Director Finance and Support Services

ROLE PURPOSE: The education programme seeks to ensure that all children in Myanmar are able to access a safe, high quality and inclusive education. We work with partners, established education providers, to improve children’s learning outcomes through strengthening the quality, accessibility and inclusivity of education in Myanmar, and to strengthen the education systems that provide those services. The programme also works with a broad range of diverse stakeholders to address key barriers for the achievement of equitable education such as language, gender, disability, political or income barriers which limit learning opportunities. Collectively, we support children to return to school and remain in school, strengthen curriculum and quality of learning, and empowering the teachers to support children’s success. The Director, Finance and Support Services is a key member of the Senior Management Team, and will be responsible for leading the programme’s accounting, financial planning and analysis, supply chain, IT and administration functions. This is a strategic position that will work closely with the Chief of Party and the Directors of Education, Partnership & Programme Support (PPS), and Strategy, Policy, Evidence and Learning (SPEL) to ensure that the programme’s approx. $14 million/year budget is efficiently and effectively managed, maintain the deep trust and relationships with donors and key stakeholders, and guide the strategic direction of the programme for the future. The Director, Finance and Support Services will lead a multi-functional team with managerial and technical oversight across multiple specialties. The position will oversee all aspects of Finance, including forward-looking strategic financial planning, analysis, budgeting, accounting, and supporting new business development efforts, as well as regular communications with donors for financial updates and planning (~60% of the role). The Director will also provide leadership and direction for supply chain, including procurement, asset and inventory management; IT support to the whole programme; and will be responsible for smooth office running and administrative support functioning across the programme’s three offices (~40% of the role). The post holder will be responsible for ensuring compliance to donor awards and overall budget and performance monitoring, fostering strong cross-team support and collaboration to ensure adherence and strong performance across the programme. The role requires strong technical skills as well as experience in people management and working collaboratively with a multi-disciplinary team, building a strong working culture of excellence and growth, and a sound understanding and commitment to working in partnership with local organisations.
TITLE: Director, Finance and Support Services
LOCATION: Yangon	CONTRACT LENGTH: Fixed term (2 Years)
Number of Position: 1 GRADE: NAT 1	Reports to: Chief of Party (COP) Staff reporting directly to this post: 3 staff - Head of Finance, Head of Office, and Supply Chain Officer Indirect reporting lines: 10 staff Global Team engagement: Finance Business Partner, Programme Operations Business Partner, Supply Chain Business Partner

Key Areas of Accountability

Financial Oversight and Analysis

• Oversee and lead all aspects of the programme’s financial management, and work closely with the Chief of Party and SMT to ensure strong overall financial performance and standing of the education programme;
• In coordination with Head of Finance, oversee the master budget, forecasts, budget phasing, spend/variance monitoring, etc. and ensure that programme resources are planned for and used efficiently and effectively in as budgeted and forecasted aligned to the value for money framework;
• Accountable for accounting accuracy, timely financial close, balance sheet integrity and applicable accounting, tax and statutory requirements;
• Lead financial planning and analysis, including forecasting, cash flow, pooled fund allocations, foreign exchange revaluations, donor financial reporting and payment requests;
• Provide oversight and quality control support for partner finance team, supporting to ensure strong systems and controls are in place for effective support to partners in line with financial commitments, compliance requirements, and risk thresholds;
• Ensure timely completion and independent review of monthly bank reconciliations and fund transfer requests against forecasted spend for facilitating on-time payments;
• Ensure strong and consistent engagement with the global finance teams, building a strong rapport with the global teams on strategic matters as well as ensuring smooth day-to-day support and communications for fund transfers, accounting, treasury and grant management matters;
• Ensure financial key performance indicators are monitored and reported internally against any variance and implemented actions;
• Ensure effective audit coordination, readiness and preventative compliance checks, and that any internal or external audit findings or recommendations are actioned and closed in a timely manner;

Operational efficiency & organisational effectiveness:

• Provide strategic leadership and oversight to ensure that support services (supply chain, admin and IT) functions effectively support programme delivery, operational efficiency, accountability and stakeholder engagement
• Oversee and provide quality support and guidance to procurement of goods and services through supply chain functions, ensuring timely and cost-effective delivery;
• Enhance coordination and shared planning across functions and teams, including ensuring cross-team perspectives are reflected in key management decision-making processes
• Ensure effective ways of working and clearly defined and communicated accountabilities and core business processes; including supporting strong coordination and shared planning across functions
• Ensure strong alignment with organisational policies, priorities, and guidance, including ensuring regular coordination and strong high quality support from global teams and functional Business Partners.

Programme Support, Risk Management and Compliance

• Ensure the programme adheres to the donor financial and operational compliance requirements, ensure continued adaptation of compliance procedures to adapt to the operating environment, and maintains strong relationships with donors for support and proactive communications;
• Ensure strong internal controls are in place, and oversee periodic reviews of controls and procedures to ensure high level of cross-team understanding of and adherence to policies, procedures and internal controls;
• Ensure effective segregation of duties in line with the Scheme of Delegation;
• Manage the programme’s financial and operational risk management plan and risk framework, ensuring that risks are routinely monitored and mitigation measures implemented;
• Provide leadership support and oversight to the programme’s Fraud Focal Point, ensuring that regular training and refreshers are carried out, introduce strategies to promote increased reporting and ensure that any reported cases are investigated and closed out in a timely manner, drawing on lessons learnt to inform continual improvement across the programme.

Strategic Leadership and Representation

• Engage with donors and relevant internal or external counterparts, ensuring strong representation and collaboration across all stakeholders.
• Lead a high-performing team, motivated by and aligned to ensuring the overall success of the education programme, and actively foster a collaborative, fun and creative work environment.
• Ensure a fit-for-purpose organisational structure, clear roles and responsibilities, and appropriate processes to support continued programme delivery as priorities and programmatic needs change;
• Set measurable staff performance and growth objectives, provide on-going feedback, regular periodic transparent performance reviews, and corrective action if required so all staff are empowered to progress in line with professional development goals;
• Ensure the delivery of quality, timely reports, including quarterly steering committee financial reports, annual and semi-annual donor reports, donor updates, or other reporting requests as requested;

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities

• Ensure safeguarding, GEDSI, conflict sensitivity, and localization principles are integrated throughout finance and support services management, capacity strengthening, risk management, and programme implementation.
• Promote partner-centred approaches that uphold the programme’s Partnership Values and Principles, including mutual accountability, transparency, inclusion, and respect.
• Ensure compliance with safeguarding policies and actively support a culture of child safety across the programme and partner organizations.
• Additional responsibilities as agreed with the Chief of Party

QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Qualifications

• Master’s degree (or higher) in areas of Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Management, Law, or relevant fields; or Bachelor’s Degree with equivalent qualifications through work and management experience;
• 7-10 years of experience in a senior finance role within the development and/or humanitarian sector, working in programme management roles, including at least 5 years in finance or operational leadership levels;
• Excellent proficiency in spoken and written English.

Skills and Experience

• Excellent leadership, people management, interpersonal and negotiation skills and a demonstrated ability to develop diverse, harmonious and impactful teams and maintain good collaboration with partners, donors and other peers in a sensitive environment;
• Proven success in building and managing a diverse team and dedication to developing staff capacity through training, supervising, coaching, and mentoring;
• Excellent budget and award management skills
• Demonstrated high-level skills in financial analysis and financial planning and policy, and communicating intricate financial analysis information to stakeholders and decision-makers.
• Experience managing a diverse range of donor financial requirements and agreements or large scale programmes with high value budgets, with funding from UK, Europe, Australia, GPE or multilateral funding entities;
• Demonstrable analytical and problem-solving skills and experience in solving complex issues through analysis, defining, and planning a clear way forward and ensuring buy-in;
• Ability to prioritize and meet deadlines in a challenging operating environment while remaining flexible to adapt to changing needs;
• Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, and across multiple offices;
• Ability to work independently and as a team;
• Experience of working in partnerships with local NGOs, providing technical support and/or strengthening operations of local civil society organisations is highly desirable;
• Strong, self-motivated remote-working and management abilities;
• Willingness to travel to field sites;
• Commitment to and understanding of the organisation and programme’s aims, values and principles.

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.

Equal Opportunities

The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the the programme’s Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures. Women, people with disabilities and people from minority ethnic groups are particularly encouraged to apply.

Child Safeguarding:

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.

The organization is committed to the safety and wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults in all of our programmes. We have zero tolerance for any form of abuse, exploitation, neglect or harassment, whether committed by staff, volunteers, partners or anyone associated with our work.