JOB DESCRIPTION

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.  We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Save the Children International seeks to always be a child-safe organization by fulfilling its obligations to the community and through programme implementation carried out by the organization for safeguarding children and improve their living standards of the child.

———————————————————————————

Position: Finance Director – National & International 

Location: Aden 

Contract Length:

The Opportunity:

ROLE PURPOSE: 

As a key member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) in Yemen, the Director of Finance holds overall responsibility for providing strategic leadership and operational oversight of the Finance function within the Country Office. This role ensures that all financial activities are aligned with organizational objectives, donor requirements, and regulatory standards. The Director of Finance will be accountable to the Country Director for maintaining transparency and compliance across all financial operations.

KEY ACTIVITIES:

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, contribute to:

• Leadership of the Yemen Country Office.
• Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our full spectrum mandate values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors
• Help design and implement a coherent organizational structure that is consistent with agency practices and appropriate to program needs.
• Help establish, maintain, and improve active and regular working relationships with host government authorities, partner agencies including humanitarian and development donors, and local and international NGOs.
• Ensure Yemen Country Office complies with all Save the Children’s Quality Framework Essential Standards and Standard Operating Procedures
• Ensure that all required support is provided promptly, at scale and in line with the rules and principles during emergencies, working closely with the global team.

Planning and Budgeting

• Assist the Country Director (CD) in the management /administration of the Country Office resources including (a) the formulation of country work program and resource allocation, (b) providing effective support and guidance to the Senior Leadership Team and other key program staff during planning and allocation exercises; (c) monitoring implementation of donor agreements and resource utilization. Highlight variances, provide analyses and recommend resolution or reallocation of resources
• Work along with the SMT in developing plans to meet funding and programming needs. This includes diversification of funding resources
• Identify and effectively manage all key risks, especially financial, related to delivering the Country Office program.  Develop mitigation plans at proposal stage.
• Ensure correct level of budget authority exists within Country Office and Field Offices
• Manage financial aspects of budget development for new proposals
• Ensure appropriate and adequate emergency finance procedures are detailed in the Country Office Emergency Preparedness Plan in order to enable rapid scale up
• Ensure budget holders understand their responsibilities (e.g., through training)
• Ensure Field Offices receive adequate support to operate efficient accounting systems, including timely receipt of monthly budget variance analysis by budget holders, timely answers to queries and scheduling tasks and deadlines

Financial Accounting, Reporting, and Control

• Manage the Country Office financial systems and provide the SMT and all budget holders a monthly update on the budget variance analysis
• Ensure with the SMT that systems are in place for the control of all assets, funds, equipment, property, and facilities; submit timely financial reports to centre, Regional Office and donors as required
• Ensure that effective systems are put in place, and regularly reviewed, to allow adequate financial management and control including:
• Annual accounts and tax statement preparation;
• Accounting and management information systems;
• Cash and cash flow management and control in particular gain/losses on currency exchange;
• Financial procedures during emergency responses, including meeting all relevant responsibilities in the Rules and Principles for Emergency Response;
• Expenditure procedures, especially around procurement;
• Documentation of all controls and procedures;
• Finance training for staff in the field and partners as necessary;
• Availability of funds for Field Offices and the Country Office
• Monitor accurate and timely submission of financial reports and attachments to members, donors and government regulatory agencies
• Ensure quarterly effort reporting is prepared with major variances discussed with Regional Office and centre
• Coordinate submission of control reports, respond to findings and recommend resolutions or action plans
• Lead and participate in the development of finance policies and procedures to be able to maintain a well-financially controlled environment in both development and emergency contexts
• Coordinate and assist CD and the Internal Controller during any internal or external audits
• Ensure monthly financial reviews (MFRs) are prepared, reviewed with SMT, and submitted to Regional Office regularly

Financial Reporting

• Monitor completion of financial reports for awards. Ensure proper accounting and closing of books upon receipt of completed reports and documents from Field Offices and partners
• Provide guidance to finance and non-finance staff and coordinate efforts to ensure compliance with donor agreement requirements and conditions.
• Work with budget holders to estimate funds request on a timely basis to ensure resources are in place for carrying project activities; and that reporting requirements and deliverables are met
• Ensure Country Office treasury operations are adequately managed
• Ensure that donor financial reports are aligned with donor requirements
• Prepare monthly financial and analytical report and ensure submission of all required reports with RO
• Prepare audited financial statements after the year end organise all statutory and donors audit as per set time frames.

Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development

• Responsible for appropriate staffing within finance department.
• Responsible for making sure all Finance staff understand and are able to perform their roles in an emergency
• Manage Finance team; define expectations, provide leadership and technical support as needed, and evaluate direct reports regularly
• Responsible for the recruitment, training, and promotion of staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff;
• Manage the performance of all staff in the Finance work area through staff development strategies and Performance Management Systems.  Establish result based system and follow up
• Develop staff through the following methods
  • Effective use of the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measureable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and unbiased evaluations;
  • Coaching, mentoring and other developmental opportunities;
  • Recognition and rewards for outstanding performance;
  • Documentation of performance that is at standard and above and less than satisfactory, with appropriate performance improvements/work plans

Risk Management

• Undertake the financial risk assessments of all new partners and monitoring of on-going risk in coordination with SMT.
• Support CD and SMT in keeping analysis of the internal and external risks and threats and appropriate mitigation measures up to date

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development, and encourages their team to do the same
• widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• future-oriented, thinks strategically and on a global scale.

Collaboration:

• builds and maintains effective relationships with their team, colleagues, Members, and external partners and supporters
• values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.

Creativity:

• develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• willing to take disciplined risks.

Integrity:

• honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity

QUALIFICATIONS 

• Qualified finance professional preferred (recognised accounting qualification such as CIMA, ACCA, CPA) with experience of operating in a global and complex organisation

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Recommended a minimum of 10 years of experience in finance, preferably with an International NGO environment, including experience in the development of strategic and operational support services plans.
• A minimum experience of 4 – 5 years experience in finance management.
• Ability to plan and organise a substantial workload that includes complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities in both development and complex emergency contexts
• Demonstrated credibility with colleagues and stakeholders at all levels of an organization
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to demonstrate skills in leading a multi- disciplined team through a period of change
• Leadership skills, including the ability to supervise and motivate qualified professional staff with strong personal value systems
• Analytical, decision making and strategic planning skills and the ability to handle multiple priorities
• Ability to coach, mentor, delegate appropriately and provide developmental guidance to supervised staff
• Team building skills.
• Competent level skills in core IT applications, particularly MS Office.
• A commitment to the values and principles of Save the Children.
• Experience working to developing countries.
• High level of commitment to the principles of development and to the organizational and programmatic goals of Save the Children.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive, and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.

Application Information:

Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application, and include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations.  A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/careers/apply

“Save the Children is an equal opportunity employer. Women are strongly encouraged to apply”