Vice President, Finance at GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly (GD) aims to reshape international giving - and millions of lives - by allowing donors to provide capital grants directly to the world’s poorest. The Brookings Institution estimates that $70B of cash transfers would be required to eliminate the poverty gap; the aid sector currently spends $135B each year, much of which is allocated to evidence-free interventions. GiveDirectly wants to change that, establishing a benchmark, and in the process accelerate the end of extreme poverty. GiveDirectly has raised over $400M in revenue (>$150M in 2020 alone), while being recognized as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company. The growing movement toward cash transfers and GD’s role in that movement have also been featured in This American Life, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, and Business Insider.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Vice President, Finance

Location: Lagos (Remote)
Job type: Full time
Reports to: CFO
Level: VP
Travel Requirement: 30%

About this Role

• The VP, Finance will oversee GiveDirectly’s Finance Planning and Analysis, Treasury and Payments, and Accounting teams, systems, and processes to effectively, efficiently, and quickly get more money into the hands of people living in extreme poverty.
• As the primary interface for the Finance team between the executive and operating committee, the VP of Finance will translate strategic vision into operational reality on a day-to-day basis.
• This role requires a dynamic leader capable of operating at multiple levels of abstraction toggling between long-term aspirational strategic vision and penny-level precision in execution.
• The VP of Finance will sit on the Executive committee and act as the primary strategic support and thought partnership for the leadership team and is expected to be the line of succession to the CFO.
• This role is fully remote but the expectation is for time zone compatibility with Eastern Africa

What you’ll Do
Build a top performing  financial planning & analysis function:

• Develop the team:
  • Attract and develop a top performing financial planning and analysis team, ensuring all levels of the organization are working from a single source of truth and a commonly defined future.   Oversee a Director managing a team of 6-10 Finance Business Partners supporting the Director level of the organization.
• Develop the systems:
  • Ensure timely, accurate, and useful financial reporting is consistently available to all stakeholders within the organization at all times
  • Evaluate existing financial planning system (Limelight) and optimize or replace it
  • Develop and manage an annual budgeting cycle and monthly re-forecasting
• Develop processes:
  • Maintain high levels of stakeholder satisfaction through clear definition of roles and responsibilities and high degree of responsiveness and follow-through by the Finance Business partners.
  • Define SLAs and adherence between FP&A and accounting to ensure tight reporting cycle and close
• Keep the books clean
  • Manage the local and global audits:
    • Ensure that all systems and processes lead to an efficient and transparent accounting of our activities to keep our audits clean and our financial statements useful for our external stakeholders

Scale the Accounting team:

• Oversee our Director of Accounting and her 6 direct reports to ensure that our accounting capacity and capabilities scale with our growth.

Keep the cash flowing Scale the payments and treasury team

• Oversee our Director of Treasury and Payments and her team of 7 direct reports to ensure that payments and treasury for 14 countries, 12 currencies, 1,000 employees, and hundreds of thousands of recipient payments per year continue to work well.
• Oversee investment and risk management for our treasury functions.  

Serve as an exceptional executive-level leader and manager:

• As a member of GiveDirectly’s leadership team:
  • Lead Financial support for the executive team
  • Promote a strong organizational culture, in alignment with GiveDirectly values, by building trust and through consistent modeling, feedback, and accountability
  • Serve as an exceptional people leader with diverse, multinational team, consistently operating as an inclusive manager  - with a high degree of emotional intelligence who develops strengths in others through modeling, thought partnering, and active coaching

Manage work allocation, systems training, performance evaluations, and the building of an effective and efficient finance team:

• Provide leadership through change by establishing strong communication channels with team members, making decisions based on sound and rigorously vetted logic, communicating decisions clearly and effectively, and following through on commitments and establishing systems for accountability
• Develop an effective long-term talent bench for key leadership positions within the finance pillar
• Serve as a thought leader in the development and aid sector - contributing to externally facing GD content, and representing the organization at events or speaking engagements

What you’ll Bring

• 10+ years of successful professional experience in financial roles of increasing responsibility with well-regarded global companies or organizations, with at least several years in a senior leadership role in an organization and 5+ years experience in the not for profit sector. 
• You have a track record of sound financial management through good times and bad, enabling your company/organization to achieve stretch goals and/or successfully rebound from a crisis.
• Experience leading the finance function of a fast-growing, international organization - You lead with authenticity, demonstrating a passion for people and community, exceptional communications skills, and an ability to quickly earn trust and build an inclusive culture.
• Strong preference for experience working with institutional donors.
• 5+ years managing teams of 5+ people across FP&A, budgeting, business intelligence, and / or accounting functions
• Experience managing a budget of ~ $50M+ across 4+ countries
• MBA or CPA (or equivalent experience) required
• Track record of results - You have demonstrated your ability to consistently make sound decisions and solve complex problems based on logic and good judgment.

Exceptional communication skills - You are seamlessly able to translate complex financial information to the entire organization and external stakeholders, speaking to all audiences with ease.

• Strategic planning and strong execution - You’ve demonstrated an ability to seamlessly navigate between big-picture strategy and day-to-day operational decisions, and are able to navigate through ambiguity.
• Language Requirement: English
• Language Preferences: Swahili, French, Portuguese, Arabic
• Alignment with GiveDirectly Values:
  • Recipients first. We prioritize recipient preferences over those of donors or ourselves.
  • Team next. We do what’s best for organizational - not individual - success.
  • Be proactively candid. We say what we believe, and are honest in sharing information.
  • Create positive energy  We strive to be a source - not drain - of energy for our colleagues.
  • Think rigorously; act quickly. We are intellectually rigorous with a drive towards action - not debate.
  • Accept reality. Propose solutions. We do not dwell on problems. We work actively to create solutions.
  • Be productively ambitious. We take the risks to pursue industry-changing success, not incremental progress.
  • Know yourself and grow. We recognize and accept our imperfections with a focus on growth.

Demonstration of GiveDirectly Core Competencies:

• Emotional intelligence: Having the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions to the end of handling interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically
• Critical / analytical thinking: Objectively analyzing and evaluating an issue in order to form a judgment
• Follow-through: Taking ownership on commitments made and having the grit to drive them to completion
• Fostering inclusivity: Nurturing an environment of belonging, making others feel their opinions & contributions are valued

We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.

Compensation
At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to ensure that staff’s total compensation package (base compensation + bonus)  falls within the 75th percentile of similar roles, at similar organizations. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles.

• The base salary range for this role is $150,000-$175,000 USD (dependent on work location)
• This role is fully remote therefore we will share an estimated salary benchmark for the country you are based in during the hiring process.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply