Finance & Accounting Consultant-Municipal Technical Advisory Service- IPS

Serves as a finance and accounting consultant providing professional advice and technical assistance in the area of municipal financial management to cities in Tennessee. Services are provided regardless of size, on a broad range of issues and problems, to Tennessee municipalities and to various State agencies, Tennessee Municipal League staff, to individual state legislators, as well as various state associations of municipal officials. In addition to providing direct client assistance, this position researches, develops, and maintains timely technical reports and publications on critical financial issues. This position also develops and teaches municipal training courses, teaches CMFO program courses, and assists other consultants in the agency in the performance of individual and team projects. Performance of other special project work as assigned may be required. This position requires extensive travel.

General Duties - Provides professional advice and technical assistance primarily to appointed and elected municipal officials. Provides advice and assistance for non-city clients such as elected and staff members of the Tennessee General Assembly, employees of state agencies, staff of the Tennessee Municipal League, and officers of associations of municipal officials. Professional advice and technical assistance cover a broad range of issues and problems at the request of the officials. A project may be as complex as comprehensive utility rate studies, capital budgeting, creating a purchasing department, long range financial planning, identification of new sources of revenue, or as simple as providing the answer to a question or assistance in completing a form. Develops and maintains close working relationships with both appointed and elected city officials for assigned cities. This includes time at city hall, phone calls, emails, research, travel and writing time. Develops, updates, and instructs training courses for city officials. Teaches CMFO program courses. Maintains an area (or areas) of specialization and serves as the in-house expert to MTAS staff in areas - such as chart of accounts, capital budgeting, purchasing, liaison with state agencies, or utility rate studies. Often serves as official MTAS representative to an association of city officials. Research, drafts, and maintains publications on critical issues that are geared to various reader levels of financial sophistication and expertise, including articles for the Tennessee Municipal League's newspaper, Tennessee Town and City, technical reports, and publications for municipal officials, and employees. Reference Material Update - Maintain and update agency databases which are utilized by internal staff as well as external clients. Administration and Professional Development - Includes team meetings, agency meetings and retreats, IPS meetings and retreats, maintaining records on all relevant activities, including the agency databases for work products from projects. Includes activities related to keeping current in the fields of expertise. This involves time at professional meetings and conferences, seminars and training classes, professional reading, and computer training.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s in Accounting, Finance, or a related field
• Experience: With a bachelor's degree, this position requires eight years of work experience in a financial related position with five years of governmental accounting experience.
• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities: Requires knowledge and understanding of issues dealt with by city officials. Must have the skill and knowledge of municipal financial operations to establish credibility and effective working relationships with local officials. Must have the ability and knowledge to adapt from simple financial and accounting tasks to high level and complex financial and accounting issues. The consultant must possess the following skills: 1) managerial 2) analytical 3) conceptual and 4) interpersonal. These skills are used on a daily basis in identifying a specific city's financial problem and providing advice and assistance to resolve the problems. A high level of cognitive or intuitive skills are needed to fully understand and implement successful solutions to financial problems. Must have knowledge of GAAP.

Preferred Qualifications

• Education: Master’s Degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field; at employment or within 18 months have one of the following: CPA, CGFM, CPFO
• Experience: With a master's degree, this position requires five years of work experience in governmental accounting. Eight years of work experience in a financial related position in municipal government with at least five years of governmental accounting experience is preferred.
• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities: Ability to facilitate classes with diverse students.

Work Location:

• Location: Knoxville, TN or Johnson City, TN

The Institute for Public Service (IPS) supports a formal Alternative Work Arrangement program currently in place and more information can be provided if candidate progresses through the recruitment process.

Benefits

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Application Instructions
To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments. To be assured of full consideration, completed applications with all requested materials should be submitted on or before September 7, 2025.

• Resume
• Cover Letter
• List of 3 Professional References
  
  

About The College/Department/Division

The UT Institute for Public Service provides outreach and assistance to all of Tennessee. Through our agencies and initiatives, we offer technical assistance, training, and consulting on a wide variety of services, including government operations, language services, law enforcement excellence, leadership training, manufacturing excellence, opioid abatement and much more.