Director of Finance at Dalberg

ABOUT YOU

You are a seasoned finance professional who can provide leadership for Dalberg Advisors’ journey to scale in a critical period of business growth. We are looking for an adaptive leader who can work with peers across our regional finance teams and to join the global management team, made up of our Partners and senior operations leadership. The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following profile:

• Experienced finance leader. You have significant experience in financial operations (15+ years preferred), including at least 3 years in a senior leadership role. You hold an advanced degree in Accounting, Finance, Business or a related field as well as a professional accounting designation (CPA or equivalent). Strong preference for experience in a professional services firm and/or complex global company. Experience leading small to medium firms through their scale trajectory and understanding of the management consulting business model are strongly preferred.
• Strategic functional leader with strong technical finance expertise. You inspire peers and build and coach finance teams toward a vision that draws on your deep knowledge, networks, and experience in finance. You have stewarded efficient and effective finance functions and can deploy best practices, such as on financial planning and analysis, treasury, tax, audits and compliance, financial regulations, risk, insurance, and foreign exchange. You are tech-savvy and have significant understanding of ERP systems.
• Creative, growth-oriented problem-solver. You are willing to be hands-on when needed but also able to see the bigger picture and assess trade-offs while tackling challenges and managing change.
• Global markets exposure. You have experience working in global financial and operational contexts in emerging markets such as Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and understand the financial and economic complexities of operating in a truly global environment.
• Collaborative partner. You work seamlessly and build trusted relationships at all levels and across structures, working with others to influence decision-making and achieve impact. You have demonstrated success managing high-energy, multicultural teams operating in a variety of country settings and people-centric corporate cultures. You enjoy coaching teams, engaging with peers to share best practices and challenges, and sharing and receiving feedback. You are humble and a good listener.

Open to candidates of any nationality. Fluency in English is required. Conversational ability in French, Spanish or other global languages is a plus given Dalberg’s global footprint, but not required.

WHAT YOU Will Drive

The Finance Director will serve as a member of Dalberg’s operations leadership team, and will report to Dalberg’s Chief Operating Officer. The Finance Director will oversee the end-to-end financial function for the Global Shared Services (GSS) finance team, including managing a global team of 10+ finance professionals with two direct reports. This role will also play a crucial part in shepherding Dalberg’s financial reporting and ensuring its financial processes and systems are suitable to support a dynamic global business on its growth journey, collaborating as a peer to four regional finance leads across the globe (including regional Finance Directors and regional CFOs, who report to their respective Regional Directors). This will involve helping us build a robust set of finance capabilities in financial planning and analysis, risk management, treasury, process and systems optimization and other key functions in step with our evolving firm strategy.

Responsibilities:

Work collaboratively with other members of GSS and regional finance leadership peers to drive decisions and progress on strategic initiatives for our Finance function that help achieve our business objectives. Design and/or improve processes and systems for Dalberg’s finance function that are responsive to and help achieve these business objectives. For example:

• Collaborate with regional finance leads to define priority areas for global alignment and ownership by our GSS Finance team, and identify central and/or regional capacity constraints to deliver on these priorities. You will hold accountability for driving execution and outcomes on these areas, which may include global norms/policies, risk management, design and implementation of improvements to financial systems, and ensuring accountability across the Dalberg finance landscape, among others.
• Provide strategic financial reporting, analysis and forecasting, and appraisal of investment options on a consolidated basis to support leadership discussions.
• Shepherd/support global projects such as optimization of corporate structure, implement transfer pricing policies and documentation, and optimization of revenue and cash life cycles.
• Analyze finance operations to understand areas of inefficiency, and lead initiatives to enhance financial shared services and standardization wherever it makes business sense.
• Lead efforts to optimize working capital and cashflows across the business, including recommending improvements in inter-office and cross-country funding flows.
• Serve as part of a center of knowledge on industry trends and financial regulations, driving best practice and ensuring compliance and financial risk management.

Work with regional finance leads to build, coordinate and oversee Dalberg’s global financial planning and analysis function to ensure consistency of reporting and to drive leadership decision making based on timely and accurate financial data:

• Propose and implement global standards and governance mechanisms for accounting, financial operations, tax, insurance, and reporting across the business.
• Guide key global financial activities, including annual budget and forecasting processes.
• Deploy data and adaptive systems and reporting to drive decision-making and provide an ongoing view of business needs.

Assess and propose solutions to reduce Dalberg’s financial risk exposure by developing and maintaining systems of internal controls and financial compliance including:

• Evaluate Dalberg Advisors’ business risk framework, providing suggested improvements based on best practices to mitigate risk exposure.
• Reengineer, implement, and monitor financial control systems and policies, and ensure compliance with financial governance principles and structures in line with finance best practice (IFRS, GAAP etc.)
• Support the planning and management of audit activities.

Lead and motivate Dalberg’s GSS Finance team while playing the role of thought partner to regional finance leaders.

For example:

• Provide leadership and guidance to global and regional finance and accounting teams by coaching, providing problem-solving support, guiding best practice implementation, and driving process improvements when necessary.
• Coach, mentor, and champion the GSS Finance team to develop a leadership bench capable of jointly addressing the challenges of a highly dynamic organization.
• Work closely with regional finance leads to create and reinforce a strong culture and enhance the effectiveness of collaboration across the broader finance team.