Teach For America Bay Area seeks a Manager of Finance & Compliance for our regional organization as a part Data, Finance, and Operations Team. Our Manager of Finance & Compliance will report directly to our Managing Director of Strategy, Data, and Finance. In this role, your work will be essential to the region's vision of working with a broad swath of internal and external stakeholders to administer our grants with compliance, and investing our broader regional team to spend resources strategically in order to advance our impact on students and schools. Specifically, you will be developing and managing several key work streams:
- A financial management infrastructure that tracks an evolving picture of both revenue and expenses and facilitates financial and operational decision making
- The grant administration infrastructure that enables our region to fulfill the programmatic and compliance commitments of our grants, including AmeriCorps and US Department of Education funding
- Expense-tracking, compliance auditing, and invoicing operations that enable us to draw-down on pre-committed restricted funding from public and private sources
- A performance and data management infrastructure that facilitates how we input, track, analyze, and report on our progress to goal towards key financial and grant management outcomes
If you are an exceptional organizer of information, an analytical and strategic thinker, and a learner and relationship-builder who is motivated by organizational innovation, then this role is for you. The ideal candidate is able to add order and organization to the development of new operational systems and infrastructure; can thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced, goal-oriented environment; is able to build relationships with, invest others, and work across multiple stakeholders; is a team-member who operates and leads with a commitment to constant learning for self and others; and is someone who embodies flexibility and generosity alongside a drive towards achievement.
Regional Financial Management (55%)
- Serve as regional budget tracker and manage effective systems for functional team non-payroll budget planning, tracking budget-to-actual expenses, and reforecasting expenses
- Develop and execute on a regional approach to (1) understanding an evolving picture of revenue, expenses and financial health, (2) identifying potential errors in our monthly regional budget forecasts, identifying root causes, and addressing them across regional and national partners, and (3) facilitating staff and functional team leads’ ability to make strategic decisions to ensure that our financial resources are serving our regional vision (4) design and train functional team leaders to use the yearly and monthly budgeting tools
- Laterally manage regional staff to track spending and properly execute both corporate Amex expense reports and personal staff reimbursement submission in a timely manner
- Serve as the procurement expert on the regional team to coordinate purchasing and payment requests, process contracts and invoices in a timely manner, obtaining documentations from internal and external stakeholders in accordance to TFA Financial and Policies
- Serve as a compliance expert and check in our systems to ensure compliant spending practices and accurate coding of regional expenses
- Understand the national and regional systems that are currently in place for tracking, analyzing, and/or reporting on our data and/or progress towards goals. In collaboration with Manager of Data & Learning, identify gaps in which data and/or goals are not currently tracked, analyzed or reported and adapt or create new tools to serve our financial data management purposes.
Grant Compliance & Administration 30%
- Develop regional processes and guidance for corps members’ AmeriCorps enrollment and exit process leveraging resources and guidance from National Compliance.
- Work cross-functionally to integrate effective communication of AmeriCorps policies and procedures with corps members and alumni, and provide guidance and support to corps members throughout the enrollment and exiting process. Ensure that Program teams have clarity about what program components and field conditions need to be in place to ensure we remain in full compliance of AmeriCorps requirements.
- Manage the documentation collection process that ensures corps members are compliant with AmeriCorps requirements and are on track to receive AmeriCorps rewards.
- Manage the maintenance process for AmeriCorps files in strict accordance with AmeriCorps requirements, policies and procedures.
- Manage the accurate maintenance of member status in our internal and external systems.
- Leveraging budget-to-actuals analyses to maintain an ongoing understanding of grant draw-down status, partnering with the national Grants & Contracts team to course correct with post-hoc expense tagging and/or budget modifications if necessary, diagnosing the root causes of underspending, and recommending solutions
- Liaising with Grants & Contracts, our regional Development Team, and Program Teams to develop budget proposal for new restricted funding opportunities.
- Ensuring that expenditures are properly tracked, documented and coded by staff. Monitoring the programmatic activities sponsored by grants, creating transparency across the enterprise if activities are off-track or substantially altered, and recommending solutions
- Signing off on financial invoices and reports from the Grants & Contracts team, and submitting invoices and financial reports to funders
- Support Manager of Data and Learning and Development team in regional and federal fund0r reporting requests
Region-wide and Organization-wide Responsibilities (15%)
Teach For America thrives on cross-functional partnerships throughout our organization. Our staff members are skilled in working across layers, empathizing with our colleagues around the reality of competing commitments, navigating these situations with grace, and being culture leaders within our regional team. We do this by upholding an orientation towards flexibility and generosity while also remaining deeply committed to a sense of possibility and achievement.
While some days we work independently to achieve milestones, realizing our breakthrough goals requires regular collaboration at all levels. Everyone shows their support for region-wide and organization-wide initiatives by actively engaging in the following opportunities:
- Corps member on-boarding (selection, confirmation, hiring, Institute induction, etc.)
- Regional staff leadership development opportunities and team building events
- Cross-functional special projects
- National conferences
- Prior experience in accounting, financial administration, and non-profit program operations preferred
- At least four years of work experience is strongly preferred.
- Prior experience working in or serving the movement for educational equity and excellence, or experience as an alumnus of Teach For America or as a classroom teacher is preferred.
Work Demands
- Willingness and ability to participate, occasionally, in events that fall on nights and/or weekends. Openness to the possibility of overnight travel up to a few times per year.
Skills:
- Strong analytical reasoning skills, quantitative skills, and the ability to make connections between previously unrelated notions and integrate findings into meaningful and actionable strategies or solutions.
- Proficient in Microsoft Excel. Some prior experience with Salesforce is ideal but not required; comfort in learning and using new IT systems is required.
- Extreme attention to details and the ability to organize information with efficiency and usability for multiple users and purposes
- Ability to navigate complex policies and procedures and invest others in them
- Ability to cultivate relationships across the region and organization in order to seek continual input and feedback, and to invest others in organizational compliance, improvement, and innovation.
- Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced, goal-oriented environment while also embodying flexibility, generosity, and a commitment to culture leadership and our core values.
- A commitment to continuously bettering oneself, team and organization by proactively and consistently seeking input and feedback from colleagues and incorporating these insights.
- Dedication to and consistent embodiment of Teach For America’s core values.