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Senior Specialist, Humanitarian Finance and Compliance

This job is no longer available

Washington, DC, USA
Full-time

The Senior Specialist, Humanitarian Finance and Compliance will serve as the primary focal point for the Response Teams and will provide leadership and active engagement on awards. This role will manage the life cycle of awards, overseeing the financial management of the Department of Humanitarian Responses’ (DHR) key institutional donors in coordination with the humanitarian program unit. This role will report into the Director, Humanitarian Finance and Compliance and will be responsible for award compliance with Save the Children’s accounting policies and donor requirements. This role will ensure accurate, complete and reliable financial information is maintained in both award and financial systems.

This role will be instrumental in assessing cost proposals related to awards that are high risk. They will be liaising with relevant stakeholders, particularly with the Humanitarian Program unit and finance (headquarters), and country office award and finance teams. This role will problem-solve to instill overall health of awards and escalate issues to leadership as needed. This person’s contribution to continuous improvement will be key in determining and implementing process improvements.

In coordination with the Director, Finance and Compliance, the Senior Specialist will play a role in representing the unit at internal meetings, providing financial analysis and will lead initiatives for internal financial information sharing and financial management and good practices and challenges. 

Areas of Responsibility: 

Financial Leadership for Prioritized Responses and Key Institutional Account (50%)

  • Lead on review of monthly budget versus actuals and life of award reports. Monitor burn rates and determine any risk management actions needed. Coordinate with program team as needed. 
  • Manage financial resource through planning and guidance in accordance with Save the Children donor rules and regulations.
  • Serve as humanitarian finance point person for Cost Allocation Methodology. Grow capacity by maintaining and sharing standardized guidelines with humanitarian team.
  • Oversee partner financial reports to ensure donor compliance.
  • Oversee the review of budget forecasting by Save the Children International and re-forecasting efforts circulated bi-annually.
  • Produce monthly level of effort report and facilitate spending follow up. Monitor cost center spending.
  • Award close
    • financial reconciliation;
    • monitors KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
    • determine shifts in strategy as needed to award close out metrics
  • Review proposed financial coding structures for award budget set up. Engage in start-up and closing of projects by providing financial information, guidance and assistance as needed.
  • Collaborate across department and with technical staff in International Programs Division to ensure that awards budgeted Level of Effort (LOE) are appropriately utilized on a timely basis for technical support.
  • Play a key role in continuous improvement efforts including Response Award Management project solutions, taking the lead on specific improvements.
  • Represent the Save the Children US response team in country or portfolio calls and meeting to understand financial issues from programs and provide recommendations and assistance on project financial management as needed.
  • Serve as the financial focal point person for one or more of DHR’s key institutional donors; responsibilities as the focal point include:
    • Develop tools and systems for training Country Offices on institutional donor financial compliance
    • Lead on quarterly reviews for the assigned institutional donor;
    • Identify trends, best practices and challenges of financial compliances with this donor;
    • Propose solutions and ways forward to advance engagement with this donor on financial compliances​

Management of Financial Compliance (30%)

  • Identify compliance risks and issues through award lifecycle. Determine mitigation plans to program focal points and other staff as relevant. Escalate issues to Director, Finance and Compliance on high-risk issues exposing Save the Children compliance risks.
  • Oversee issues as needed and as appropriate to financial compliance including collaborating with humanitarian management team, legal team, or grants and contracts support.
  • Oversee effective compliance with systems and procedures for sub-grant financial management and financial reporting.
  • Serve as point person for invoices and humanitarian financial reporting. Monitor financial reporting key performance indicators. Oversee accuracy and compliance with donor requirements and internal organization policy. Maintain knowledge management of donor rules and regulations including attending needed trainings in order to accurately monitor and review compliance. Support department to maintain knowledge management systems around financial compliance. 

Systems and Capacity Building (10%)

  • Develop and implement training for first time sub-recipients in order to ensure accurate reporting, fund requests, and sub-sub recipients monitoring.
  • Maintain deep expertise of Save the Children policies, donor rules and regulations and procedures.
  • Support alignment of award management and financial systems (AMS and Agresso, respectively).
  • Oversee roll-out of High Performing Organization initiatives within DHR and support roll-out in country offices.
  • Develop and maintain the appropriate capacity building tools to make knowledge available to program staff, including at minimum an up-to-date soft and hard library, briefing notes on each grant and memos on key/recurrent compliance issues.
  • Engages with the program unit to develop improved LOE budgeting guidelines and propose/roll out improved processes for inter-departmental collaboration and information sharing around award budget utilization and compliance issues

Travel: Up to 10%

  • Travel to Save the Children country offices (international travel) to conduct award reviews, provide financial management support and build CO capacity on donor requirements.
Educational Background: 
Bachelor degree or equivalent relevant experience required, preferred concentration in accounting.
Skills/Experience: 
  • You have a minimum 5-7 years' experience in finance and grant management preferably with USG and UN awards
  • Professional level of technical or managerial knowledge, skills, and experience to manage the operational activities of a unit or team, or provide the technical and management support related to various size programs, grants or projects.
  • Ability to work with non-financial stakeholders and communicate effectively and help them understand financial processes and procedures
  • Ability to multi-task and work well under pressure, many times with competing priorities and deadlines
  • Demonstrated experience working across the full cycle of grant/award management from proposal and budget development through to reporting and close-out
  • Ability to think and act strategically including the ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing 
  • Demonstrated ability to effectively collaborate across teams to deliver results 
  • Excellent analytical, organization, communication and management skills. Must have attention to detail, ability to multi-task and able to make independent decisions
  • Ability to lead portfolio financial review and analysis processes to ensure oversight and management of risk for awards in portfolio 

Preferred Qualifications

  • Master’s Degree in Accounting or related field
  • Experience working with general ledger and financial systems
  • Experience providing training to both finance and non-finance staff
  • International Experience Minimum 5 years of related work experience
  • Knowledge of OFDA, BPRM, UNHCR and WFP
  • Experience in humanitarian settings in the field 
Compensation/Benefits: 
  • Aetna Medical and Dental insurance with a concierge service
  • Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account
  • Vision Insurance
  • Life insurance
  • Employee Assistance Program
  • Commuter Benefit Program
  • Vacation and Sick leave
  • Paid holidays

What makes us special!

  • Generous Retirement Savings with matching company contributions of up to 8%
  • Family Leave – 10 additional days of paid time off for you to use to care for your family members
  • Additional Maternity and Paternity Leave – 30 days where parents can take additional paid leave (beyond short-term disability and FMLA) at the birth or adoption of a child during that critical first year!
  • Critical Child Illness Leave – We hope you never have to use it, but we will provide an additional 30 days of paid leave per year should your dependent child be faced with a critical illness.
  • Pet Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance, Identity Protection, Home, Auto and additional Life insurances
  • Summer Fun Fridays – During the summer months, early release at 1:30 pm every other Friday!
  • Volunteer Day – One paid day a year to support the causes that matter to you!
  • Ergonomic Options – Every employee at our HQ offices has the option of a sitting/standing desk
  • Leadership and Employee Development Training, including:
    • Our remarkable in-house CORE, Senior Management Development, and Leadership Development Programs
    • Language learning opportunities
    • Continuous Improvement skill development programs
    • Brown Bag information sharing sessions
  • Work hard/Play hard! We make sure there’s ample opportunity for fun, engagement, and celebration while you work, such as networking events, March Madness, World Cup, Dodgeball Tournaments, Take Your Child to Work Day, Founder’s Day, and our annual Day of Service
Job Function: 

Organization Info

Save the Children US

Overview
Headquarters: 
Fairfield, CT, United States
Annual Budget : 
More than $500M
Founded: 
1964
About Us
Mission: 

Save the Children is the world's leading independent organization for children in need, with programs in nearly 120 countries, including the United States. We aim to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to create immediate and lasting change in their lives by improving their health, education and economic opportunities. in times of acute crisis, we mobilize rapid assistance to help children recover from the effects of war, conflict and natural disasters. Save the Children is a member of the International Save the Children Alliance, a global network of 30 independent Save the Children organizations working to ensure the well-being and protection of children in more than 120 countries.

Listing Stats

Post Date: 
Mar 11 2019
Active Until: 
Apr 11 2019
Hiring Organization: 
Save the Children US
industry: 
Nonprofit