About the role

Afton Partners seeks a Senior Director to lead strategic finance initiatives with our charter school client partners around the country. As the national leader in charter school financial planning and governance, we’ve partnered with more than 80 networks serving public school students in a wide range of communities in over 30 states.  

Recently, a Charter School CFO reflected on our work together, saying, “This project has fundamentally changed how our organization approaches financial planning, governance, and decision-making. Working closely with [Afton team members], we replaced a more traditional, static budgeting approach with a seven-year, scenario-based financial forecast that incorporates inflationary cost assumptions and long-term sustainability metrics.”

This is a full-time, remote position within the United States, requiring up to 10% travel. Afton offers competitive pay and benefits, including health insurance, paid time off, and 401(k) with company match. The salary range for the position is $160,000-$180,000 per year.

What you'll do

If you enjoy and excel at these responsibilities, this position may be a great opportunity for you.

Directly advise school leaders on critical financial decisions.

• Expertly navigate difficult situations and discussions by building and leveraging trusting, collaborative, and effective relationships with school leaders, boards, and their financial partners.
• Directly advise charter school boards, CEOs, CFOs, and other leaders on critical opportunities to improve their financial sustainability, governance and compliance practices, forecasting accuracy, and decisions about facilities, growth, and operational plans.

Independently lead successful projects/engagements through client and team management.

• Ensure assigned client partners are satisfied with Afton’s services through thoughtful project planning and staffing, proactive communication, adjusted approaches based on feedback, and adherence to the scope, goals, and allocated resources of each project.
• Independently and collaboratively develop financial projections and financial analysis, prepare client-facing plans, and advise charter school leaders on important decisions.
• Manage multiple concurrent projects of varying complexity and duration.

Coach, mentor, and support colleagues.

• Support the development of colleague’s technical, project management, and communication skills through formal coaching as a project leader and informal mentoring and information sharing.
• Advance Afton and our client partners’ goals by serving as a thought partner to Afton colleagues, within and beyond the Charter Finance team.
• Lead by example by soliciting feedback reflecting on growth areas, and taking action.

Qualifications

This position requires demonstrated proficiency in financial projection modeling, financial planning, budgeting, school debt financing processes, and communication. Successful candidates will have a keen ability to turn data into intelligence for decision making. Advanced project management, and coaching skills are critical.

Our experience suggests that the following types of professional experiences and skills have prepared candidates for this work:

• A minimum of ten (10) years of relevant work experience in education or non-profit finance, financial services, management consulting, or similar roles.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, particularly in virtual environments.
• Demonstrated experience identifying potential challenges and taking initiative, creating structures to address ambiguous or complex problems, leading teams, and coaching and developing colleagues.
• Excellent project management skills as demonstrated by project outcomes and a positive experience for clients and colleagues.
• A strong interest in our client partners’ mission and communities.
• Alignment with Afton’s core values.

Preferred experiences include:

• Prior experience as a Chief Financial Officer or Director of Finance for a charter or private school organization.

• An MBA degree.

About Afton Partners

Afton Partners is an impact-driven consultancy that reimagines and implements systems, policies, and practices that improve lives. We bring technical savvy and a relational approach to partnerships with clients across the early care and education, K-12, higher education, and workforce development sectors. Since 2011, Afton has collaborated on more than 150 initiatives in 40 states, and our clients include state and local government agencies, public school systems, charter schools, and philanthropies. We’re creative, committed, and energized by complexity. Together, we can solve our toughest societal challenges and co-create a future where each person has the opportunity for growth and fulfillment.