Financial Analyst | City of Highland Park

The City of Highland Park is seeking a Financial Analyst to join its Finance Department and play a key role in the City’s annual budget process and ongoing financial analysis. This position is ideal for someone who is highly analytical, comfortable working with numbers and financial data and able to identify trends and turn information into useful insights. The successful candidate will be detail-oriented, organized and able to work collaboratively with departments across the organization, with experience in budgeting, finance, accounting or a related field.

Primary Purpose: Leads and coordinates the City's annual budget development process and provides professional financial analysis to support financial planning, forecasting, resource allocation, and management decision-making. Develops and maintains budget schedules, financial models, forecasts, and financial reports; analyzes revenues, expenditures, financial trends, and performance; supports long-range financial planning and collective bargaining costing; assists departments with budget development and financial analysis; and coordinates budget-related research, benchmarking, and special projects. 

Supervision Received: Reports directly to the Finance Director. Maintains a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Deputy Finance Director for functional coordination related to financial analysis, accounting information, financial reporting, and cross-functional Finance Department activities.

Expected hiring range: $72,000 - $80,000 dependent on qualifications.
Max of range: $93,883.05

IMRF Pension Eligible Position

• Leads and coordinates the annual budget development process, including development and maintenance of budget schedules, review and analysis of departmental budget requests, preparation of budget instructions and materials, coordination of budget timelines, and development of the City's annual budget document. Works with departments to analyze proposed revenues, expenditures, staffing, programs, and services and provides analytical support to the Finance Director and Deputy Finance Director throughout the budget process. Coordinates budget process improvements and supports preparation and submission of the City's budget for the GFOA's Distinguished Budget Presentation Award.
  
  
• Develops and maintains financial forecasts, models, and analytical tools to support
  financial planning and management decision-making. Performs revenue and expenditure forecasting, cash flow analysis, trend analysis, variance analysis, and other financial modeling. Identifies significant financial trends, risks, opportunities, and emerging issues and communicates findings and recommendations to Finance management and City departments.
  
  
• Prepares and analyzes financial reports, presentations, and management information related to revenues, expenditures, budget-to-actual performance, financial trends, capital needs, debt, staffing, and other areas of financial performance. Develops recurring and ad hoc reports and presentations for the Finance Director, Deputy Finance Director, City departments, executive management, and other stakeholders.
  
  
• Provides financial analysis and support to City departments and serves as a Finance business partner to assigned departments. Assists departments with budget development, forecasting, budget monitoring, variance analysis, financial planning, and other analytical needs. Provides guidance regarding budget assumptions, financial trends, and available financial information while maintaining appropriate coordination with the accounting function.
  
  
• Performs financial research and analysis for special projects and long-range financial planning. Supports collective bargaining costing and other personnel-related financial analyses; analyzes revenues, expenditures, fees, impact fees, grants, leases, capital needs, and other financial matters; conducts municipal benchmarking and comparator analyses; and assists with development of long-range financial projections and financial strategies. May provide analytical support for GFOA budget and Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) award submissions.
  
  
• Performs other related job duties or responsibilities as requested or required, whether or not specifically mentioned in this job description.