Penn State Job Catalog

The defined natural career progression within or between job profiles.

Financial Shared Services

The Financial Shared Services Manager is responsible for overseeing a team of Financial Shared Services Associates who serve as the central point of contact for processing and coordinating financial transactions for assigned University units; ensures high levels of accuracy, compliance, efficiency, and customer service across key functions such as Accounts Payable, Travel Expense, Purchase Requests, and related financial operations; aligns financial services with University policies, fostering continuous improvement, and ensuring consistent, personalized support to academic and administrative units.

• Lead, manage, mentor, and support a team of Financial Shared Services Associates
• Assign work priorities and ensure balanced workloads across the team
• Conduct performance evaluations and provide coaching for professional growth
• Facilitate onboarding and training of new staff
• Oversee daily financial processing workflows including invoice payments, travel reimbursements, purchase orders, and reconciliations
• Ensure compliance with University policies, documentation standards, and applicable regulations
• Review and approve complex or escalated financial transactions
• Monitor transaction accuracy, timeliness, and compliance with internal controls
• Support audit activities by preparing necessary documentation and responses
• Investigate and resolve discrepancies, anomalies, or systemic issues
• Serve as a liaison between Shared Services and University units to ensure service alignment
• Foster strong partnerships with Finance, Procurement, and other administrative teams
• Manage and respond to escalated service inquiries from units
• Identify and implement opportunities for process improvements and automation
• Develop and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
• Lead or support special projects to improve service delivery and operational efficiency
• Monitor key performance indicators and service metrics
• Prepare regular reports on team productivity, transaction volumes, and issue resolution
• Provide insights and recommendations based on data analysis

Level:

– Manager

Base Description:

– Manages direct reports where primary duty is the management of a working unit.

Level Summary:

– Demonstrates proficient ability in work design, project management, financial planning and development of goals for accomplishing unit assignments. Reviews and guides work to ensure conformity to policy and effective approaches. Evaluates employee performance and recommend development opportunities. Demonstrates ability to coach employees. Presents and communicates key university indicatives and connects it to unit contributions. Provides broad guidelines. Develops, evaluates, enhances, and/or implements quality improvement practices. Recommends innovative solutions.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

– Oversees a team (typically 4 or more; no fewer than 2) full
– time direct reports of individual contributors and/or first level supervisors.

Fiscal Responsibilities:

– Monitors and tracks department/area budget
– May plan, forecast, and/or assist in developing budgets
– May have final signature authority for specific area

Problem Solving:

– Encounters varied and complex problems
– Helps to develop creative and/or novel approaches to resolve problems that are difficult in nature but within limited scope
– Modifies, adapts, or refines guidelines if necessary to resolve issues or problems

Independence of Action:

– Works independently on complex or strategic assignments
– Uses existing practices and advanced working knowledge to determine appropriate work methods for the team
– Reviews completed work of others for conformity to policy, and effectiveness of approach
– Delegates advanced tasks to others

Communication and Collaboration:

– Communicates with both internal and external audiences
– Collaborates closely with team members and various areas across the University
– Prepares written and/or verbal presentations or proposals on complex issues and delivers to a broad variety of audiences
– Communicates key university initiatives and how unit’s work contributes to their achievement
– Presents ideas, concepts and instructions in a clear manner, and uses persuasion and negotiation to build consensus and cooperation
– Establishes and maintains networks to facilitate successful communication among units

• Comp Grade – 11
• Minimum – $68,200.00
• MidPoint – $85,200.00
• Maximum – $102,300.00