Manager, Finance and Operations, Food, Land & Water Program at World Resources Institute (WRI)

Job Highlight:     

Reporting to the Director of Finance and Operations, WRI Africa and the Director of Food, Land & Water WRI Africa (FLW), you will manage a range of business functions, including oversight of program budgets, financial information, and sub-agreement processes for the various projects under WRI’s Africa’s FLW. You will also prepare financial forecasts and assess financial risks for WRI Africa Senior Management to enable better decision-making and programmatic coordination. You will work with the FLW team’s project managers and WRI’s Accounting, Finance, and Grants & Contracts departments both in Africa and WRI’s Global office. You will be part of a growing team of operational professionals within WRI Africa and be responsible for the operations of the projects within the pillar.    

What will you do:     

Financial Management (60%):    

• Oversee management of budgets for WRI Africa’s FLW program, starting with an initial focus on the Restore Local program, which is approaching $30 million dollars annually. 
• Create and maintain a range of financial forecasts that model various revenue, labor, staffing and expenditure profiles, updating these on a quarterly basis to inform responsible hiring, attrition, funding cliffs and fundraising needs. 
• Prepare financial reports for both finance and finance staff, financial forecast, analysis and dashboards. 
• Participate in quarterly review meetings with members of the Executive and Grants & Finance teams in Africa and Global Office to present outlook and answer questions on variances. 
• Lead quarterly meetings with Vital Landscapes project managers, country project leads and Grants and Finance Specialists to review finances, deliverables, and update forecasts 
• Oversee a team of Grants and Finance Specialists (GFSs) within WRI Africa as they work to maintain budgets, manage grants and sub-agreements, providing guidance, leadership and support as needed 
• Ensure compliance with WRI Africa’s accounting, grants and contracts policies, and procedures for organizational audit clearance 
• Oversee preparation of annual and interim financial reports to funders as needed, including providing guidance to GFSs and resolving issues on more complicated financial reports. 
• Work with the Director of FLW to prepare and negotiate budgets with a wide range of funders. 

Program Operations (40%):     

• Provide leadership to the program operations ensuring that there is the right operational framework to support delivery of the impact. 
• Directly supervise Vital Landscapes Grants & Finance Specialists, providing guidance on policies and processes 
• Work with Vital Landscapes managers to ensure consistency in quality of performance, upskilling and managing capacity, time and budgets 
• Lead on compliance issues for the Vital Landscapes team, ensuring staff understand and adhere to the rules of the various funding agreements. 
• Manage progress of spending against deliverables and work with project managers to proactively determine when grant amendments and extensions may be needed 
• Guide Operation and Grants and Finance staff on grant closeout processes, ensuring adherence to WRI’s policies and procedures 
• Prepare proposal budgets as needed and ensure all WRI Africa funding policies and requirements are followed 
• Review core business processes of WRI Africa’s operations team (e.g., contract initiation) for efficiency and suggested improvements where needed 
• In consultation with HR, provide mentorship and performance management support, guiding junior and mid-level operational staff within Vital Landscapes as they seek to develop their careers 

What will you need:    

• Education: You have completed a bachelor’s degree in business management, finance, public administration or related field. 
• Experience: You have minimum of 8 years full-time work experience in financial management and operations, preferably in a non-profit setting. 
• Experience in program operations, grant compliance and management, financial planning and management, budgeting, and leadership of complex large grants, sub-grants and contracts 
• Experience with complex budgets and budget negotiation with different funders 
• Experience preparing finance reports, financial forecast, analysis and dashboards 
• Experience managing multiple complex projects with varying deadlines 
• Experience communicating complex issues to partners and colleagues 
• Experience working independently and providing supervision and mentorship to colleagues 
• Experience working in an international organization with multiple offices a major plus 
• Advanced budget, financial planning and analysis skills 
• Familiarity with database software and management (such as Salesforce, Concur, Cognos, TM1, etc.) 
• Advanced excel skills  
• Languages: Verbal and written English proficiency required. Fluency in French is a bonus. 
• Requirements: Existing work authorization is required where this position. WRI is unable to authorize visa work authorization