Executive Director Controller Jobs in Rhode Island

Corporate Controller in a hospital system

Position Summary

Health System in Rhode Island is seeking a Corporate Controller to be located in the Corporate Headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island. The Corporate Controller is a key member of the Finance leadership team and serves as the principal accounting leader for a growing two-hospital, not-for-profit healthcare system consisting of approximately 350 staffed beds. The health system has an annual operating budget of $330 million, employs 2,400 health professionals, and has an affiliated medical staff comprised of more than 600 primary care and specialty providers. This includes a large multi-specialty network that operates more than 20 practice locations across the state.

Reporting directly to the System Chief Financial Officer, the Controller provides strategic and operational leadership for all accounting functions while partnering with executive leadership to improve financial performance, strengthen internal controls, optimize business processes, and support organizational growth. Insures the integrity of the financial statements.

This executive will be far more than a financial reporting leader. The successful candidate will possess a strong operational mindset, extensive knowledge of hospital finance, advanced financial planning and analysis capabilities, and a passion for leveraging Artificial Intelligence and automation technologies to improve efficiency throughout the finance organization.

The Controller will evaluate existing financial processes, identify opportunities for improvement, implement best practices, and help build a modern finance organization capable of supporting the health system's strategic objectives.

Primary Responsibilities

Financial Leadership

• Lead all accounting operations for the health system.
• Ensure timely and accurate monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reporting.
• Oversee preparation of audited financial statements.
• Ensure compliance with GAAP and healthcare accounting standards.
• Maintain strong internal controls and financial governance.
• Oversee general ledger, fixed assets, cash management, payroll accounting, and accounts payable and cost reporting.
• Coordinate all internal and external financial audits.
• Serve as the accounting resource for executive leadership and the Board of Directors.

Hospital Finance Leadership

Develop a deep understanding of hospital financial operations including:

• Acute care reimbursement
• Physician enterprise accounting
• Hospital cost accounting
• Capital accounting
• Managed care impacts
• Government reimbursement
• Budget development
• Financial forecasting
• Service line profitability
• Financial performance improvement

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

Provide leadership in:

• Annual operating budgets
• Capital budgets
• Long-range financial planning
• Forecasting
• Financial modeling
• Productivity analytics
• Variance analysis
• Executive dashboard development
• Decision support analytics

The ideal candidate will transform financial data into actionable business intelligence for executive leadership.

Process Improvement

The Controller will work collaboratively with hospital leadership/management to continually evaluate and implement best practice s on current financial operations and identify opportunities to improve:

• Workflow efficiency
• Accuracy
• Productivity
• Automation
• Standardization
• Internal controls
• Month-end close process
• Reporting timelines
• Cross-functional collaboration

This individual should have a proven history of redesigning financial processes that reduce manual effort while improving accuracy.

Artificial Intelligence & Automation

One of the most important responsibilities of this role will be identifying and implementing AI-enabled solutions throughout Finance and Accounting.

Examples include:

• Automated account reconciliations
• Intelligent variance analysis
• Financial reporting automation
• Predictive cash forecasting
• AI-assisted budgeting
• Contract analysis
• Expense trend identification
• Fraud detection
• Workflow automation
• Executive dashboard generation
• Data visualization
• Decision support
• Automate accounts payable and payroll

The successful candidate should possess curiosity, practical experience, and/or demonstrated success implementing AI technologies to improve financial operations.

Leadership

Provide leadership and mentoring to accounting and finance staff by:

• Building high-performing teams
• Developing future leaders
• Creating accountability
• Coaching managers
• Improving employee engagement
• Establishing performance expectations
• Driving continuous improvement

Required Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance
• CPA or MBA in a business or healthcare discipline
• 10–15+ years of progressive healthcare finance and accounting experience
• Minimum five years leading accounting or finance teams
• Significant hospital accounting experience
• Experience within an integrated health system preferred
• Strong knowledge of not-for-profit healthcare accounting
• Experience with budgeting and financial planning
• Experience supporting revenue cycle operations
• Experience developing executive-level financial reporting
• Demonstrated success improving accounting processes
• Experience implementing financial systems or ERP enhancements
• Experience utilizing AI, automation, robotic process automation (RPA), business intelligence, or advanced analytics to improve finance operations
• Working understanding of current AI platforms

Preferred Background

Experience in organizations such as:

• Multi-hospital health systems
• Regional health systems
• Community hospital systems
• Small to medium sized Acute Care hospitals
• Integrated delivery networks (IDNs)
• Significant experience in a payor - insurance company  CVS Pharmacy and Aetna, Insurance company,

Critical Competencies

Technical

• Hospital accounting
• Healthcare finance
• Financial reporting
• Cost accounting
• Budgeting
• Forecasting
• Decision support
• Financial analytics
• Internal controls
• ERP systems – oracle moving to meditech expanse./
• AI-enabled finance
• Data analytics
• Process automation

Leadership

• Strategic thinking
• Team development
• Executive communication
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Change management
• Project leadership
• Operational excellence
• Continuous improvement
• Organizational influence
• Business partnership