Finance Director, Program Delivery at International Rescue Committee

Job Description

• The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 25 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home. 
• The Crisis Response, Recovery and Development Department (CRRD) leads IRC’s work in 40 crisis affected countries around the world. With an annual budget of approximately $700M, and over 24,000 full-time and auxiliary employees, CRRD delivers high impact programming to improve outcomes for over 34 million people affected by humanitarian crises around the world. Working in partnership with other departments across the IRC, CRRD leads the delivery of our organizational mission of helping those whose lives have been shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control over their lives.
• The CRRD Program Delivery (PD) Pillar is comprised of 6 regions and 32 country/response programs. At the Headquarters level, a small team of dedicated PD staff work together and across IRC HQ departments to support and empower country and regional teams to drive impact for clients and deliver on S100 ambitions. The PD Leaders team exists to ensure that country programs and frontline staff are supported, resourced, and empowered to deliver high quality programs which result in positive outcomes for clients, including in partnership. The team provides guidance and support on programmatic, operational, and strategic issues to country programs - but above all serves to strengthen and empower teams to drive impact for our clients and deliver on our global strategy. The PD leaders team supports regional and country teams to realize the global strategy, ensuring that their ambitions, priorities and plans are central to organizational planning and resources and calibrated to available organizational support and resources. The team strives to manage risks and ensure results in partnership with HQ departments. We amplify the priorities of our country programs and clients, using influence and advocating on behalf of the people we serve.

Job Overview

• The Finance Director for Program Delivery is a member of the CRRD PD Leader team and collaborates closely with CRRD’s Senior Director Financial Planning & Performance, Regional Finance Directors and Global Finance colleagues. S/he drives and monitors effective financial management for the CRRD Program Delivery pillar. Individually and as a member of the PD Leaders team, s/he plays a critical role in ensuring that our resources are used to maximum effect to drive greater impact and scale for our clients, and to further our strategic goals. S/he ensures that effective routines are in place to analyse relevant allocations, budgets and spending, align resources to strategic priorities, and manage critical risks as they arise. The Finance Director will also work closely with the leaders of the finance practice areas – Program, Controllership, Treasury, FP&A and Finance Operations – to advocate for and maintain the resources and processes to support program quality and delivery.     
• Additionally, the Finance Director will maintain ways of working with multiple stakeholders including CRRD leadership, Regional Vice Presidents, Country Directors, Regional Finance Directors, Deputy Directors of Finance, Ethics and Compliance, the Award Management Unit, External Relations, Supply Chain, and others to ensure close coordination and effective synergy across multiple management and operational lines.  

Key Responsibilities: 
Support financial planning & performance of PD HQ and Regional Units

• Support VP (& RVPs/RFDs) to develop, manage, oversee regional budgets. 
• Support development of PD-HQ/regional operating budgets and investment requests.
• Coordinate with Finance and CRRD SD, Financial Planning & Performance (SD, FPP) to ensure baseline allocations are accurate and updated as needed.
• Monitor PD-HQ BVAs and provide VP and SD, FPP with analysis/advice, including recommendations on corrective actions or reallocation of funds as needed.
• Coordinate with other pillars/departments to ensure harmonious and effective cost coverage in respect of shared positions and initiatives.
• Provide VP with strategic analysis of PD portfolio, including identification of potential risks and recommendations for appropriate mitigation strategies.
• Conduct financial analysis for select multi-country/regional projects to help understand how resource allocation/investments overlay with key program/M&E/operational decisions and correlate to scale (or not) for multi-year projects; Participate in cross-functional learning conversations to bridge insights from finance to ops, M&E and programs ensuring a more holistic approach to strategizing and managing for scale

Support financial planning & performance of country programs

• Support the development of annual operating budget guidance and support the development of timely and quality operating budgets and reforecasts as needed.
• Support the analysis of spending and other data to identify major variances or risks, and the implementation of appropriate corrective actions.
• Support the on-boarding, training and development of regional and country finance staff.

Steward CRRD/PD unrestricted and temporarily restricted funding

• Support the VP and SD, FPP to allocate and monitor UR/TR funding in line with strategic priorities and operational needs.
• Assure that UR/TR allocations are spent in a planful manner, in line with agreed objectives.
• Consolidate reporting on UR/TR funding, including qualitative reporting to demonstrate the value of these funds.
• Support the development of proposals for new UR/TR funding requests.
• As agreed with VP, directly manage assigned UR/TR funds.
• Support S100 Fund the Field Ambition, in particular ensuring that historical data and future projections are accurate, and supporting the development and tracking of KPIs.

Lead CRRD/PD’s partnership and coordination with Finance and finance-related teams

• Ensure strong coordination with Finance-related functions in other pillars within the CRRD department: the SD, FPP, the Emergencies and Humanitarian Access Unit (EHAU), Technical Excellence (TechEx) and other relevant internal stakeholders.
• Ensure appropriate PD engagement in Finance-led processes and change initiatives.
• Provide financial review / approval for GPRFs and other processes as needed.

This position reports to Vice President CRRD Program Delivery operationally and supervises Budget Officer in partnership with CRRD Senior Director Financial Planning & Performance. 

Job Requirements 
Work Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting or Finance - Master’s Degree, CPA, or CA a plus.
• Minimum 10 years of programmatic finance experience in the international non-profit sector including field finance experience.
• Demonstrated familiarity with GAAP, IFRS and proven general knowledge of Fund Accounting.
• Previous work experience with a major general ledger software package – experience with MS D365 preferred.
• Proven knowledge of US Government and European Union regulations.
• Confirmed experience supporting the generation of outcomes from teams, both where there is direct line management responsibility and through influencing. 
• Previous work experience in a multi-cultural international environment is highly desirable. 

Demonstrated Skills & Competencies

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively in a multi-cultural environment and diplomatically manage relationships. Strong written communication skills also important. 
• Solid organizational skills: the ability to be flexible and work well under pressure in a fast-paced team environment.
• Ability to recognize the need to elevate advanced support requests to the appropriate team members.
• Flexible work attitude: the ability to work productively in a team environment as well as independently and the ability to meet unexpected demands.
• Experience in conducting training, orientation, and refresher sessions with diverse teams; experience conducting such sessions remotely will be a plus.
• Fluency in English. Other non-English language skills, particularly in French, Spanish or Arabic, is an asset.
• Strong computer skills: facility with MS Word, Excel, various accounting software, and email/cloud-based software.
• The ability and willingness to travel as needed.