Senior Strategic Finance Manager

We are seeking an energetic and creative team member who will thrive in our highly-collaborative work environment.

DonorsChoose is seeking a tactical, collaborative Senior Strategic Finance Manager who will report to the VP, Finance & Accounting. You will work closely with senior leaders to provide insights that drive growth, optimize resource allocation, shape cash and margin decisions, and enhance financial performance across the organization.

This is a highly cross-functional role for someone who thrives at the intersection of financial analysis and strategic decision-making. We are looking for candidates who have deep scenario planning and modeling experience - who are able to analyze financial data, build financial models, generate financial forecasts and play a key role in driving business decisions.

About a third of your time will be dedicated towards budgeting, forecasting, and month-end reporting activities as needed while maintaining primary focus on strategic finance and decision support.

Success in this role requires equal parts analytical rigor, curiosity, creativity, and business judgment. You'll build sophisticated financial models from scratch, pressure-test assumptions, synthesize information from multiple sources, and communicate recommendations that help leaders make better decisions. You'll thrive if you enjoy moving between spreadsheets and strategy conversations and are equally comfortable diving into the details and presenting the story behind the numbers.

- Build and maintain a 3-statement financial model for budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, scenario analysis, and net asset impacts

- Independently develop ROI analyses and cost-benefit frameworks that shape prioritization decisions and track the end-to-end lifecycle of initiatives from investment through post-launch impact measurement

- Serve as a strategic partner to senior leaders by providing actionable financial insights, to solve key business challenges and evaluate investments that encourage company growth

- Partner across the organization to evaluate deal economics, optimize margins, and improve efficiency

- Develop executive-ready analyses, dashboards, and Board materials that translate complex financial information into meaningful business insights

- Lead critical FP&A processes, including annual budgeting process, recurring forecasts, month-end reporting, and preparation of financial reporting for senior leadership and Board presentations

- Improve and automate FP&A processes, systems, and reporting as the company scales by using modern tooling (including AI-enabled solutions) to improve speed and accuracy

- Guide senior leaders on resource allocation and strategic decisions, occasionally presenting at leadership meetings and playing a critical role in cross-functional workstreams

- Manage vendor renewal calendars and ensure no material contracts auto-renew without review

- Support the build-out of an internal procurement process, one that establishes a centralized function for spend management, contract reviews, vendor selection, and purchasing process.

- Own mission-critical initiatives such as an updated pricing strategy to optimize our margins

- Have 6-8 years of related work experience in strategic finance, FP&A, corporate development, management consulting, investment banking, private equity, accounting, or another discipline responsible for financial forecasts and analysis

- Enjoy turning ambiguity into structured analysis and actionable recommendations.

- Build trusted relationships across functions and know how to influence without formal authority.

- Have built sophisticated financial models from scratch-not simply maintained existing models.

- Are naturally curious, ask thoughtful questions, and are comfortable challenging assumptions with data and sound judgment.

- Communicate complex financial concepts in ways that help non-finance leaders make informed decisions.

- Problem solver who is comfortable diving into complex scenarios

- Balance confidence with humility-you have a point of view but remain open to new information and perspectives.

- Tech-savvy and comfortable embracing new systems and tools

- Care deeply about education and share our organization's commitment to racial and economic equity in America's public schools

- Experience working with Adaptive Insights or another cloud-based financial planning software

- Comfortable with intermediate Excel/Google Sheet functions (pivot tables, lookup functions, graphs/tables)

The Senior Strategic Finance Manager will independently lead complex analytical work that influences organizational financial strategy and executive decision-making. They own sophisticated financial modeling efforts, develop recommendations with limited direction, and regularly partner with senior leaders across the organization.

While this role does not include direct people management responsibilities, the Senior Strategic Finance Manager is expected to exercise significant independent judgment, influence cross-functional decisions through expertise and credibility, and raise the overall quality of strategic financial thinking across DonorsChoose.

Successful team members take work nearly to completion independently, seek thoughtful input at key decision points, and communicate recommendations with clarity, confidence, and sound business judgment.

- The hiring salary range for this role is $90,000 - $110,000

- We have a hiring salary range of $100,000- $120,000 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

Please submit your resume and answer the application questions online. Since we're trying to get to know you through our hiring process, we ask that you please refrain from using AI writing tools to craft your response to our application questions. A cover letter is optional and may be addressed to Jim Kao, VP, Finance & Accounting.