Sr Director Corporate FP&A

We Impact Lives Through Purpose-Driven Work in A People First Culture

Ascend Learning, a leading healthcare and learning technology company, is the connection between a powerful portfolio of brands serving students, educators, and employers with outcomes-based, data-driven solutions across the lifecycle of learning. From testing to certification, Ascend Learning products are used by physicians, emergency medical professionals, nurses, allied health professionals, certified personal trainers, financial advisors, skilled trades professionals and insurance brokers.  

Headquartered in Burlington, MA, with additional office locations and hybrid and remote workers in cities across the U.S., Ascend Learning was recognized by Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group as one of America’s 2025 Greatest Workplaces as well as America’s Best Places to work for Mental Well-Being for 2025.  

We're always looking for talented, passionate professionals to join us in our mission to help change lives. If this sounds like an environment where you'd thrive, read on to learn more.  

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Ascend Learning is seeking a Senior Director of Corporate Finance who brings extensive Corporate FP&A and strategic finance leadership experience in high-growth environments. This role leads the Corporate FP&A team, building a scalable process and system foundation for planning, reporting, and analysis to provide critical information and insights for decision making. This is a high-impact, high-visibility role interacting directly with senior leaders both inside and outside of finance to shape the future of a company that is a market leader in education technology for healthcare, fitness, and wellness. This role also interacts with Ascend's shareholder teams at Blackstone and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

In this role, you will be responsible for providing business leaders with crucial insights and recommendations to drive financial and operating performance while establishing the underlying processes needed to enable this. You will partner with the businesses to sustainably generate relevant and meaningful planning, reporting, and analysis for Ascend and its segments/businesses.

WHERE YOU'LL WORK

You will work a hybrid schedule from our Leawood, KS office or remote within the Central or Eastern time zones in the United States.

HOW YOU'LL SPEND YOUR TIME

• Providing vision and driving execution for the Corporate FP&A function. This team is transforming, having recently implemented a standard reporting and analytics tool that provides a foundation for the next phase of transformation.
• Bringing outstanding analytical capabilities. You will understand business drivers, identify what is important to analyze, and concisely communicate critical business insights both verbally and visually.
• Employing mature business analytics by fully leveraging analytical and visualization tools to drive insights and efficiency.
• Standardizing and harmonizing processes and procedures for FP&A activities while continuously identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and develop new ways to generate business insights.
• Serving as an expert on Ascend business processes and data flow as they relate to business drivers. Proactively recommend process, tool, or data flow changes to enhance information quality while considering end-to-end impacts.
• Preparing Board, senior leadership team, lender, and other reporting, including analysis that generates meaningful business insights. Establishing processes to ensure exceptional quality and efficient preparation of these materials.
• Overseeing the process, timelines, and templates for long-range plans, budgets, and forecasts (P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow). Providing relevant analytical insights for all plans and forecasts.
• Producing value-added insights into the operating results of the business through analytics and reporting. Organizing data sets to create analyses that drive actionable insights, not just financial variance reporting.
• Establishing and executing the Planful roadmap, continually expanding analytical effectiveness and process efficiency. Driving a Center of Excellence approach where appropriate activities are centralized and lifted out of segments.
• Supporting finance transformation programs, partnering with segments, accounting, and IT to drive progress.
• Identifying cost leverage and savings opportunities across Ascend Learning through analytics and reporting. Collaborating with the procurement to realize savings.
• Overseeing corporate expense planning, working directly with finance, legal, HR, and strategy senior leaders.
• Providing direct leadership for Corporate FP&A by inspiring, supporting, and developing team members. Building strong partnerships across the Ascend finance organization.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• Bachelor's degree in Finance or Accounting. CPA or MBA preferred.
• 12+ years of experience in business or corporate finance roles, including 5+ years of FP&A leadership.
• Experience in a high-growth technology environment. SaaS and recurring revenue experience is preferred.
• Strong results orientation with a proven ability to inspire, develop, and lead a team while managing multiple deliverables and overcoming obstacles.
• Demonstrated passion for continuous improvement in the delivery of financial information and insights, with exceptional attention to detail and quality.
• Strong analytical capability combined with verbal, visualization, and presentation skills to communicate executive-level information and inspire action.
• Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills. Experience with Planful or other FP&A tools, Microsoft BI, Cognos, or Tableau is a plus.
• Strong understanding of GAAP reporting standards.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with significant exposure to senior leaders. Excellent presence and the ability to collaborate across all levels of the organization are critical.

HIRING RANGE

The current full-time, annualized base pay hiring range for this role is $178,000.00-$254,540.00. In accordance with applicable state laws, we are providing the expected pay range for this position. Individual compensation will be determined by various factors, including relevant experience, qualifications, current business needs and local market factors. Most regular, full-time employees are eligible to participate in an Ascend incentive bonus or sales plan.   

BENEFITS 

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Company paid life Insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• Paid time off and parental leave
• Employee assistance program
• Other wellness programs such as Headspace and Airvet
• Charitable matching program

Fostering A Sense of Belonging 

Our values-driven culture unifies our teams and inspires a mindset of action, innovation, and collaboration, with a relentless focus on customers. We seek out and celebrate all people and perspectives and cultivate an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive, feel valued, and be authentic. Our culture is firmly rooted in the belief that by embracing our differences and drawing on diverse perspectives, we are a stronger, more innovative, and more successful organization where employees experience a sense of belonging.  

Ascend Learning, LLC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer (M/F/Vets/Disabled). No agency or search firm submissions will be accepted. Applications for U.S.-based positions with Ascend Learning, LLC must be legally authorized to work in the United States, and verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.