Manager, Planning & Projects

Vail Resorts owns and operates destination resorts and regional and local ski areas connected through a global network. The Manager, Planning & Projects role oversees project budget tracking, financial controls, forecasting, and reporting across strategic capital projects, while partnering with cross-functional teams to provide decision-ready insights and drive process improvements.

Responsibilities:

• Own project budget tracking, updates, and reporting across a portfolio of both high-priority and smaller capital projects — leading budget meetings and meeting notes, maintaining strong prioritization and visibility across the full portfolio, and reviewing budget activity for accuracy and integrity, including submitting correction entries to the general ledger as needed
• Be a thought partner – guide project teams on best practices and serve as a thought partner in addressing risk and identifying opportunities, including individual and cross-functional research
• Partner with Fixed Assets and Technical Accounting — submit timely monthly capital forecasting, place assets into service as needed, submit ad hoc support requests, and escalate items for review, fielding follow-up questions as needed
• Support the Planning & Project team with project execution and tracking — reconcile vendor contracts against invoiced activity to track progress and flag discrepancies, coordinate with Treasury to execute permitting bonds, track bond status and request releases, and prepare documentation packages for external parties
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to own ongoing responsibilities and resolve ad hoc items — provide quarterly confirmations to GL, request and coordinate special billings with Accounting, and collaborate with Procurement, Legal, IT, and Finance as needed
• Synthesize and simplify complex financial data — pull together information from multiple systems and inconsistent formats into clear, decision-ready insight, delivering polished, presentation-ready budget reporting to leadership through Excel and Power BI dashboards
• Drive continuous improvement — proactively identify and lead improvements in financial controls, processes, and reporting, and own stretch or innovation projects beyond core scope
• Own and track the department's operating expense budget — monitor spend against budget and flag variances as needed

Requirements:

• • Minimum Age: At least 18 years of age
• • Strong ability to learn and navigate new systems required
• • Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• • Advanced Microsoft Excel skills required
• • Strong working knowledge of Power BI required
• • Experience with Smartsheet required
• • Business/advanced proficiency in written and spoken English required
• • Takes full ownership of responsibilities with minimal oversight — reliably completes and checks own work, and proactively keeps leadership informed of status, risks, and roadblocks rather than needing to be asked
• • Proven self-starter who takes initiative and exercises sound judgment on where to focus effort — prioritizing high-value work over low-impact rabbit holes, and knowing when to escalate versus resolve independently
• • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present financial information clearly and confidently to leadership and cross-functional partners
• • Exceptional attention to detail and a strong eye for polished, accurate, presentation-ready work product
• • Comfortable managing competing priorities across a large portfolio of projects and shifting deadlines without losing accuracy or pace
• • Approaches complex or ambiguous problems with clarity — simplifies rather than over-engineers, and moves decisively to a solution rather than stalling under complexity
• • Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, data analytics, or related field is preferred
• • 3+ years of experience in accounting, finance, project management, project controls, data management, business systems and analysis, or related field is preferred
• • Prior experience presenting financial information to leadership or cross-functional audiences preferred