new, immediate program-specific or corporate information and being accountable to Councillors, Committees and Council for the collection, analysis and dissemination of that information and resolution of those emergent issues
• Contributes to the preparation and delivery of presentations for key stakeholders and visiting delegations to the City on corporate financial planning process, capital plans, City financial planning and management policies, protocols and practices, City financial challenges and strategies and the City's overall fiscal health
• Supports the testing of the capital budgeting systems to ensure that the application remains robust and free of errors and bugs by providing documented feedback, investigation and problem resolution suggestions where applicable
• Responds to external and internal inquiries in capital budget and variance data
• Participates and/or leads special project teams relating to corporate and divisional financial/budgetary issues. Co-ordinates and assist in corporate strategies and initiatives to support development of balanced capital and operating budgets and sound fiscal management
• Researches and identifies a wide range of financial planning, service planning and program planning issues and current best practices and implementation approaches, and report research findings and recommendations in a clear, complete and logical form
• Represents the Financial Planning Division in discussions, negotiations and initiatives with other divisions, other governments, Special Purpose Bodies or other external bodies
• Demonstrates continuous effort to improve operations, decrease turnaround times, streamline work processes and work cooperatively and jointly to provide quality analysis and advice on resource planning and budgetin
• Identifies approaches, concepts and methods of analyzing complex, and sometimes competing issues and provide advice as an innovative and resourceful problem solver
• Fosters and maintains cooperative working relationships within and external to the Division

Key Qualifications:

1. Post-secondary education in public administration, business administration, financial management or a professional discipline pertinent to the job function or an equivalent combination of education and experience
2. Advanced professional level experience gained through progressively more responsible positions in the key functional areas of this position that includes financial planning and budgeting, analysis and management, system sustainment, variance reporting, or other pertinent discipline in a large public or private sector organization.
3. Extensive experience in preparing comprehensive reports and analyzing, interpreting and summarizing information for the purpose of supporting decision making regarding financial, budgetary, policy and/or service issues.
4. Extensive experience using Microsoft Office Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Access software tools.
5. Experience with enterprise-wide financial, human resources and budgeting systems, preferably SAP.
6. Strong research, analytical and conceptual thinking skills, with the capacity to understand complex financial, service, operating and policy issues, program interrelationships and the potential results and outcomes of policy actions and the ability to conceptualize and develop options and recommendations to support decision-making.
7. Highly developed interpersonal, human relations, negotiation, conflict resolution, and problem-solving skills with the ability to interact and communicate effectively with all levels of the organization and to forge solid, effective internal and external relationships.
8. Highly developed oral and written communication skills at all organizational levels.
9. Ability to be creative and to generate innovative solutions to resolve business issues.
10. Ability to manage multiple tasks under pressure, and to produce results within tight timeframes.
11. Sound judgment and ability to handle matters of a confidential, proprietary or sensitive nature as they relate to Council and other senior staff, public and personnel relations.
12. Demonstrated ability to establish effective working relationships with staff, client programs, outside agencies, elected officials, other orders of government and the public.
13. Familiarity with relevant government legislation and regulation in the area of governance, budgeting, financial reporting, service delivery, employee and labour relations and occupational health and safety.