Operational Finance Trainer chez Sonida Senior Living

Sonida Senior Living is one of the nation’s leading operators of independent living, assisted living and memory care communities for senior adults. The Company operates 97 communities that are home to nearly 12,000 residents across 20 states providing comfortable, safe, affordable communities where residents can form friendships, enjoy new experiences and receive personalized care from dedicated team members who treat them family. 

Job Description: 

The Operational Finance Trainer is responsible for designing, delivering, and sustaining financial training programs that strengthen operational and financial acumen across the organization’s multi-state senior living communities. This role serves as a critical link between Operations, Finance, and Learning & Development — ensuring community leaders understand and effectively manage budgets, labor, forecasting, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that drive profitability and performance.

The ideal candidate combines a strong understanding of senior living operations and financial management with exceptional facilitation and coaching skills. This role plays a key part in promoting financial accountability, consistency, and operational excellence across communities, while supporting new leader onboarding and community transitions.

Responsibilities:

Training Development & Delivery

• Develop and deliver training programs on financial management, budgeting, forecasting, and expense control for Executive Directors, Department Heads, and Regional Leaders.
• Create learning materials, toolkits, and e-learning modules that simplify complex financial concepts for non-financial leaders.
• Facilitate workshops and one-on-one coaching sessions focused on P&L analysis, labor management, and revenue optimization.
• Customize Training approaches based on operational performance data and community specific financial challenges.
• Conduct post-training evaluations to measure knowledge retention and application in the field.
• Partner with learning and development to design blended learning programs that include classroom, virtual, and field-based components.

Operational Support

• Partner with Operations and Finance teams to identify knowledge gaps and training needs across communities and regions.
• Provide hands-on coaching during community visits to reinforce financial best practices and improve performance metrics.
• Assist with onboarding of new Executive Directors and Regional Directors, focusing on financial literacy and operational reporting.
• Support rollout of financial systems, dashboards, and tools (e.g., SmartLinx, Power BI, Yardi, or similar platforms).
• Collaborate with regional and corporate teams to create community level financial action plans that address underperformance and Dr. accountability.
• Support communities during acquisitions or leadership transitions to ensure consistent understanding of financial systems and expectations.

Performance Improvement

• Analyze community and regional financial results to identify trends, training needs, and opportunities for operational improvement.
• Collaborate with Finance and HR teams to drive labor efficiency initiatives, overtime reduction, and expense management.
• Support the implementation of standard operating procedures for financial and operational accountability.
• Work with operations leadership to monitor the impact of training on key financial metrics such as NOI, labor cost ratios, and overtime.
• Provide targeted retraining based on recurring performance trends or audit findings.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Finance, HR, and Operations leadership to align training content with business objectives and strategic goals.
• Collaborate with the Learning & Development team to integrate financial modules into broader leadership and onboarding programs.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for financial content in leadership development curricula.
• Collaborate with the operational excellence team to connect financial outcomes with process improvements and community performance initiatives.
• Provide regular feedback to finance and operations leaders on training effectiveness and recommend curriculum adjustments as needed.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or related field required; Master’s preferred.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in senior living, healthcare, or hospitality operations, with strong financial management responsibility.
• 3+ years of experience in training, facilitation, or operational leadership.
• Proven ability to translate financial concepts into practical, actionable learning for operational leaders.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Experience with budgeting, forecasting, and P&L management.
• Proficiency in Excel and financial reporting systems; experience with SmartLinx, Yardi, or comparable systems preferred.
• Experience using data visualization tools such as power BI to track and communicate financial performance preferred.
• Demonstrated success in improving financial performance or operational efficiency through training and coaching initiatives.
• Willingness to travel 40–60% across multiple states.