Controller at The Art of Education University in AOEU HQ - Osage, IA 50461

Job description

• You're a finance leader who likes owning the whole picture; not just closing the books, but making sure the numbers tell the truth and that anyone in the room can understand what they're saying. You bring calm rigor to a fast-moving, still-maturing environment, and a chance to build real structure, energizes you rather than wears you down. AOE's mission to grow amazing teachers is the kind of work you want your energy behind, because you care about serving something that matters.
• You're a systems thinker who builds the processes that make accurate, on-time financials repeatable rather than heroics. You’re a natural people leader who loves developing a small team through trust and real accountability, not oversight. You do your best work in a fully remote environment, where clarity, strong systems, and earned trust matter more than proximity. You're equally at home partnering shoulder-to-shoulder with the CFO on the institution's financial strategy and independently owning the hard calls inside the close.

Responsibilities

• As our Controller, you'll own AOEU's accounting function end-to-end, ensuring accuracy and integrity, and managing the rhythm of everything from the monthly close to the financial statements leadership relies on. Working closely with the Finance team and the Chief Financial Officer, you'll take over detailed financial operations and reviews so finance leadership can spend more of its time on strategy, and you'll lead and grow the accounting team that makes it all run. Every day will look a little different, but in general, you'll:
• Own the Monthly Close: You'll run the full month-end close (reconciliations, journal entries, and accruals) and deliver accurate, on-time financials that leadership can actually make decisions from.
• Produce & Interpret Financial Statements: You'll prepare GAAP-aligned financial statements and translate them into plain-language insight for department heads who don't live in the numbers.
• Safeguard Controls & Audit Readiness: You'll design and maintain the internal controls, documentation, and processes that keep AOE audit-ready year-round instead of scrambling once a year.
• Oversee Student Financial Operations: You'll own the integrity of student financial records and university billing (tuition, 1098-T, and adjunct payments), supervising the people and processes that run the day-to-day financials in Campus Café.
• Manage the Financial Engine: You'll oversee cash flow, accounts payable and receivable, and the accounting side of payroll in Paycom, keeping the institution's daily financial operations clean and current.
• Own Tax & Compliance Filings: You'll coordinate state taxes, business registrations, and miscellaneous regulatory filings across every state where AOE operates.
• Lead & Grow the Accounting Team: You'll manage and cross-train the accounting team, building depth and shared ownership so the function stays resilient and never depends on any single person.
• Sharpen How Finance Runs: You'll find the friction in today's processes and fix it; tightening workflows and reporting, getting more out of QuickBooks, and helping judge when AOE is ready to graduate to new tooling.

Requirements

• You bring at least 7 years of progressively responsible accounting experience, and you've personally owned a full-cycle month-end close and produced the financial statements that came out of it. You have a strong command of GAAP, you've led or mentored other accountants, and you're comfortable being the technical authority who sets the standard for how the work gets done. A bachelor's degree in accounting or finance is required.
• You're a rigorous thinker who executes, a strong communicator who builds trust across teams, and someone comfortable holding both the full financial picture and the granular details at once. You lead with sound judgment, develop the people around you, and move work forward in a remote environment without needing to be in the room.
• If you're a CPA or you’ve worked in a SaaS or subscription-revenue business, you’ll feel right at home in the waters we swim in every day. Experience with recurring revenue models, revenue recognition, forecasting, and the financial operations that support a growing business will serve you especially well.
• A track record of standing up or migrating financial systems, or building real processes from scratch inside a scaling, fully remote organization, will move you toward the top of the list. Experience with higher education finance, including tuition, student billing, or 1098-T reporting, is a plus but not required.
• If you carry a genuine soft spot for art education or mission-driven organizations, the kind of place where the work is the point, that's exactly the instinct we're looking for.

Skills

Required

• GAAP
• full-cycle month-end close
• financial statement preparation
• internal controls
• audit readiness
• cash flow management
• accounts payable and receivable
• payroll accounting
• tax and compliance filings
• QuickBooks
• Campus Café
• Paycom

Preferred

• CPA
• recurring revenue models
• revenue recognition
• forecasting
• higher education finance
• tuition and student billing
• 1098-T reporting