Director, Finance at Bridge International

About the Role

The Finance Director holds a critically important role at Bride Kenya as the executive leading all Finance activities for the programme. The role holder will provide financial leadership to build world-class financial infrastructure for the business. This includes the design and development of financial systems, policies, procedures, taking into account current and fast-growing high-volume transactions, headcount, numbers of geographically distributed business units, and the operations of a multi-country global brand.

The Finance Director is also able to dive deep into details and think at the ground level. He/she should be able to play offense as a business and systems thinker - scalability of the platform, improvements to unit economic and scaling model, global shared services - as well as defense - dealing with leakage, fraud prevention, and air-tight controls in challenging operating environments. The Director, Finance will report directly to the Managing director and is a core member of the leadership team.

What You Will Do

• Build and develop systems - set up highly efficient financial systems that take into account the highly technical payment, cash management, payroll and financial operating systems of  a geographically distributed multi-unit operation. These systems need to be highly efficient or automated, data-driven, transparent and appropriate for emerging market conditions. 
• Develop financial and non-financial key performance indicators and the appropriate reporting to assess financial and operational performance across the Company. 
• Ensure that systems and controls are in place to minimize and mitigate risk of fraud/leakage, as well as proactively audit key functions and accounts. 
• Support business growth strategies by forecasting and assessing the financial impact of key decisions.
• Maintain budgetary oversight at country-level of all departments within Kenya; work closely with managers and senior executives on budgeting and forecast processes.
• Management reporting, ensure monthly management reports for group reporting and local reporting  are submitted on time with variance analysis reports and notes.  
• Risk Management, ensure the company complies with all local statutory requirements, and insurance policies are in place to safeguard company assets. 
• Management of accounts receivables locally, ensure accuracy of pupils accounts. 
• Manage the external audit process for financial statements; ensure that the Company is in compliance with internal policies and relevant regulations. 
• Support investor reporting in provision of relevant financial information for the programme. 
• Lead the department in recruiting and retaining top staff; manage the development of staff through performance management processes.
• Other duties as assigned by the managing director or Chief Finance Officer. 

What You Should Have

• At least 10 years of experience within finance/ corporate finance, including experience as Finance Director
• Deep experience leading and managing the financial operations and strategy for a Company with hyper-growth and complex challenges across a broad scope of work
• Degree in a business/finance-related field – e.g. accounting, MBA with a record of top academic performance from a top-tier elite institution.
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or equivalent and a member of a professional body in good standing
• Strong background in financial management (systems) with a thorough understanding of financial regulations.
• Experience leading Finance for fast-growth, rapidly-scaling companies is strongly preferred
• Experience working with remote finance operations - shared services is an added advantage.
• Confident and flexible team player with great ability to work closely with non-finance team members within a multicultural environment
• Success operating in environments with a high risk of fraud and leakage, particularly in emerging markets.