Financial Analyst at VillageReach

Summary

• VillageReach is seeking a Financial Analyst serving as a process management position that supports financial planning and analysis functions for VillageReach, reporting to the CFO.  The position partners and supports geographic and team leaders to achieve positive program results by helping grow viable and sustainable programs. The Financial Analyst is responsible for conducting planning and forecasting, conducting in depth analyses of all revenue and cost sources, and analyzing and reporting on the causes of variances to plan or forecasts. The Financial Analyst assists in deploying management cost accounting techniques and supports the management of indirect costs within Federal guidelines. This position will be located in Sub-Saharan Africa with preference to countries where VillageReach currently has staff: Malawi, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, or Zambia.

Description

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or be assigned at any time.

Financial & Budget Analysis

• Support Finance and Grants & Contract teams with planning and execution of annual budget and forecast cycles to ensure timely, meaningful financial data is up to date, allowing management to make data driven decisions
• Organizing budget data in a clear and intuitive manner
• Deliver analysis of monthly financial results including the interpretation of current month performance information as a predictive tool for the attainment of full year performance expectations
• Perform detailed variance analysis to explain budget vs. actual discrepancies.
• Provide recommendations for corrective actions based on variance analysis
• Develop, design, upgrade and maintain processes and systems for forecasting and reporting
• Analyze spending patterns to determine rationale in setting budget allocations
• Assist in ad hoc analysis and special projects as requested by management and business partners
• Implement standard key metrics and performance measures for cost reimbursement programs and others as assigned, in particular operating company goals and metrics that focus on key business drivers (financial and non-financial) to support long term performance and strategic objectives;
• Support the preparation of executive, board and investor presentations
• Prepare financial modeling for new opportunities, new business development, cost-saving projects, capital expenditure evaluation, competitive analyses, and business line, customer, line-of-service, and program profitability
• Collaboration in the development and analysis of underlying strategy cost assumptions
• Identify financial or operating risks associated with a business plan
• Development of thorough and clear presentation materials

System Management & Process Improvement

• Maintains budget system and PowerBI reports as needed.
• Provide support for developing and managing data across systems to ease end user reporting which includes grants & contracts database, budgeting system, HRIS, accounting software and data warehouse.
• Assists with systems improvements, upgrades, or conversions as needed.
• Assists in development and maintenance of SOPs documenting routine operations and makes recommendations for improvements and efficiencies to existing processes.
• Automate data feeds into calculations to decrease manual work and reduce errors.
• Needs to be able to articulate financial information in a manner that can be clearly understood by non-finance award managers. 

Collaboration

• Work closely with the global and country offices finance teams to streamline financial processes and ensure consistency in reporting.
• Collaborate with program managers and award managers to align financial goals with organizational objectives and providing insights into specific financial questions or challenges.
• Collaborate with the business systems and information technology teams to align all business systems and software to financial process.

Competencies:

The following competencies reflect what is expected of all VillageReach employees; including examples of how one might demonstrate each of these competencies in one’s role.

• Personal Motivation and Drive: Is self-directed in one’s approach to work, but asks for help when needed; holds oneself accountable; undertakes self-development activities; seeks to build and master new skills; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities within the organization
• Collaboration & Effective Communication: Establishes and maintains effective relations with coworkers, partners & stakeholders and external parties; works collaboratively with others to accomplish organizational and team goals and objectives; works actively to resolve conflicts; expresses ideas and thoughts effectively; selects and uses appropriate communication methods and maintains meaningful communication with virtual coworkers and other parties to keep them informed
• Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: Takes personal responsibility for and supports others across the organization in creating and sustaining a diverse work environment where individuals are welcomed, valued, respected and supported; personally committed to attaining cultural competency including self-awareness of one’s own attitudes about culture and cross-cultural interactions; exhibits the willingness and ability to engage openly and respectfully around issues of race, colonialism, identity and culture; upholds equity in access to sharing of information, ideas, and opportunities throughout VillageReach
• Commitment to Excellence: Produces a high output of work, both in terms of quality and quantity; looks for ways to improve and promote quality; monitors work to ensure quality; has a personal commitment to the mission of VillageReach
• Solution Orientation & Innovation: Focuses on results and desired outcomes and how to best achieve them; gets the job done; sees opportunities for creative problem-solving while staying within the parameters of good practice; sees old problems in new ways and has novel approaches to solving those problems; contributes original and/or resourceful ideas to their area of responsibility; is able to consider and articulate risks and consequences of proposed innovations and factor these into decision-making

Requirements

REQUIREMENTS

• To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• No supervisory responsibilities.

Education & Experience:

• A degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics or related field. (CA, CFA CPA) a plus.
• 4-6 years of experience in financial and strategic planning functions.
• Technical expert in U.S. GAAP for nonprofits is a plus
• Proven experience as a Financial Analyst, preferably in a decentralized or global organization
• Familiarity with not-for-profit accounting principles.
• Systems Implementation experience preferred.

Other Qualifications:

• Experience in long range planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial statement analysis and accounting, financial planning and analysis is required.
• Government grant and contract revenue and cost modeling
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail, able to analyze raw data, draw conclusions and develop actionable and strategic recommendations.
• Technically savvy individual who understands systems and can communicate financial processes and requirements in easily understood language
• Strong technical and financial knowledge, including experience creating complex financial models and efficiently communicating results to inform sound strategic and tactical decisions.
• Ability to comprehend both the big picture, pay attention to details, and work with minimal direction in a fast- paced environment.
• Experience developing, evaluating, managing, and monitoring business plans.
• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage and complete multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to extract appropriate data to convey financial results through the use of supporting tables, graphs, and other visual representations.
• Strong interpersonal, customer service, and team-oriented skills are a must.
• Demonstrated interest in, knowledge of, and experience with a broad range of functional areas including information technology and software development.
• Experience using PowerBI to create visualizations and analysis preferred.
• Excellent software skills with Microsoft Office applications. Ability to quickly learn new software modules.
• Demonstrated cultural competency in partnering with racial, cultural and linguistically diverse groups.
• Demonstrated understanding of challenges with working in rural, underserved and low-income context; experience living in and/or working in a low-income country a plus.
• Ability to travel to country offices in Sub-Saharan Africa on an annual or semi-annual basis.
• Comply with VillageReach policies, including COVID-19 vaccine policy.
• Available for early evening meetings with Africa colleagues in US.