The Senior Finance Officer is responsible for coordinating the Finance Officer team, ensuring financial quality assurance, and enhancing institutional capacity-building efforts. The Senior Finance Officer is responsible for achieving the objectives related to Finance Officers listed in the Finance unit workplan. This includes monitoring progress and ensuring that key targets and deadlines are achieved, with delegated responsibility for overseeing and coordinating the work of Finance Officers and consultants across different regions. As part of the performance management and professional development process, the Senior Finance Officer provides regular updates to the CFO regarding the performance, progress, and support needs of the Finance Officers.In addition, the Senior Finance Officer will also oversee and manage the financial aspects of selected projects, taking on Finance Officer responsibilities. This ensures direct involvement in financial risk assessment, budgeting, reporting, and compliance for specific initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
1.Financial Leadership
Serve as an advisor to the CFO, contributing to financial strategy, policy development, and risk management initiatives for the partner organisations. The advisory role includes:
- Provide financial insights to support executive decision-making and long-term financial planning.
- Coordinate the Finance Officer team, ensuring strong coordination, clear accountability, and continuous professional development.
- Act as the focal point for project financial issues, ensuring financial considerations are integrated into project design, implementation, and evaluation. Address and investigate potential cases of corruption or misuse of funds, ensuring appropriate escalation, documentation, and corrective action in coordination with the CFO and relevant governance bodies.
- Represent the Finance Unit in cross-functional dialogue on projects, ensuring financial policies and best practices aligning with organisational priorities.
- From a project perspective, engage with internal and external stakeholders, including donors, auditors, regulatory bodies, and financial institutions, to ensure compliance, transparency, and strong financial governance.
- Oversee the onboarding and integration of new Finance Officers, ensuring alignment with internal processes, tools, and compliance standards.
- Validate financial reports submitted by consultants, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and consistency with contractual obligations. (contract management)
- Oversee compliance with donor regulations, financial policies, and international accounting standards across all partner organisations.
- Work with the CFO to enhance financial risk assessment methodologies, ensuring alignment with the Tenure Facility’s strategic objectives.
- Develop and refine partner internal control mechanisms, ensuring robust financial oversight and fraud prevention measures.
- Ensure that financial reporting structures, policies, and guidelines remain up to date and align with best practices.
- Serve as a reviewer for all new projects in Tenure Facility, ensuring uniformity in the reports produced by different Finance Officers while maintaining high-quality standards.
- Conduct financial due diligence and risk assessments for new and ongoing projects.
- Assist partners in budget development and financial planning, ensuring alignment with donor requirements.
- Analyse and review financial reports submitted by project partners, identifying risks or inconsistencies.
- Develop financial capacity-building plans for partner organizations and ensure their implementation.
- Ensure that financial reports from project partners feed into the Tenure Facility’s aggregated financial reporting.
- Monitor and assess financial compliance and proper use of funds by project partners, including participation in field visits.
- Oversee and coordinate external audits of assigned projects, including the development of Terms of Reference (ToR) and liaison with auditors.
- Collaborate with Grants Officers and Programme Officers to address financial and administrative challenges in project implementation.
- Lead all improvements in project audit processes, including the regular update of terms of reference to ensure alignment with best practices and organisational needs.
- Oversee the preparation, execution, and review of partner project audits, ensuring full compliance with regulatory and donor requirements
- Continuously evaluate and strengthen internal financial controls and reporting mechanisms.
- Provide guidance to Finance Officers about the implementation of improvements proposed by each project audit, aiming for a continuous reduction in the number of observations made across projects.
- Give guidance to the Finance Officer team on general and specific questions regarding partner budgets, disbursements, reporting requirements etc.
- Responsibility to plan the allocation of projects among the Finance Officer team, ensuring a balanced workload and optimal performance.
- Lead the development and execution of financial capacity-building programs for partner organisations, strengthening their governance and operational resilience.
- Identify and implement best-in-class financial systems, methodologies, and tools in the Tenure Facility’s partner financial management systems to enhance efficiency and impact.
The Tenure Facility is the first and only international financial mechanism exclusively focused on securing land and forest rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities worldwide. Recognizing and upholding these rights represents one of the most impactful opportunities for fostering sustainable rural development, achieving global climate goals, and mitigating local conflicts in a cost-effective manner.
Key Qualifications & Competencies
- Extensive experience in financial management, auditing, and compliance within the non-profit or development sector.
- Proven leadership skills, with the ability to coordination and develop a high-performing Finance Officer team.
- Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret complex financial data and provide strategic recommendations.
- Deep understanding of donor compliance requirements, financial risk assessment, and international financial best practices.
- Experience in institutional capacity building and financial governance.
- Exceptional communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to interact with executive leadership, programmatic teams, and external partners.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, balancing strategic oversight with operational execution.
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