KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 59 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 34,000 students across Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Together with families and communities, our mission is to create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose —college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.

Founded in Houston in 1994, and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in our classrooms, in our offices, and in the communities we serve is unwavering. We are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join our Team and Family and champion equity, chase excellence, persist with purpose, bring joy, and help us rise together.

KIPP Texas is part of the national KIPP network of 255 college-preparatory public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, KIPP students complete four-year college at a rate of 36 percent, comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times higher than the average of students from low-income communities.

You can see all our job opportunities at https://kipptexas.org/join-our-team/.

The Opportunity

The Analyst, Finance(“the role”) will support both the accounting and FP&A teams while reporting directly to the Director of Accounting and Finance.

KIPP Texas is seeking an Analyst, Finance to inspect, scrutinize, and examine all new vendors during the vendor onboarding process, as well as all changes submitted for existing vendors. In addition, this role will support the establishment of a vendor database and annual review process. This role will play an integral part in the financial safeguarding of KIPP Texas’ public dollars and is a key internal control to prevent financial misappropriation and financial fraud.

The Analyst, Finance must employ professional skepticism and examine every detail of any and all information provided; this includes paying close attention to every single letter, number, and domain address for all vendors. Additionally, this role will prepare all the necessary documentation for new vendor setup, handle maintenance requests, and assist vendors with KIPP Texas’ internal processes to help them through the process efficiently, while remaining within all compliance guidelines. Customer service is of paramount importance in this role and of equal importance as the candidate’s attention to detail and vendor compliance acumen. The Analyst of Accounting and Finance should expect to engage directly with vendors, procurement specialists, external counsel, accounts payable, FP&A analysts, and compliance. The person in this role is an individual contributor to the team and has direct responsibilities for supplier assessment and evaluation. The Finance team celebrates diversity, understanding the big picture, and always operating with a focus on what is best for our Big & Little KIPPsters.

Key Responsibilities

The role will be responsible but not limited to the following duties:

• Lead vendor onboarding to prevent financial misappropriation and financial fraud
  • Inspect, scrutinize, and examine all new vendor requests during the vendor onboarding process
  • Utilize LexisNexis, The System for Award Management (SAM.gov), and other systems to ensure there are no perceived or actual conflicts of interest between KTX and potential vendors, disbarments, etc.
  • Gather documentation from vendors
  • Collaborate with internal budget owners, procurement specialists, accounts payable, and compliance to obtain necessary requirements and data
  • Collaborate with School Operations to ensure understanding of vendor onboarding process
  • Perform internal checks and annual reviews
  • Create and/or modify vendor and related information in KTX’s accounting and/or procurement system(s), based on information collected
  • Review vendor-completed KIPP Texas Vendor Packet for accuracy, consulting with direct manager and counsel (if needed)
  • Support business decisions, based on vendor data
  • Be of service to both our KIPP Texas teammates and our vendors to assist with their onboarding needs
  • Maintain thorough understanding of Federal, State and local vendor compliance laws and board policies; ensure communication to applicable stakeholders
  • Build trust and nurture ongoing internal relationships; this is critical to understanding the needs of the organization and ensuring willingness to engage and provide information, as requested
  • Ensure a high level of customer service to meet the needs and requirements of the organization
  • Maintain and respond to all emails in shared vendor inbox within 48 hours per our KIPP Texas Communication norms
  • Assist with an/or perform vendor performance evaluations
• Internal control support for accounting
  • This role will support accounting by adding additional internal control support (compensating controls) such as reviewing all outgoing ACH’s and wires greater than a certain material amount.
• Support the external and internal audit
  • Provide any necessary information to external auditors or internal auditors on an annual basis related to vendors
• Respond to public information requests
  • Provide any necessary information to anyone requesting public information around vendors
• Improve vendor onboarding process
  • Perform financial analysis and collect financial reporting about the vendor
  • Continuously seek for areas of improvements in the process & promote process efficiencies through a focus on automated channels
• Join weekly office hours for all KIPP Texas Employees
  • To provide excellent customer service, this position will be available to support during weekly office hours
  • The office hours will be live and available to any employee from KIPP Texas to answer questions, re-routing questions that are not finance related
• Other support for accounting
  • Provide support to the Controller for any ad-hoc accounting related items
  • Ad hoc support to the Director of Accounting and Finance
• Actively seek out professional development opportunities

• Bachelor’s degree or a minimum of 5 years of work experience in a fast paced, high stress environment in lieu of a bachelor’s degree
• Work experience at the classroom/school level desired as the majority of KIPP Texas’ outgoing payments are related to school level expenses; knowledge of school level expenses and vendors is a plus
• This is an exempt position. The first 90 days of this role will be vitally important to success and there will be a need to work over 40 hours per week during the first 90 days and during heavy seasons of financial activity (beginning of the school year and end of the school year).
• Ability to think logically is required for this position
• Superb organization and documentation skills
• Strong ability to take detailed notes and utilize those notes to perform important/detailed tasks
• Ability to interpret, summarize, and present data in a concise form
• Excellent written and oral communication skills

CULTURE & MINDSETS:

• Mission Alignment | Strong integrity and deep belief in KIPP’s mission, values, and our vision for diversity, equity and inclusion; commitment for the students we educate
• Ownership of Team Culture | A passion for being part of a team-oriented, mission-driven culture where we are a Team & Family and see people first
• Growth Mindset / Self Starter | Continuous learner, team player, and self-starter; values a culture of giving and receiving feedback
• Project Management | Comfortable in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment, leading multiple requests at a time, and able to deliver in the time frame needed; ability to execute on projects with little guidance and find solutions

Compensation and Benefits

As a full-time KIPP Texas employee you are eligible to participate in all KIPP Texas’ benefit plans. KIPP Texas offers a robust variety of benefits choices with competitive rates, including medical, dental, and vision options, life insurance, and disability plans.

KIPP provides equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration of race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, or disability.