Art and Wellness Enterprises (AWE) is a professional services organization supporting non-profits founded by Alice Walton, including the Alice L. Walton Foundation, Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, Art Bridges Foundation, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Momentary, and Heartland Whole Health Institute.
Job Description:
Job Title: Vice President for Finance and Administration, Bentonville Institute of Technology
Reports to: Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration
FLSA Classification: Exempt
Location: Bentonville, Arkansas (On-site)
About Bentonville Institute of Technology
Bentonville Institute of Technology (BIT) is a new higher education institution being developed in Bentonville, Arkansas to advance new models of STEM education and workforce development. The university is designed to deliver a flexible, experiential educational model that combines rigorous STEM instruction with an entrepreneurial and business-infused mindset.
The institution will focus on areas such as artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, mobility, health technology, energy systems, and entrepreneurship. Through strong partnerships with industry and regional organizations, the University aims to prepare students with practical, high-demand skills needed for the evolving knowledge economy.
The university will develop a distinctive educational model based on experiential learning, stackable credentials, flexible entry and exit pathways, and strong industry engagement. The University plans to enroll its first undergraduate class in 2029 and establish a new national model for innovative STEM higher education. Additional information about the university’s founding vision can be found here: https://www.bentonvilleinstituteoftechnology.org/
Initially, faculty and staff will be hired by Art and Wellness Enterprises and immersed in a broader ecosystem on the Crystal Bridges Campus for Art and Wellness, providing shared operational services and subject matter expertise, in close proximity to the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM).
Founding Context
Art and Wellness Enterprises (AWE) provides shared services including payroll processing, treasury, Workday platform administration, and accounts payable workflow support; this role owns institutional financial control, budget authority, accounting close, financial reporting, and the bursar function, and manages the shared-services boundary.
Title IV federal student aid eligibility is a future capability; the Vice President for Finance and Administration must design the financial infrastructure to operate without federal aid and to adopt it smoothly when eligible.
A five-term academic year (five eight-week terms) multiplies billing, payment, and reconciliation cycles relative to traditional semester institutions; student accounts and bursar workflows must be architected for this cadence from the outset.
Workday Finance and Human Capital Management (HCM) are the selected financial and human capital management platforms; the Vice President for Finance and Administration will be a primary functional owner of the University’s chart of accounts and how the University utilizes Workday and the student information system, which has not yet been chosen.
This is an artificial intelligence (AI)-native institution; the Vice President for Finance and Administration is expected to design finance workflows with AI automation embedded at their core—not added on—from initial buildout.
All finance systems, integrations, and vendor platforms must be architected for interoperability with AWE shared-services infrastructure; standalone systems that cannot integrate with AWE platforms are not viable solutions.
About The Position
The Vice President for Finance and Administration serves as Bentonville Institute of Technology’s senior financial officer and Controller of record. This position owns the full spectrum of institutional finance operations, including budgeting, accounting, financial…