International Finance Manager

The Organization

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is an international non-profit organization that promotes peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington, DC and a European office in Brussels, Belgium, SFCG’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and toward cooperative solutions. SFCG seeks to help conflicting parties understand their differences and act on their commonalities. With a total of approximately 600 staff worldwide, SFCG implements projects from 56 offices in 35 countries, including in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. The organization is an exciting and rewarding place to work, with dedicated and enthusiastic staff who love their work. You will be joining a highly motivated staff with a good team spirit and there will be opportunities to grow in the role. 

Program

SFCG began working in the DRC in 2001.   Since then, the country program has grown substantially and is now implementing more than twenty distinct projects, including cross-border programs, funded by a dozen different donor sources for a substantial annual project portfolio.  The DRC program operates offices in 6 provinces throughout the country, as follows:  Kinshasa, South Kivu (Bukavu), North Kivu (Goma), Katanga (Kalemie), Province Orientale (Bunia), and Equateur (Libenge).  The country program works with a number of institutions including local and international NGOs, radio stations across the country, and the Congolese government, including the military and police. These partnerships can include material and operational support through direct assistance as well as sub-awards.

PRIMARY FUNCTION:

The International Finance Manager will take the lead in assuring the quality management of externally funded grants/contracts from inception to closure. In addition to an oversight role, the Finance Manager will ensure that both programming and operations staff improve their understanding of different finance mechanisms and build their capacity to adhere to donor regulations related to reporting, invoicing, and asset management and purchasing. The Finance Manager will report to the Country Director.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

 Grants Management and Compliance

• Support timely agreement/contract development, review, and/or approval, both with donors and partners, ensuring adherence to both internal SFCG and donor requirements.    
• Ensure that all Financial Reports are reported on appropriate donor templates at or before the agreed upon due date. 

 Internal Control Assessment

• Ensure adherence to record keeping as per donor and SFCG Internal requirements. 
• Ensure timely closure of finance audit recommendations related to donor compliance; participate in preparation, implementation and monitoring of corrective action plans
• Provide guidance and support for the timely assessment of partner financial management capacity and ability to adhere to any specific donor requirements.  Develop related action plan with program and finance staff to address any capacity/system gaps. 
• Work with Heads of Offices and other relevant staff to ensure adequate finance management support in each sub-office.  Works with internal controller to ensure that there is proper segregation of duties in all financial functions
• Develops and revises financial management policy as appropriate 

 Financial management and analysis

• Prepares donor financial reports
• Prepares and updates a quarterly operational budget
• Tracks invoice payment
• Oversees submission of Monthly Field Financial Report to SFCG-HQ
• Review budgets with actuals reports to ensure adherence to restrictions on line item flexibility and stated restrictions on accepted costs.  Support follow up actions to resolve any identified problems.
• Ensure that SFCG and partners keep supporting documents for all financial transactions and ledgers for Fixed Assets, Purchase Requisitions, Cash Receipts and Disbursement.
• Leads Annual Budgeting Process for Country Program
• Supports country program staff with donor forecasting. 

 Capacity Building

• Build capacity of SFCG and partner staff in financial management through training and accompaniment. 
• Actively participate in program meetings as appropriate to effectively plan and collectively coordinate financial and programmatic activities in conjunction with partner capacity building initiatives

 SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Supervises finance unit as a whole

   Key Internal Relationships:

• Country Director, Director of Operations, Regional Finance Managers, HQ-based grants and compliance staff, HQ-based internal controls staff, Director of Programs, Heads of Office, Internal Controller and Compliance Manager and Program Managers/officers.

Key External Relationships:

• Finance and program staff in partner organizations, donors.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Masters degree in finance, business administration or accounting, required.
• A University degree in accounting. 
• Professional qualification in accounting (ACCA, CPA or equivalent), preferred.
• Minimum seven years relevant work experience w/ NGO, of which three years should be in DFID or USG finance and compliance. Very strong finance background.
• Experience managing DFID and/or other donor grant awards.
• Auditing experience is highly desirable. 
• Demonstrated ability to build capacity and lead trainings for staff and partners. 
• Proven ability to be an effective supervisor of staff of varying levels of responsibility.
• Good command of spoken and written English and French 
• Mastery of Excel
• Self-guided, strong organizational and planning skills
• Ability to work independently and under pressure.
• Excellent communication, coaching and facilitation skills.
• Ability to travel up to 40%. 

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT:

Professional proficiency in French and English

 DISCLAIMER:

This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position

 Salary:  Commensurate with experience and education, with excellent benefits. 

Location:  Flexible; preferably in Goma, Bukavu or Kinshasa. 

To Apply:  Please submit a cover letter and resume at https://sfcg.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=306.  No phone calls please. Deadline for applications is August 10,2015. Seeking a candidate available immediately.   Position is fully funded.  Please visit our website at www.sfcg.org for more details about our work in the DRC and beyond.