Senior Financial Analyst, Finance

The Team

Across our work in Science, Education, and within our communities, we pair technology with grantmaking, impact investing, and collaboration to help accelerate the pace of progress toward our mission. Our Operations organization provides the support needed to push this work forward.  Operations consists of our Brand & Communications, Central Tech, Finance, People, Real Estate/Workplace/Events/Facilities/Security (REWFS), Strategy & Operations, and Ventures teams. These teams provide the essential operations, services, and strategies needed to support CZI’s progress toward achieving its mission to build a better future for everyone.

The Opportunity

The FP&A team partners closely with leaders across CZI to translate strategy into actionable financial plans, deliver decision-ready insights, and ensure strong financial stewardship.

This Senior Financial Analyst will support both Learning Commons and select Central functions in a shared FP&A model. The role will report to the Director of Finance, Learning Commons, and work closely in partnership with the Director of FP&A for Central. Together, Finance leadership will jointly guide priorities and scope to ensure strong support across both portfolios.

This position sits at the center of operational finance execution — owning the core financial rhythms across Opex and People spend (planning, forecasting, reporting, and close support) that enable leadership to focus on long-term strategy and impact.

This is an ideal opportunity for a high-performing analyst who is energized by leveraging AI and automation to modernize how finance work gets done. You will play a foundational role in transforming our finance processes — applying AI-enabled tools, intelligent automation, and systems thinking to drive efficiency, accuracy, and scale across recurring workflows and reporting.

We are looking for someone who is excited to build, optimize, and continuously improve — not just maintain — the way finance work gets done, and who sees AI as a core part of how modern finance teams operate.

What You'll Do

• Own day-to-day financial management across Opex, Grants, and People spend, ensuring accurate tracking, forecasting, and reporting across supported functions.
• Manage budget vs. actuals analysis across operating expenses, grant commitments, and headcount-related spend; proactively identify risks, variances, and emerging trends and surface insights to Finance leadership.
• Support annual planning and reforecast cycles, building detailed financial models and partnering with stakeholders to translate operational inputs into structured financial forecasts.
• Oversee grants financial tracking and forecasting, including commitment pacing, multi-year outlooks, and coordination with Accounting to ensure accurate reporting.
• Support People cost forecasting, including headcount tracking, new hire modeling, and compensation-related expense management in partnership with business leaders and People teams.
• Drive monthly close activities, including accrual preparation across Opex and reconciliation across systems to ensure data integrity.
• Lead the identification and implementation of AI-driven and automation improvements across recurring finance processes — including accrual workflows, forecast updates, headcount tracking, and reporting packages — with a focus on reducing manual effort, improving accuracy, and building scalable solutions.
• Actively leverage AI tools in day-to-day finance work, from drafting variance narratives and summarizing stakeholder-ready insights to accelerating model builds and streamlining repetitive analytical tasks.
• Build and enhance scalable reporting infrastructure, leveraging Adaptive, Workday, Salesforce, Excel/Sheets, and other tools to reduce manual work and improve data transparency.
• Develop dashboards and self-service reporting tools that empower stakeholders and reduce ad hoc requests over time.

What You'll Bring

• 5–7 years of Finance experience, including progressive experience in an FP&A role, ideally within a complex, fast-paced, or growth-oriented organization.
• Exceptional analytical, modeling, and problem-solving skills; thinks critically and connects financial outcomes to operational drivers.
• Strong relationship-building and collaboration skills in working with business partners and cross-functional stakeholders; able to communicate financial insights clearly and constructively.
• Strong results orientation and bias to action; self-starter who works independently, demonstrates initiative, flexibility, and maturity under pressure, and effectively manages competing priorities.
• Experience working with Adaptive Planning (or comparable forecasting software), Workday Financials (or similar ERP systems), and Salesforce, with strong proficiency in Excel and Google Suite (Sheets, Docs, Slides).
• Demonstrated hands-on experience applying AI tools and automation to finance workflows — such as using AI assistants to accelerate analysis, drafting, and reporting; building automated data pipelines or recurring reporting; or deploying AI-enabled solutions to improve forecast reliability and process efficiency. Comfort experimenting with and adopting new AI tools as they evolve is essential.
• A forward-looking mindset toward AI in finance: understands how AI is reshaping FP&A and is eager to be at the forefront of that shift — not just using available tools, but actively identifying where AI can drive the most value across the finance function.

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for a new hire in this role is $106,000 - $146,300. New hires are typically hired into the lower portion of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process. 

Better Together

As we grow, we’re excited to strengthen in-person connections and cultivate a collaborative, team-oriented environment. This role is a hybrid position requiring you to be onsite for at least 60% of the working month, approximately 3 days a week, with specific in-office days determined by the team’s manager. The exact schedule will be at the hiring manager's discretion and communicated during the interview process.

Benefits for the Whole You 

We’re thankful to have an incredible team behind our work. To honor their commitment, we offer a wide range of benefits to support the people who make all we do possible. 

• Provides a generous employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
• Paid time off to volunteer at an organization of your choice. 
• Funding for select family-forming benefits. 
• Relocation support for employees who need assistance moving

If you’re interested in a role but your previous experience doesn’t perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role.