Ascent is a leading provider of innovative financial products and student support services that enable more students to access education and achieve academic and economic success. Everything Ascent offers is designed with the best-in-class teams and technology to increase every student's ability to plan, pay, and succeed in their education and career. Ascent's planning tools and financing resources are co-created by students for those in college, graduate school, and career training programs. Ascent offers financial wellness education, student success services, and one-on-one and digital career coaching that put students' academic and professional goals within reach. Ascent has been widely recognized for its strong culture – named “Best Places to Work” by the San Diego Business Journal for the past 5 years – and as an industry leader – named “Best Student Loan” by NerdWallet for the past 3 years.
The Financial Analyst (FP&A) is a full-time position reporting to the Financial Planning and Analysis Manager. You will support and improve recurring management reporting, build and maintain financial models, and partner with departments across the company to translate data into insights.
This role offers meaningful ownership and room to grow for someone who excels at financial modeling and analysis, communicates clearly, and can connect operational drivers to financial outcomes. You will gain broad exposure to the economics of a high-growth, fast-paced business, and the opportunity to help build a more scalable, AI-enabled finance function.
Responsibilities
- Support the annual budgeting process, mid-year reforecasts, and rolling forecasts.
- Prepare monthly reporting packages, including budget-vs.-actual variance analysis with clear explanations of key drivers, risks, and trends.
- Build, maintain, and enhance a variety of financial models to support corporate planning, scenario analysis, and ad-hoc decision support.
- Partner with departments to develop, track, and analyze operating budgets and key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Develop and refine dashboards, reporting templates, and recurring processes to increase accuracy, timeliness, and efficiency.
- Support the preparation of materials and presentations for senior management and Board meetings.
- Partner with Accounting throughout the month-end close process, including reviewing actuals, supporting accruals, and performing variance analysis.
- Develop a working understanding of the company’s key business and financial drivers, and incorporate them into models, reporting, and