Finance and Admin Lead

The organization focuses research on gender as it relates to labor economics and broader economic empowerment; political economy and governance; and environmental economics. Throughout the research life cycle, we engage closely with policy counterparts to ensure we address questions of immediate relevance, and we regularly communicate data-driven insights with policy counterparts and the general public.

The Role:

The Finance & Admin Lead will be managing a portfolio of financial grants from various funders alongside Research Managers, close monitoring of expenditures, documenting payments, generating periodic financial reports as well as invoices, optimizing the grant administration process, preparing progress reports, ensuring compliance with grant regulations, managing grant databases and educating staff on financial processes and policies. The Finance & Admin Lead will lead the finance & admin team, and we seek to hire an individual with experience in the non-profit sector, as well as with a strong understanding of the requirements of FCRA regulations. The person should demonstrate high integrity in financial matters and work to build systems and processes that are improved over a period of time.

Responsibilities:

Grants Management and Reporting:

• Coordinate with research managers  to ensure necessary steps relevant to budgeting, contract set-up and compliance, grant reporting, milestone tracking, etc., are met and all project teams track and manage finances appropriately.
• Review donor agreements from a statutory compliance, reporting and operational management perspective.
• Serve as liaison with Accounts team to ensure donors and the organisation receive accurate accounting and reporting information and timely payments are made.
• Supporting research teams in preparing financial reports to be submitted to donors and help with providing rationale and responding to queries from donors.
• Work with team members to institutionalize financial management, controls, and operational protocol to ensure all processes run smoothly and are in compliance with donor and government requirements. Oversee and maintain systematic documentation related to grants, budgets, contracts, and payments.
• Develop, create and/or modify financial analysis templates to support the administration and ongoing monitoring of a growing portfolio of grants. Track cross-project liquidity for grants and providing regular financial updates and reports to leadership team.
• Prepare and manage grant budgets, initiate requests and provide information for budget revisions or amendment requests.

Financial Accounting:

• Work with research staff, external vendors, to ensure expenses submitted follow appropriate policies and procedures and are booked to appropriate funding sources and lines.
• Facilitate approval of requisitions, and follow up on procurement orders and payment requests as per the agreed systems to resolve issues related to invoicing, expense management, and payments.
• Conducting regular reviews of ledger accuracy and coordinating with partner organizations to rectify errors. Receivables management, local taxation compliance etc.
• Tracking funding milestones, including supporting invoice submission, to ensure continuity of operational funding and liquidity.
• Maintain current accounting of expenses, prepare monthly reports, trend & variance analysis, and other ad-hoc reports (both financial and expense narrative).
• Support leadership team in the annual budgeting process, and provide functional guidance to the research team in the preparation of budgets, cash flow projections, and work plans for grant planning and reporting.

Statutory & Donor Audits

• Assist the Finance team with the retrieval of financial documents for presentation of both statutory and donor audits and respond to audit queries as necessary, ensuring the implementation of audit recommendations.

Administration and Procurement

• Provide guidance to the Finance team in day-to-day office operations, procurements, events, vendors, assets and equipment.
• Work towards continuously improving the administrative and procurement procedures.

Qualifications and Key Skills:

• Masters in commerce / MBA (Finance) with 10-12 years of experience in an international organisation/NGO. At least 3-4 years in a senior role.
• A strong track record demonstrating financial management skills including developing and monitoring budgets, financial analysis, and financial reporting.
• Setting up administrative and financial systems for new projects and programs
• Must be fluent in English with skills in written communication and report writing
• Demonstrate high integrity in dealing with financial matters and build a similar culture across in the organization