Regional Finance Officer, East Africa Regional Office (EARO) at Catholic Relief

Job Summary:

As the region’s financial controller and expert, you will provide overall strategic financial management direction and will support the regional and Country Programs’ (CPs) efforts in ensuring that the agency finance strategy is implemented throughout the region in support of high-quality programs serving the poor and vulnerable. Your expertise will help ensure the implementation of robust financial policies, procedures and practices put in place to control an increasingly complex and challenging funding and operational environment.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Monitor, analyze and provide guidance to regional and CPs’ Senior Management Teams, project leads and CP Finance leads on budget development and management; accounting and financial reporting policies, tools, and guidelines; and cash flow/treasury management to ensure effective financial resources management throughout the whole budget cycle and over the life of various projects.
• Review and assess CPs’ financial management systems, policies, processes, and practices, and assist with resolving issues and implementing preventive and corrective actions to ensure consistent attainment of financial management ‘standards of excellence’ and compliance with agency and donor financial management requirements.
• Prepare and provide accurate and timely regional-level financial analysis reports and other reports on financial trends and indicators to provide guidance with decision-making and efficient and effective financial resource management.
• Lead on assessing professional development needs of Finance staff in the region and ensure focused plans for mentoring and capacity building to strengthen financial management service quality.
• Act as the regional liaison and a key point of contact on all finance-related matters with HQ, donors, internal and external auditors, and other external stakeholders.
• Provide guidance to CPs on risk management and internal controls in preparing for internal and external audits and in responding to audit issues and follow up with the implementation of the audit recommendations.
• Make significant contributions to the agency Finance Community of Practice and CRS Global Finance agenda.
• Help ensure work environment, culture and staff actions reflect CRS guiding principles, where dignity, diversity, community, and rights and responsibilities of all are understood, promoted, valued and upheld.

Required Languages - Proficiency for oral and written English required. 

Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 40% within the region.

Supervisory Responsibilities: 3 Regional Finance Managers

Key Working Relationships:

Internal:

• East Africa Region: Regional Finance Managers, Deputy Regional Director/Operations (DRD/Ops), Regional Director (RD), Country Representatives and Country Managers (CMs), Finance Managers (FM)s, Heads of Operations (HoOps), Deputy Regional Director/Program Quality (DRD/PQ), Heads of Programming (HoPs), Business Development Specialists and Technical Advisors (TAs).
• Additional Regions: Regional Finance Officers (RFOs), Information & Communication Technology Specialists (ICTS) and DRD-Ops.
• Agency-wide Finance Department: Sr. Director, Finance Systems & Operations, Global Controller, Sr. Advisor for Finance Policy, Sr. Advisor for Financial Technical Support, Senior Manager, Accounting and Financial Analysis Unit, Manager of Financial Reporting & Analysis, Global Treasurer, Director of Financial Planning and Analysis, Overseas Accounting Unit (OAU) Analysts, Grants/Contracts Analysts, Financial Systems Analyst II, Internal Audit, Manager.
• Additional Agency Wide Departments: Stewardship Unit and Risk and Compliance Unit.

External: 

• Sub-recipients (including Catholic Church partners), donor representatives as needed, external auditors and financial training and systems vendors.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to negotiate, influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision.
• Excellent strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
• Very good review, monitoring and planning skills with a strong eye for detail.
• Ethical conduct in accordance with recognized professional and organizational codes of ethics.
•  Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented.

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic Qualifications:

• B.A. degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, Business Administration with courses in accounting, or a qualification in accounting (CPA/ACCA or equivalent) required. MBA or Master’s degree in related field with a focus on accounting preferred. A professional certification in Accounting or a related field highly preferred.
• Minimum of seven years of accounting experience in an international operations environment.
• Additional education may substitute for some experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Strong understanding and experience in US Government funding regulations for International NGOs. 
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), Web Conferencing Applications. Excellent knowledge of financial reporting software.
• Proven experience in presenting, facilitating, coaching, and capacity building on financial management topics.