Job Description

SUMMARY

The Senior Accountant serves as the Finance lead and focal point for a portfolio of iDE’s country offices, providing strategic and technical financial leadership to assigned country offices. The Senior Accountant ensures the effective development of assigned countries’ financial strategies, implementation of sound internal controls, financial management of assigned countries, internal and external financial reporting, including donor reports and all statutory reporting requirements.

The Senior Accountant provides guidance to country-level Finance Directors or Finance Managers to develop accounting processes, budget and cash monitoring tools, and timely and accurate reporting as well as oversee all aspects of financial management in the portfolio of countries s/he is responsible for. S/he is responsible for supporting the capacity building efforts of Country Program finance teams, ensuring compliance with iDE and donor policies and procedures, performing quality financial management analysis for decision support and providing gap filling for key finance positions in Country Programs. S/he will proactively work with the Vice President of Finance, the Accounting Manager and Senior Management on key issues and opportunities and implement solutions at the Country office level. This is a partial job description highlighting key elements of the position. The full job description is available upon request.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Management, Financial Accounting, Reporting, Budgets, Audits Support, Internal Control and Compliance:  Provides ongoing financial oversight and feedback to Country office Finance Directors (FDs) or Finance Managers (FMs) to improve effectiveness in financial management and reporting.

Performs comprehensive reviews of country financial reports to include performance analysis in the following areas: balance sheet, income statement, cash, grants/contracts, unrestricted and general income and expenditures, actual expenses vs. budget analysis and forecast, adequacy of adherence to generally accepted accounting principles, donor requirements and iDE financial procedures.

Leads the country finance teams in improving and maintaining strong financial controls and procedures in the field.

Ensures timely, reliable, complete and accurate financial reports are presented per GAAP, at both the country and consolidated levels.

Coordinates with FDs/FMs to ensure general ledger accounts are analyzed, reconciled, and reviewed monthly. Also provides guidance on necessary corrective actions.

Analyzes field financial data to ensure iDE’s consolidated accounts are a true and fair reflection of the current financial situation.

Closely monitors grant revenue and expenditures as well as unrestricted fund utilization of country offices to ensure resources are spent within the approved budget matrix.

Ensures HQ overheads are properly computed and accounted in country office books.

Monitors the cash flow position of each country office and evaluates requests for fund transfer from HQ by assessing financial activities and forecasts against budgetary controls and available funds.

Provides assistance to Country Programs in the preparation of their operational and donor budgets and forecasts. Provides oversight of country office external audits.

Contributes to the HQ finance department’s annual planning process and works with team members to ensure agreed objectives in the plan are completed.

Capacity Building and Staff Development

With guidance from the VP Finance, assists country offices with staff capacity assessment and training in accounting and financial management to address skill gaps.  In coordination with the VP Finance, directly involved in the recruitment and selection of countrylevel Finance Directors/Managers.  Develops training materials and quick reference guides where necessary and conduct tailored training programs for country office finance staff.  Supports orientation for new country finance staff on iDE policies and systems.

GENERAL 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 accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Accounting.  Certified Public Accountant, CA, ACCA or equivalent is highly preferred. 

A minimum of 6 years’ relevant experience in a finance and accounting position. International nonprofit and US government, UK, Canada, Australia, Sweden and other donor funded grant financial management experience highly desired.

Proven hands-on accounting, financial analysis, cash management, budget monitoring, financial reporting and accounting software experience.

Experience with SunSystems or similar software.

Advanced Excel skills and general proficiency with other computer office tools.

Experience with G-Suite and especially Google Sheets preferred. 

Fluency in English required. Spanish speaker highly preferred. French, Portuguese or other iDE Country Program local languages are strong assets.

Extensive experience of implementing and ensuring compliance with internal financial controls and procedures, especially remotely.

Demonstrated ability to think strategically and highlight areas of future concern and risk.

Detail-oriented with good organizational skills. 

Good experience of leading, managing and motivating individuals, not necessarily within formal line management structures. 

Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and a commitment to iDE’s mission. 

Proactive, hands-on and confident communicator who will work with finance colleagues across the global organization. 

Availability and willingness to interact with team members in other time zones, when needed.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS 

Certified Public Accountant, CA, ACCA or equivalent

About the Organization

iDE incorporates business methods into its operations. We understand that our customers-small scale farmers-are entrepreneurs in their own right and that our approach offers them a chance to use technologies and services that we promote, including micro-irrigation technology, to create significant additional income. We believe that the private sector is the best vector for service delivery and that subsidies undermine the potential for long term business profitability. We are looking for someone who will critically engage these views, testing our claims using empirical data-ensuring that our "mindset matches our dataset".