Roll with Us: Financial Analysts at BART meld science with art

BART is hiring Financial Analysts. Salaries go up to $160,000. There is room to grow! Classifications for Financial Analysts include Financial Analyst I, Financial Analyst II, Senior Financial Analyst, and Principal Financial Analyst. To learn more and apply, visit bart.gov/jobs and search for “financial analyst.”

The Financial Analysts at BART would like a moment of your time to clear something up: “There’s a lot more to this job than plugging numbers into a spreadsheet.”

So says Lisa Raffetto, a Principal Financial Analyst who’s worked at BART for three years. According to Raffetto and fellow analysts, the title “Financial Analyst” encapsulates a wide swath of priorities, projects, and responsibilities that positively impact hundreds of thousands of people in the Bay Area.

No two analysts’ projects are alike. One analyst might keep track of ridership data for the entire organization while another may look to the future, to determine sustainable financial models for the coming years. It’s work that blends data analysis and research with value-driven decision making and modeling. 

Lisa Raffetto, Principal Financial Analyst, is pictured at BART Headquarters.

“The job really brings art and science together,” said Raffetto, who works on fare policy and programs, such as the Clipper BayPass pilot, which provides some 50,000 Bay Area residents free access to all bus, rail, and ferry services in the region.

“It’s exciting to be working on new programs that make fares more affordable for students, low-income riders, and transit-dependent riders,” Raffetto added.

Raffetto said that in her department, the work needs to be incredibly “rigorous and defensible and data-driven and empirical to the greatest extent it can be.” But with the COVID-19 pandemic, many unknowns have arisen.

“You have to use a values-driven approach sometimes, when you don’t have data or a strong empirical basis to defend something,” she said. “Through the budget, you’re outlining the organization’s values and mission.”

For Raffetto, that’s extremely empowering.

“For me, it’s knowing that the work I’m doing every day is having a positive impact on the region,” Raffetto said. “I think a lot of people who work here are intrinsically excited about that, and it’s contagious.”

The analysts interviewed for this piece spoke of their roles as “investigative” and “entrepreneurial.” They all agreed: You certainly don’t need to have a finance background, though experience with Microsoft Excel, data analysis, and program evaluation is important.

Dennis Lee, Principal Financial Analyst, is pictured at BART Headquarters.

Dennis Lee, a Principal Financial Analyst, came to the role with a transportation planning background. One of the major aspects of his job is keeping track of ridership data. He often works with other departments to supply them with this critical information, influencing projects across the organization such as Transit-Oriented Development, fare policy, and the like.

“There’s a sense that I’m a part of something bigger than myself,” he said. “Somewhere, the trains are getting driven because of my tiny contribution.”

For Raffetto, the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic have created new opportunities to re-envision what BART can and should be.

 “I feel like BART before the pandemic was BCE. Now, we’re in a new era,” she said. “It’s exciting.”

Jimmy Mahady, Senior Financial Analyst, is pictured at BART Headquarters.

That’s a motivating force for Jimmy Mahady, Senior Financial Analyst, who worked in energy before coming to BART five months ago.

“It’s an interesting time to be in transit in the Bay Area,” he said. “I’m motivated by trying to figure out a path forward for BART.”

For Mahady, the Financial Analyst role is a highly ingenious one. He thinks the right type of person for the job is someone who “has a scientific approach but can be creative at the same time.” In addition to possessing an analytical mindset, it’s important to have basic soft skills, organization, and open-mindedness, he said. Being yourself is a plus, too.

“At BART, I feel really free to show up as I am,” Raffetto said. “It definitely frees up my headspace to do better work and, well, be happy.”