Job ID

73289

Job Title

Director, Financial Risk

Regular/Temporary

Regular

Location

Central Campus

Open Date

01/05/2026

Job Type

Continuing

Close Date

02/01/2026

Employee Group

TMG

Favorite Job

Department

Chief Risk Office

Full/Part Time

Full-Time

Salary Grade/Band

Under Review

Salary Range

$0.00 - $0.00 (annual)

Existing Vacancy

Yes - Newly Created Position

Hours per Week

35

Target Number of Openings

1

Job Code

104896

Posting Details

Schedule

Monday to Friday 830-430

Education Level

Bachelor's, master’s in finance, accounting, CPA or related field.

Career Level

• 7-10 years with financial risk oversight preferably within higher education, public sector or complex multi-stakeholder environments.
• Background in enterprise risk management.

Familiarity with financial modeling, risk analytics and regulatory frameworks.

Hiring Range: $120,000 to $170,000

Job Description

Reporting to the Chief Risk Officer, with a dotted line to the AVP and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), the Associate Director, Financial Risk manages and operationalizes financial risk management program. This role is responsible for identifying, assessing, and monitoring financial exposures, including credit, liquidity, investment, and operational risks, while embedding financial risk intelligence into institutional planning and decision-making. The Associate Director ensures that financial risk oversight is integrated with the university’s enterprise risk management framework, supports compliance with financial regulations, and contributes to the university’s long-term financial sustainability.

The role fosters and promotes a proactive risk culture, collaborates with senior leaders across administrative and academic units, and supports robust governance through regular reporting of financial and enterprise risks to executive and board-level committees.

Enterprise Risk Program

• Manage and operationalize the university’s financial risk program.
• Translate financial risk insights into actionable recommendations that support institutional priorities, capital planning, and long-term sustainability.
• Develop financial risk appetite metrics, tolerances, escalation triggers, and key financial risk indicators (KRIs), in consultation with the CRO and the CFO ensuring alignment with institutional financial strategy.
• Maintain accurate and current financial risk inventories, risk event databases, dashboards, and reporting tools.
• Contribute insight to departmental strategic planning and enterprise risk office initiatives

Financial Risk Management & Analytics

• Collaborate with financial affairs and the enterprise risk management office to build and maintain financial risk models and scenario analyses to assess the impact of market volatility, interest rate changes, and liquidity constraints on institutional operations and capital planning.
• Scrutinize financial data and underlying assumptions, ensuring accuracy and alignment with risk methodologies.
• Identify destabilizing financial risks and provide timely escalation, “early-warning” indicators, and risk intelligence to leadership.

Governance, Reporting & Institutional Decision Support

• Provide financial risk analysis and insights for the university’s risk register, ERM Committee, PVP, and the Audit & Risk Committee.
• Prepare and deliver financial risk reports, dashboards, and presentations supporting Board-level oversight and executive decision-making.
• Coordinate with Internal Audit to incorporate audit findings, financial controls, observations, and assurance results into financial risk assessments.
• Ensure financial risk perspectives inform institutional planning cycles, including budget development, forecasting, and strategic initiatives.
• Collaboration
• Partner with Financial Affairs to interpret financial reporting through a risk lens and ensure linkages between financial analysis, enterprise risk, and institutional priorities.
• Engage with risk owners across academic and administrative units to identify, assess, and track financial risks and mitigation strategies.
• Support consultation processes across the university to validate financial KRIs, gather emerging risk intelligence, and determine threshold changes.
• Lead & facilitate university-wide risk workshops raising risk awareness as well as presentations at conferences and seminars, as required.

Emerging Financial Risk Identification

• Lead the financial component of the university’s emerging risk program.
• Identify sectoral, policy, demographic, and regulatory trends affecting revenue, funding, partnerships, enrolment, and capital projects.
• Recommend mitigation strategies and institutional interventions to the Director, Enterprise Risk and the CRO.

Legislative Compliance & Controls

• Oversee compliance with attestations related to financial regulations, accounting standards, and applicable legislative requirements.
• Ensure compliance-related financial risks are identified, escalated, and integrated into the ERM framework.

External Relationships, Partnerships, Development:

• Support the CRO to regularly update the Enterprise Risk Management Office communication strategy, ensuring university-wide awareness of the Office’s services and educational offerings.
• Function as the university's liaison with external stakeholders including but not limited to, Canadian & global higher-education institutions, legal counsel and government entities

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's, master’s in finance, accounting, CPA or related field.

• 7-10 years with financial risk oversight preferably within higher education, public sector or complex multi-stakeholder environments.

• Background in enterprise risk management.

• Familiarity with financial modeling, risk analytics and regulatory frameworks.

• Knowledge of risk assessment and relevant governing legislation.

• Change management and project management knowledge and experience.

• Ability to establish credibility at all levels of an organization.

• Strong analytical abilities.

• Excellent facilitation and decision-making skills.

Pay Transparency Statement

The posted hiring range represents McMaster's typical hiring range for this position. Actual starting salary will depend on factors such as relevant experience, qualifications, internal equity, and market conditions.

Individuals with extensive experience, deep specialized expertise, and/or those who can demonstrate exceptional past performance, as applicable, may be hired at a higher rate within the full range, in accordance with the University compensation policies.

How To Apply

To apply for this job, please submit your application online.

Employment Equity Statement

McMaster University is located on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Mississauga Nations and within the lands protected by the “Dish With One Spoon” wampum agreement.

The diversity of our workforce is at the core of our innovation and creativity and strengthens our research and teaching excellence. In keeping with its Statement on Building an Inclusive Community with a Shared Purpose, McMaster University strives to embody the values of respect, collaboration and diversity, and has a strong commitment to employment equity.

The University seeks qualified candidates who share our commitment to equity and inclusion, who will contribute to the diversification of ideas and perspectives, and especially welcomes applications from indigenous (First Nations, Métis or Inuit) peoples, members of racialized communities, persons with disabilities, women, and persons who identify as 2SLGBTQ+.

As part of McMaster’s commitment, all applicants are invited to complete a confidential Applicant Diversity Survey through the online application submission process. The Survey questionnaire requests voluntary self-identification in relation to equity-seeking groups that have historically faced and continue to face barriers in employment. Please refer to the Applicant Diversity Survey - Statement of Collection for additional information.

Job applicants requiring accommodation to participate in the hiring process should contact:

• Human Resources Service Centre at 905-525-9140 ext. 222-HR (22247), or
• Faculty of Health Sciences HR Office at ext. 22207, or
• School of Graduate Studies at ext. 23679

to communicate accommodation needs.

Hybrid Work Language

To ensure an ongoing and vibrant University community that meets the needs of our students, staff and faculty and supports the University mission, ability to work on-site continues to be a requirement for most University positions. The University is supportive of exploring flexible work arrangements that effectively balance operational needs and employee interests.

AI Statement

McMaster and its third-party partners may use AI tools to screen, assess, or select applicants during the hiring process. Please note that currently our recruitment platform does not use AI nor is it part of our current recommended recruitment process.