Sr. Director of Enterprise Financial Planning & Performance (FP&A)

The Executive Leadership Council is the preeminent member organization for the development of diverse global leaders. Comprised of more than 800 current and former corporate CEOs, board members and senior executives at Fortune 1000 & Global 500 companies, entrepreneurs leading top-tier firms, and recognized thought leaders, we open channels of opportunity for the development of executives to positively impact business and communities.

We are currently seeking a Sr. Director of Enterprise Financial Planning & Performance (FP&A) to join our Finance team in our Washington, DC office.

 

Position Overview

The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) seeks a Sr. Director of Enterprise Financial Planning & Performance to serve as the senior leader accountable for enterprise planning, budgeting, forecasting, performance management, business intelligence, financial modeling, and decision support across the organization.

This role accurately reflects the strategic and operational scope of the position as a finance leader who owns forward-looking financial planning and enterprise performance insight while working in close partnership with the Controller & Chief Financial Officer (CFO) on Accounting Operations & Financial Transformation.

The Sr. Director will translate ELC's strategic priorities into financial plans utilizing financial planning tool(s) (currently Adaptive), resource-allocation frameworks, performance dashboards, and management reporting that support timely, informed decisions by the CFO, executive leadership, business unit leaders, and Board committees. This role will also build the financial acumen of business unit leaders while leveraging data, analytics, and technology - including AI and automation - to provide forward-looking, decision-ready insight that supports ELC's mission.

This is both a strategic leadership role and a hands-on subject matter expert role; hence, the Sr. Director must be able to design scalable planning processes, build high-quality financial models, strengthen business unit financial discipline, and personally execute complex analysis when required.

Reporting to the CFO, the Sr. Director will partner closely with the Controller to ensure that planning, forecasting, management reporting, financial statements, accounting close outputs, fundraising and sponsorship reporting, and performance insights operate as one coordinated finance function, while independently owning ELC's budgeting, forecasting, KPI/business-intelligence, and financial planning functions in direct partnership with the CFO and business unit leaders without gaps, duplication, or confusion in accountability.

As ELC continues to mature its finance and accounting infrastructure, this role will also serve as a key succession layer within the Finance department by strengthening financial planning maturity, institutional knowledge, cross-functional finance capability, and executive-ready performance management practices.

RUN	CHANGE
Enterprise budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, variance analysis, KPI/performance measurement, business partnership, financial modeling, cash and liquidity forecasting, and decision support.	Planning model maturity, Adaptive/process optimization, dashboard and BI modernization, data governance, AI-enabled forecasting/reporting efficiency, financial acumen building, and scalable finance operating model design.

 

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS & KEY OUTCOMES

Enterprise Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting

• Own and lead the annual enterprise budgeting process, including operating and capital planning, business unit budget development, timeline management, budget templates, assumptions, review meetings, scenario analysis, and executive-ready budget materials.
• Partner with the CFO, Controller, and business unit leaders to translate strategic priorities into financial plans, resource-allocation decisions, staffing assumptions, event/program budgets, revenue expectations, and operating targets.
• Lead the monthly and quarterly forecasting process, incorporating the latest financial results, pipeline information, program/event activity, contractual commitments, staffing plans, cash flow expectations, and emerging operational risks.
• Develop and maintain rolling forecasts, scenario models, sensitivity analyses, and forward-looking projections that help leadership understand financial opportunities, risks, tradeoffs, and decision points.
• Coordinate month-end and forecast review meetings with functional departments, reviewing actual-to-budget performance, explaining variances, identifying corrective actions, and forecasting unplanned or emerging expenses.
• Identify financial risks embedded in budget assumptions, forecasts, revenue projections, expense trends, staffing plans, sponsorship/grant expectations, and program commitments, and recommend mitigation strategies to the CFO and senior leadership.
• Provide treasury-related analytical support, including cash flow projections, working capital analysis, liquidity forecasting, reserve modeling, and ad hoc financial analysis as requested by the CFO.
• Continuously improve budget and forecast governance by strengthening documentation, version control, approval workflows, assumptions tracking, and accountability for financial commitments.

Enterprise Performance Management, KPIs & Business Intelligence

• Build and maintain an integrated enterprise performance management framework that connects financial results, operational activity, strategic priorities, business unit performance, and key organizational outcomes.
• Develop, track, and monitor leading and lagging KPIs in partnership with business units, ensuring performance metrics are relevant, measurable, reliable, and linked to organizational goals.
• Prepare monthly flash reports, management reporting packages, variance narratives, financial dashboards, KPI scorecards, and performance updates for the CFO, executive leadership, business unit leaders, and Board committees.
• Present business results at an executive level, including performance against plan, performance against prior year, key trends, emerging risks, productivity opportunities, and recommended management actions.
• Leverage financial and non-financial data to provide decision-ready insight on program performance, event economics, membership activity, development performance, cost drivers, staffing investments, and operating efficiency.
• Create standardized reporting definitions, financial metrics, data dictionaries, and performance reporting protocols that improve consistency, comparability, and confidence in enterprise reporting.
• Strengthen leadership visibility into organizational performance by building timely dashboards and reporting tools that provide practical insight into actuals, forecasts, budget status, cash position, and operational trends.

Financial Analysis, Modeling & Decision Making Support

• Serve as a trusted financial advisor to the CFO and business unit leaders by providing analytical insight, financial modeling, business intelligence, and practical recommendations that support informed decision-making.
• Evaluate investment decisions, new initiatives, programs, events, vendor commitments, technology investments, staffing proposals, and other strategic opportunities through ROI analysis, cost-benefit assessment, break-even modeling, and scenario planning.
• Develop clear financial models that support resource allocation, pricing assumptions, program/event economics, grant and sponsorship planning, multi-year forecasting, and organizational sustainability.
• Proactively meet with functional and business unit leaders to understand key activities, connect operational drivers to financial results, identify gaps or risks, and recommend solutions that improve financial performance.
• Translate complex financial analysis into clear narratives, options, risks, and recommendations for financial and non-financial audiences.
• Support productivity improvement and cost-optimization efforts by identifying expense trends, process inefficiencies, underutilized resources, duplicative spend, and opportunities for improved financial discipline.
• Partner with the Controller to ensure financial analysis, forecasting, and management reporting are grounded in accurate actuals, consistent coding, reliable close outputs, and appropriate accounting treatment.

Financial Planning Systems, Technology & AI-Enabled Efficiency

• Own and optimize ELC's financial planning platform, currently Adaptive, ensuring the system is configured, maintained, governed, and used effectively across the organization.
• Identify, design, build, test, and implement enhancements to the financial planning platform, including improved budget templates, reporting hierarchies, driver-based planning models, forecast workflows, scenario tools, and dashboard outputs.
• Leverage automation, analytics, AI-enabled tools, and modern planning/reporting technologies to streamline budgeting, forecasting, management reporting, variance analysis, and dashboard development.
• Partner with the Controller, IT, and business stakeholders to support ERP, CRM, payroll, expense management, planning, and reporting integrations that strengthen data quality, reduce manual effort, and improve reporting reliability.
• Develop reporting and planning controls for financial models, dashboards, and critical spreadsheets, including version control, access controls, validation checks, change documentation, review protocols, and data lineage where appropriate.
• Partner with the Controller to define and report the ROI of finance technology and process-improvement initiatives, including cycle-time reduction, error reduction, improved forecast accuracy, cost avoidance, and staff capacity gains.
• Promote responsible AI governance and data quality by ensuring finance analytics and AI-enabled outputs are reviewed by appropriate subject matter experts, properly documented, and used in alignment with internal policies and risk expectations.

Cross-Functional Business Partnership & Financial Acumen Building

• Serve as a strategic finance partner to business unit leaders, helping them understand budget ownership, financial performance, cost drivers, revenue assumptions, forecast accountability, and financial tradeoffs.
• Build financial acumen across the organization by coaching leaders on planning practices, budget management, variance analysis, forecasting expectations, documentation standards, and decision-making using financial information.
• Partner with the Controller to maintain a clear and current division of responsibilities between accounting operations and enterprise financial planning, minimizing overlap while ensuring smooth handoffs and complete reporting coverage.
• Collaborate with Finance, IT, HR, Legal, Development, Member Services, Marketing, Programs, Executive Office, and other departments to improve financial planning discipline and strengthen enterprise-wide performance visibility.
• Prepare financial reporting and analysis materials for corporate and foundation grants, sponsorships, and program activities in partnership with the Controller and business unit owners.
• Support business leaders in developing realistic budgets, assessing financial feasibility, identifying funding needs, evaluating constraints, and monitoring budget-to-actual performance throughout the year.
• Establish service-oriented finance partnership practices, including clear timelines, templates, training, office hours, escalation paths, and guidance that help leaders use financial information more effectively.

Accounting Partnership, Compliance Support & Governance Alignment

• Partner with the Controller to ensure management reporting, forecasts, budget-to-actual analyses, and performance dashboards reconcile to approved financial statements, accounting records, and close outputs.
• Support month-end and year-end reporting by preparing variance analyses, budget-to-actual narratives, forecast updates, management schedules, and planning-related materials needed by the CFO and business unit leaders.
• Provide planning and analytical support for audit, Form 990, grant reporting, sponsorship reporting, Board reporting, and other financial compliance processes, while the Controller retains primary accountability for accounting operations and financial reporting integrity.
• Support adherence to finance policies, accounting procedures, budget governance, approval authorities, procurement practices, documentation requirements, and internal control expectations within business units.
• Identify financial planning, reporting, data quality, documentation, and budget governance risks, and partner with the Controller and CFO to design practical mitigation strategies.
• Ensure confidential financial, personnel, donor, sponsorship, and business information is handled with discretion, professionalism, and appropriate access controls.

People Leadership, Team Development & Department Management

• Lead, coach, supervise, and develop FP&A, enterprise performance, and assigned finance team members, ensuring clear priorities, performance expectations, development plans, technical guidance, and accountability for results.
• Build a high-performing planning and performance function that balances analytical rigor, practical business partnership, customer service, urgency, data quality, and executive-ready communication.
• Supervise work assigned to direct reports and shared finance resources, ensuring deliverables are completed on time, within scope, and consistent with technical, quality, compliance, and service expectations.
• Facilitate regular goal setting, workload planning, feedback, coaching, and professional development for team members to strengthen capability and succession readiness within Finance.
• Promote a culture of high performance, continuous improvement, learning, accountability, collaboration, and service excellence.
• Maintain current professional and technical knowledge by monitoring developments in FP&A, nonprofit finance, performance management, financial modeling, analytics, AI-enabled finance tools, and planning/reporting best practices.
• Perform other duties as assigned to support the evolving needs of the Finance department and organization.

General Duties

• Contribute to the achievement of established department goals and objectives and adhere to department policies, procedures, quality standards, and safety standards.
• Maintain current professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, establishing professional networks, and participating in professional associations.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced office environment, demonstrating a flexible approach with short deadlines.
• Promote a culture of high performance and continuous improvement that values learning and a commitment to quality improvement.
• Create and manage a seamless information sharing workflow within the Finance department and the overall organization.
• Perform other duties as needed.

 

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE & CREDENTIALS

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, Data Analytics, or a related field required. MBA, Master of Science in Finance (MSF), Master of Accountancy (MAcc), or advanced finance/accounting credential(s) strongly preferred.
• Certified Corporate FP&A Professional (FPAC), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA), Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), or other related advanced finance/accounting credential strongly preferred.
• Minimum of 8-10 years of progressive finance, FP&A, accounting, enterprise planning, business performance, or financial management experience, including responsibility for budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, KPI reporting, financial modeling, and executive-level decision support.
• Minimum of 3-5 years of people leadership experience, including direct supervision, coaching, performance management, workload planning, and team development.
• Prior nonprofit, association, foundation, membership organization, fundraising, grant-funded, sponsorship-driven, or mission-driven organization experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience leading an annual budgeting process, monthly or quarterly forecasting process, enterprise performance reporting rhythm, and financial planning platform administration or optimization.
• Strong working knowledge of U.S. GAAP, nonprofit financial reporting concepts, budget governance, grant or sponsorship reporting, financial statement interpretation, restricted funding considerations, internal controls, and financial policy administration.
• Demonstrated experience translating accounting actuals, operational data, and business activities into forward-looking forecasts, executive-ready reporting, and actionable recommendations.
• Advanced financial modeling, scenario planning, variance analysis, dashboard development, and business intelligence skills required.
• Strong financial systems experience required, including proficiency with financial planning tools such as Adaptive or similar platforms, accounting/ERP systems, Microsoft Excel, reporting tools, expense management systems, and Microsoft Office products.
• Experience with dashboards, data visualization, workflow automation, ERP/CRM integrations, AI-enabled finance tools, or business intelligence platforms preferred.
• Strong program and project leadership skills, including governance, planning, dependency management, risk mitigation, and stakeholder alignment.
• Excellent cross-functional relationship-management skills, with the proven ability to translate complex technical & financial concepts into practical business language and practices that work in synergy with the flow of the business and convey them to financial and non-financial audiences, including executive & senior leadership, Board committees, and both internal & external stakeholders.
• Excellent communication and decision-making skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into practical business language.
• Strong ability to operate & thrive in a growing, evolving, start-up-like environment that requires strategic thinking, hands-on execution, sound judgment, flexibility, and comfort with ambiguity.
• Ability to manage confidential information with discretion, professionalism, integrity, and appropriate sensitivity to organizational, donor, employee, and financial data.

Please note that at this time, The Executive Leadership Council does not provide financial sponsorship for visas or work permits. You must have documentation of work authorization for the U.S. AND a U.S. Social Security number, as of the start date of one's employment, to be employed with the organization.

COMPETENCIES

• Mission Alignment & Awareness: Has a passion for and commitment to opening channels of opportunity for the development of diverse professionals to positively impact business and local communities; contributes to the organization by understanding and aligning actions with the organization's goals, core functions, and values.

• Financial Stewardship: Demonstrates commitment to ELC's mission, values, and long-term impact. Uses financial planning and performance insight to help the organization allocate resources responsibly, transparently, and in alignment with strategic priorities.

• Enterprise Planning & Performance Leadership: Builds planning processes, performance rhythms, financial models, and management reporting practices that connect strategy, resources, operations, and outcomes.

• Enterprise Perspective & Systems Thinking: Brings an enterprise-focused approach to designing and governing frameworks, understanding organizational interdependencies, scalability, and long-term impact.

• Strategic Leadership & Execution: Translates finance strategy into practical, scalable program (s) through clear planning cycles, deliverables, timelines, decision points, and measurable outcomes that balances enterprise-level thinking with hands-on execution, and ensures disciplined, consistent execution across the organization.

• Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement: Identifies inefficiencies, process gaps, data quality issues, reporting inconsistencies, and opportunities to improve planning, forecasting, and performance management practices.

• Technology, Data & AI Enablement: Champions responsible use of planning systems, automation, analytics, dashboards, and AI-enabled tools to improve forecasting, reporting, decision support, and organizational ROI.

• Data Governance & Reporting Integrity: Ensures financial planning models, dashboards, and performance reports are reliable, documented, reviewed, and aligned with approved accounting records and reporting definitions.

• Change Leadership: Leads and enables organizational change through clear communication, stakeholder engagement, and structured implementation.

• Professional Judgment & Risk Management: Demonstrates sound professional judgment in complex and sensitive situations, balancing employee experience, legal considerations, and organizational priorities. Anticipates financial, operational, reporting, data, and reputational risks. Escalates concerns appropriately and recommends practical mitigation strategies. 

• Consultative Partnership: Builds trusted relationships with senior leaders and peers, providing thoughtful counsel and influencing outcomes through credibility and insight. Communicates complex financial information clearly and confidently to executive, operational, and governance audiences. Frames insights as options, risks, recommendations, and decisions.

• Planning & Results Orientation: Organizes and executes work to meet organizational goals and objectives while meeting quality standards and following organizational processes; ensures individual performance does not negatively impact the performance of others; recommends additional resources that would improve effectiveness and helps others access required resources; identifies opportunities to improve work processes and efficiency; contributes to setting work priorities and direction; identifies in advance when intended results may not be achieved; takes initiative; is not satisfied with the status quo.

• Teamwork & Collaboration: Works well cross functionally and with others on the team to achieve personal goals, team goals, and organizational goals; takes responsibility for individual actions in order to achieve consistent results; fosters team camaraderie, collaboration, and cohesion; understands the impact of one's actions on the ability of their team members to do their jobs; respects the differences other team members bring to the table by openly seeking others' opinions; makes suggestions to improve team engagement and effectiveness; supports implementation of team decisions; professionally gives and seeks feedback in order to achieve common goals.

• Problem Solving & Decision-Making: Identifies problems and uses logical analysis to find information, understand causes, and evaluate and select best possible courses of action; seeks information and input to fully understand the cause of problems; takes action to remove obstacles and address problems before they impact performance and results; initiates the evaluation of possible solutions to problems; assesses risks before making a decision; does not take unnecessary risks; effectively navigates through ambiguity, using multiple data points to analyze issues and identify trends.

• Creativity & Innovation: Thinks beyond the confines of traditional models to recognize opportunities and find new and better ways of doing things; questions common practice and contributes to improvement of processes and outputs; proposes novel ideas; utilizes appropriate brainstorming techniques to generate ideas; researches current thinking and shares ideas; explores different alternatives that would achieve a similar output, with the goal of achieving process simplification or efficiencies.

• Resilience & Managing Uncertainty: Adjusts thinking and behavior in order to adapt to changes in the job and work environment with limited stress; is able to work effectively in an unstructured environment; actively promotes and advocates the advantages of changes when new and credible information emerges; acknowledges uncertainty and shares constructive coping strategies with team members.

• Communication & Interpersonal Effectiveness: Effectively and appropriately interacts and communicates with others to build positive, constructive, professional relationships; tailors communication style and messages based on the audience; seeks to understand others' points of view, observes verbal and non-verbal cues to encourage open and honest discussions; uses clear, precise, and error-free language; invites and encourages others to participate in discussions; identifies and helps to resolve interpersonal conflict between team members; does not jump to conclusions or act on assumptions.

• Customer Focus: Identifies, considers, prioritizes, and takes action on the needs of both internal and external customers; uses knowledge about the customer to inform decision making and problem solving; strives to provide additional value to the customer experience; actively solicits internal and customer feedback in order to improve the relationship; suggests ways to improve the customer experience.

• Technology: Proficient with Microsoft productivity suite, accounting/financial management systems, customer relationship management software, grants and donor management software, and other functional software relevant to area of responsibility.

 

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Work is performed in an interior office setting which has no adverse environmental conditions expected.
• Hybrid Role requiring a minimum of 2 days per week in office with travel up to 15% of the time in the field and/or for meetings, trainings, or organizational events based on organizational needs.
• Role may require flexibility in work hours at times to accommodate organizational priorities or critical issues.
• Work involves frequently sitting for extended periods of time, frequently talking or hearing, frequently operating a computer, and occasional light physical effort (lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying, etc.) objects weighing up to 25 lbs.
• Work requires frequent ability to comprehend direction and adhere to policies or established procedures, ability to use logic to make sound decisions, ability to interpret and analyze data, ability to gather and organize information for a wide variety of audiences, ability to read and write a variety of materials, and ability to adapt well in the face of workplace stress.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.

The Executive Leadership Council is an Equal Opportunity Employer. It is our policy to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment based on an individual's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic as defined by federal, state, and local law