Finance and Administration Manager

Finance and Administration Manager

17/03/2023
Application deadline closed.

Job Description

The New Humanitarian

Description
  • Start-date: ASAP
  • Hours: Full-time
  • Location: Geneva, Switzerland (possibility to work from home some days, but must be in the office at least 2 days per week). For the right candidate, we may be able to hire you remotely, if you are within +/- 1 hour CET.
  • Advert Closing Date: 23:59 CET on Sunday 9 April 2023

The New Humanitarian is an independent, non-profit newsroom that believes in journalism as a force for good. We produce fact-based journalism from the heart of conflicts and disasters to build an understanding of how to improve the lives of the millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world.

Our 5-year strategy to become a transformative newsroom sets out our commitments to decolonise our journalism, centre impact in our work, strengthen our newsroom, build a more sustainable business model, and nurture an organisational culture of excitement, innovation, and well-being.

Our small and growing organisation consists of a diverse and dispersed global team, who work from home bases around the world to produce original on-the-ground reporting and policy analysis focused on two areas that no other news organisations cover consistently: forgotten crises, and accountability and innovation within the humanitarian sector, all while paying particular attention to imbuing stories with a diversity of voices, among those in need and those responding, and in particular those of women and local communities.

About the Role

The New Humanitarian is scaling up, and we are looking for a hands-on Finance and Administration Manager who has the capabilities and enthusiasm to evolve with us. At this stage in our organisational development, you can expect to be “doing” while also iterating and designing how we work smarter in all aspects of financial management.

You are a person who doesn’t mind rolling up your sleeves and getting into the details to make sure that our accounts are in order, and the right controls are in place.

You thrive on making sense of complexity, and using your insights to develop solutions that strengthen financial management systems, workflows, policies and controls that fit the needs of our growing organisation.

You use insights from financial data to ask questions, draw conclusions and make recommendations to the Senior Leadership Team. You feel confident discussing financial data with non-financial colleagues, to better understand and support them in their business needs, identify potential financial risks, and help Leadership make informed decisions to remain compliant and manage risk.

You will report to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and be situated within the Operations Team. You will supervise the daily work of the Finance and Administration Officer, who is responsible for bookkeeping, payments and general administration.

You will work across the organisation to integrate sound financial planning and management in all parts of the organisation, working especially with colleagues in HR and fundraising. You will work closely with our Board Sub-Committee on Finance, Audit, Risk and Compliance.

Your main responsibilities

Oversight of Financial Accounting / Controlling:

In this area, you oversee the Finance and Administration Officer who is responsible for entering data into our accounting system and processing payroll, invoices and payments. We are a small team, so you may need to backstop the Finance and Administration Officer during busy or vacation periods.

Your primary role is to:

  • Ensure that TNH adheres to Swiss GAAP FER accounting standards, and develop, document and implement core financial processes for TNH to operate in compliance with these standards.
  • Ensure that financial controls are in place and implemented, including through monthly reconciliation of accounts
  • Coordinate the development of TNH’s annual budget and mid-year review
  • Monitor income, expenditure and cash flow monthly; analyse and draw conclusions from financial data to inform organisational priorities and management decisions
  • Prepare TNH’s annual audited financial statements and coordinate with auditors
  • Ensure that audit recommendations are followed up and integrated into financial management workflows, policies and controls
  • Ensure timely completion and publication of TNH Annual Financial Statements, together with submission to the Board of Directors and inclusion in the Annual Report
  • As requested, prepare other financial updates and reports to the Management and the Board of Directors

Financial Risk and Compliance 

In this area, you work to integrate sound financial risk management and compliance across the organisation by:

  • Overseeing efficient and timely administration of payroll, taxation, social contribution, pension, and leave management (mainly implemented by the Finance and Admin Officer)
  • Overseeing compliance with local legislation and regulations in the countries where staff are posted
  • Engaging with the COO and other managers to identify and understand financial risks and compliance challenges and put in place effective and workable solutions to manage these risks
  • Scanning the horizon to provide early warning of potential financial risks, and working actively to position TNH to manage these risks

Financial Grants Management

In this area, you will collaborate closely with our fundraising team to:

  • Prepare budgets for donor proposals and financial reports for donors
  • Maintain an overview of regular update of our income pipeline and donor funds cashflow
  • Review donor contracts and ensure compliance with financial reporting requirements, including on matters of procurement and allocations
  • Monitor expenditure to ensure commitments and payments are within the appropriate approved budget, and are allocated correctly in the accounting system
  • Contribute to the financial parts of the Annual Report
  • Respond to other requests as needed to ensure full compliance with all donor requirements

General Administration

In this area, you will support the COO and the rest of the Operations Team to make sure that operations across the organisation are optimised and running smoothly.

About you

  • You have considerable experience in accounting, and a solid understanding of accounting principles. It’s a benefit if you have formal accounting credentials and / or you’ve worked with Swiss GAAP FER accounting standards.
  • You have demonstrable experience in non-profit financial management and oversight and have worked with financial grants management
  • You have a proven track record of identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies in financial and administrative processes and putting in place the right systems, policies and controls to assure accountability and transparency
  • You have experience supervising and motivating people within a team
  • You have good analytical skills and the ability to communicate complex financial data and analysis to non-financial colleagues
  • You are confident with technology and know your way around accounting software and systems
  • Towards colleagues, you are service-minded, collaborative and accessible, and willing to pitch in at all levels to deliver high-quality outputs.
  • You have excellent time management and organisational skills, with attention to detail
  • You are undaunted by multiple tasks and strict deadlines, with an ability to prioritise
  • You are proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and working within Financial Systems, such as Abacus
  • Being able to work in French is a strong advantage

We have described the qualities we are seeking in this position, but we recognise that there will be strong candidates who do not meet all the requirements listed here but have other important qualities. Thus, we encourage all interested candidates to apply.

As part of our ongoing efforts to decolonize our journalism, we’re proactively encouraging applications from candidates who represent the diverse communities our journalism serves, especially those who:

  • have lived experience of humanitarian crises
  • are a person of colour originating from and living in Africa, Asia, Central / South America, or the Middle East
  • are an immigrant, Indigenous, and/or bring language diversity to the team (particularly languages that are spoken in the locations from which we report)
  • are deeply rooted in or connected to the regions we cover, through family ties or by committing to living their lives there

Please note - we will be reviewing applications and interviewing relevant candidates throughout the advertising period. We would therefore recommend that interested candidates apply as soon as possible as we may close the advert early if/when we review enough suitable applicants.