Open to finance roles · San Antonio based, remote or open to relocate Texas A&M University · Class of ’20

Sarah Margo

Finance & Business Operations · Research Administration

Financial operations, budgeting and variance analysis — built inside two of Texas’ largest public university systems. Now looking for a finance role with more scope to own.

Research Administration Specialist · Intermediate UT Health San Antonio
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Portrait of Sarah Margo
Sarah MargoSan Antonio, TX
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY · COLLEGE STATION · ’20
$300MSponsored research portfolio supported at UT Health San Antonio
$10MAnnual accounts payable and purchasing volume managed at Texas A&M
18Principal Investigators supported across two departments
8+Years in finance operations across five progressive roles
01Summary

Finance and business operations professional with 8+ years of progressive experience across the Texas A&M University and UT Health Science Center systems. I build the budgets, forecasting models and KPI reporting that executive leadership and Principal Investigators rely on to make decisions — with deep specialization in post-award sponsored research administration, where accuracy and compliance are not optional. Today that means a $300M sponsored portfolio across two departments and 18 Principal Investigators.

I turn scattered financial detail into a clear, defensible picture, and keep departments audit-ready without slowing them down. When a sponsor asks where their money went, someone has to have the answer ready. That has been my job.

Higher education is where I learned this work. It is not where I intend to stay. Budget ownership, variance analysis, compliance, and reporting to the people funding the work translate directly to any industry — and I am looking for a role that gives me more of it to own. An established finance function or one still being built; what matters is the scope.

I do my best work when there is more of the number in my hands, not less. Give me the responsibility and I will show you what I can do with it.

Restricted funds teach you a useful habit — every dollar has to be explainable to someone who didn’t spend it.

02Experience
Five roles · Eight years · Every step forward Mar 2018 → Present
  1. 2018 — 2020 Assistant Business Coordinator Texas A&M, Biology
  2. Jan — Mar 2021 Business Coordinator I TEEX
  3. 2021 — 2023 Business Coordinator I Texas A&M, Biology
  4. Mar — Sep 2023 Business Coordinator II Texas A&M, Biology
  5. 2024 — Present Research Administration Specialist UT Health San Antonio

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Jan 2024
— Present

Research Administration Specialist — Intermediate

UT Health Science Center · San Antonio, TX

$300M sponsored portfolio 2 departments 18 Principal Investigators
  • Own financial oversight of post-award sponsored program activity across multiple departments, holding every expenditure to federal cost principles and institutional policy.
  • Prepare complex sponsor invoices and coordinate personnel and payroll cost transfers, tightening transparency and financial accountability award by award.
  • Produce monthly grant certification reports and budget-to-actual variance analysis, and support portfolio monitoring for Principal Investigators.
  • Partner cross-functionally to keep expenditures aligned and reporting timely, so leadership decides on current numbers rather than stale ones.
Mar 2023
— Sep 2023

Business Coordinator II

Texas A&M University, Biology Department · College Station, TX

$100M in departmental & research accounts 2 finance staff supervised
  • Led finance office operations — budget monitoring, support account allocation, and oversight of faculty research accounts.
  • Supervised student finance staff and served as the department’s liaison for vendor relations and interdepartmental transfers.
  • Ran monthly payroll reconciliation and drove the year-end financial close.
  • Prepared department-level business planning data for leadership.
Mar 2021
— Mar 2023

Business Coordinator I

Texas A&M University, Biology Department · College Station, TX

$100M in departmental & research accounts $10M annual AP & purchasing volume
  • Managed purchasing, accounts payable, and transaction auditing, keeping the department compliant and operationally efficient.
  • Delivered detailed budget reports and executed complex cost transfers that sharpened forecasting accuracy and strategic recommendations.
  • Coordinated and reviewed payroll and tuition transactions for graduate students, improving financial planning accuracy.
Jan 2021
— Mar 2021

Business Coordinator I

Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service · College Station, TX

300 students on payroll
  • Designed Excel-based tracking systems that made student payroll processing correct and on time.
  • Led orientation sessions and supported student onboarding and financial aid operations.
  • Handled sensitive personnel and financial data under strict confidentiality standards.
Mar 2018
— Dec 2020

Assistant Business Coordinator

Texas A&M University, Biology Department · College Station, TX

  • Generated departmental expenditure reports and monthly budget analysis, and maintained the department’s fiscal procedures.
  • Drafted strategic correspondence and compiled data reports for executive review.
  • Ran the administrative functions behind business continuity and compliance — while completing a Texas A&M degree at the same time.
03Core competencies
Financial planning & analysis Budget-to-actual reporting across multi-department portfolios
  • Budget development
  • Budget-to-actual variance analysis
  • Forecasting
  • Financial modeling
  • KPI development
  • Management reporting
  • Executive reporting
  • Strategic business planning
  • Cost analysis
Accounting operations Monthly reconciliation, personnel transfers, graduate tuition, year-end close
  • Month-end close
  • Year-end close
  • Account reconciliation
  • General ledger
  • Journal entries
  • Fund accounting
  • Payroll reconciliation
  • Cost transfers
  • Labor distribution
Procure-to-pay Purchasing, accounts payable and transaction auditing across a department
  • Accounts payable
  • Purchasing
  • Procurement
  • Requisitions
  • Purchase orders
  • Invoice processing
  • Vendor management
  • Transaction auditing
  • Expense management
Sponsored research administration Post-award oversight, federal cost principles, sponsor invoicing
  • Post-award administration
  • Sponsored programs
  • Grants management
  • Sponsor invoicing
  • Grant certification reporting
  • Cost principles
  • Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200)
  • Principal Investigator support
  • Portfolio monitoring
Controls & compliance Transaction auditing, vendor relations, audit-ready documentation
  • Internal controls
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Policy adherence
  • Audit support
  • Confidential data handling
  • Process documentation
Leadership & communication Supervised student finance staff; actionable metrics compiled for leadership review
  • Team supervision
  • Training & onboarding
  • Cross-functional collaboration
  • Stakeholder management
  • Vendor relations
  • Bilingual (English/Spanish)
Roles I am targeting
  • Finance Manager
  • Financial Analyst
  • Senior Financial Analyst
  • FP&A Analyst
  • Budget Analyst
  • Business Manager
  • Finance Business Partner
  • Grants Manager
  • Research Administrator
04Systems

Enterprise finance systems, learned in production — two ERPs, procurement, travel and expense, timekeeping, and the spreadsheet that holds the rest of it together. Workday, PeopleSoft and Concur run finance functions well beyond higher education, and they work the same way in all of them.

Enterprise finance
WorkdayPeopleSoft FinancialsFAMIS CanopyConcurKronos
Analysis & reporting
Microsoft ExcelFinancial modeling Variance analysisKPI reportingCost transfers
Productivity
Microsoft 365Word OutlookTeams
05Aggieland

Bachelor of University Studies,
Business — Texas A&M

December 2020. Minors in Agricultural Leadership and Spanish — earned while working in the Texas A&M Department of Biology finance office. Four years in College Station, then most of a career inside the Texas A&M System before UT Health, which is a long way of saying she never really left.

The 12th Man is the tradition every Aggie learns first. In 1922 the team ran out of players, a student came down from the stands in someone else’s gear, and ever since, the whole student body stands for the entire game. It is a tradition about being ready before anyone asks you to be — which turns out to be a fair description of a good finance hire.

01Excellence
02Integrity
03Leadership
04Loyalty
05Respect
06Selfless Service

The six Aggie core values — a decent operating manual for a finance function, as it happens

06Outside the ledger
Since Dec 2023 Certified Personal Trainer Coaching group classes at F45 Training in San Antonio, before most finance teams have opened a laptop. Read the room, set the pace, make sure nobody quits at minute forty.
Certification CPR / AED Certified A current certification, and a habit of being the person in the room who already knows what to do.
Language Bilingual — Spanish & English A Spanish minor from A&M, put to work across South and Central Texas.
07Contact

Howdy.

If you need someone who can own the number from the invoice to the board slide, I’d like to hear about it.

Email scmargo12@gmail.com LinkedIn /in/sarah-margo Based in San Antonio, Texas