Finance Director

About Fauna & Flora

Fauna & Flora saves species from extinction and habitats from destruction, while improving the livelihoods of local people. Our guiding principles are to work with and alongside local partnerships, act as a catalyst for change, make conservation relevant, and base decisions on sound science. Founded in 1903, Fauna & Flora is the world’s longest established international conservation body; our conservation work, and impact, spans the globe.

Organisational Setting

Fauna & Flora employs circa 570 people across 20 jurisdictions. We have 200 employees in the UK, and 25 international and 345 national employees working across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eurasia and the Americas & Caribbean. Our Cambridge Finance Team is composed of a Transactional Finance Team, Finance Systems Team and Finance Business Partners. Our growing team comprises friendly and supportive colleagues with a customer service mindset who are keen to help colleagues across the globe to support the important work of Fauna & Flora.

Fauna & Flora is seeking an experienced and pro-active Finance Director to provide strong technical and managerial leadership of the global finance function. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, this Management Team role will champion best-practice financial planning, management and controls across the organisation, and will contribute high-quality financial analysis and guidance to key stakeholders, including the Senior Leadership Team and Programme Directors. The individual will be CCAB qualified and have considerable post-qualification team-leader experience and will be used to providing guidance and decision support to a wide range of stakeholders. The role will suit someone who has experience of working in a diverse and complex environment, preferably with sector experience and with exposure to international operations, branches and subsidiary organisations. We offer the opportunity to work for a ground-breaking organisation at the forefront of global conservation, with generous pension contribution, attractive annual leave allowance, life insurance and salary exchange schemes.

Fauna & Flora Values

Values underpin who we are and how we act. Just as values shape who we are as individuals, they define us as an organisation, creating the culture of success for which Fauna & Flora is renowned. Our people exemplify our shared values, which are interconnected and interdependent:

• We act with integrity
• We are collaborative
• We are committed
• We are inclusive, supportive & respectful
• We get things done

The Role

Role:

Finance Director

Location:

• Cambridge, UK with partial remote working within the UK.
• Our offices are located in The David Attenborough Building in central Cambridge, just a few minutes’ walk from glorious historic buildings and museums, the picturesque River Cam, the central market and shopping centre, and a host of cafés and restaurants.
• The individual must be able to undertake international travel as required to fulfil the role.

Contract:

Full Time – This is a full time position working 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday inclusive.

Probation Period:

Six months

Salary:

c. £80,000 per annum

Benefits:

• 25 working days’ annual holiday entitlement plus Public/Bank Holidays and any normal working days that fall between 24 December to 1 January inclusive, during which time Fauna & Flora UK offices are closed
• For employees on UK-based contracts, Fauna & Flora currently provides a pension contribution of 8% of salary after 3 months’ continuous employment.
• Group Life insurance, currently set at a benefit of 4 x basic salary

Reporting to:

Chief Operating Officer

Line Manages:

• Head of Finance Business Partnering
• Financial Controller
• Finance Manager, Reporting & Systems
• Partnerships Finance Manager

Key Internal Relationships:

• Senior Leadership Team
• Management Team
• Finance Business Partners
• UK Finance Team
• Overseas Finance Managers

Job Summary:

• To lead and manage Fauna & Flora’s global finance function, ensuring the efficient and effective management of Fauna & Flora’s financial resources in accordance with established accounting principles, industry best practice and Fauna & Flora’s business needs.
• To act as a strategic financial partner to the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Leadership Team, supporting long-term financial sustainability, organisational resilience and effective resource allocation in pursuit of Fauna & Flora’s mission.
• To provide monitoring of financial and compliance risk and work with the Senior Leadership and Management Teams to minimise the impact of such risks.

Financial Management and Reporting

• Lead the development and monitoring of Fauna & Flora’s long-term financial planning and sustainability, including management of reserves and scenario planning in response to risks.
• Support the Senior Leadership Team and the Management Team by providing recommendations, guidance and advice on financial management issues and ensure effective provision of guidance and advice to all staff within the organisation regarding financial management and reporting
• Oversee maintenance of the organisation’s statutory accounts and returns, in accordance with established accounting principles; delivering annual charity and consolidated accounts to an agreed timetable and maintaining oversight and responsibility for the annual audit process
• Oversee the production of timely and accurate monthly management accounts and supporting analysis and commentary, and report on these to management teams and to Trustees as appropriate
• Manage the processes deployed to ensure effective recovery of employment and indirect costs from programmes, building an effective financial model(s) for Fauna & Flora to ensure that costs are being suitably absorbed
• Ensure that there are effective processes in place to provide required reporting to donors, liaising with programme teams and project managers and programme finance staff to ensure delivery
• Maintain effective relationships with other Fauna & Flora entities, developing processes and ensuring clear visibility and transparency for effective stakeholder reporting and monitoring

Strategy, Budgets and Forecasting

• As part of the Management Team, contribute to the development of business and financial plans to support Fauna & Flora’s vision and mission, contributing to the evaluation and monitoring of performance against these
• Be responsible for the annual budgeting and forecasting process for the organisation and provide, in conjunction with the Management Team, appropriate reporting and analysis of variances and support for decision making to Senior Leadership Team and the Trustees
• Participate in reviewing and monitoring processes to evaluate performance against budget, review risks and issues and agree corrective actions with Programme Directors and budget holders
• Develop templates, guidance and models to ensure that budgets to support proposals are rigorous, capture costs appropriately and ensure that resources are deployed effectively, in order for Fauna & Flora to remain financially stable whilst delivering its conservation objectives

Financial Control

• Develop and embed effective financial policies and procedures to ensure sound financial management across the organisation, including in overseas branches and subsidiaries
• Ensure provision of monitoring and reporting on the global cash position of Fauna & Flora, maintaining working capital forecasting, ensuring Fauna & Flora is mitigating exchange risk where necessary
• Maintain and further develop financial systems, data quality and management information to ensure it is timely, accurate and decision-useful
• Maintain effective working relationships with professional advisers such as auditors and banks
• Oversee Fauna & Flora’s overseas finance functions, ensuring appropriate controls, systems, processes, and compliance with Fauna & Flora financial policies and procedures
• Manage the delivery of grant and contract financial management for Fauna & Flora and assess the financial and compliance risk of individual programmes at Fauna & Flora.
• Recommend, and implement where appropriate, changes to mitigate assessed risk of Fauna & Flora programmes, and feed into Fauna & Flora’s risk management framework
• Ensure adherence to the delegation of authorities framework, ensuring effective control mechanisms are in place and compliance is upheld
• Fulfil Fauna & Flora’s tax reporting to government and compliance with relevant tax legislation
• Ensure that statutory reporting requirements in jurisdictions within which Fauna & Flora operates are met
• Ensure provision of financial support and advice to programme teams, including donor reporting and managing grant audits, with particular emphasis on statutory grant support.

Team Management and Development

• Provide line management through objective setting, continuous performance management, annual appraisal, training provision and personal development planning to develop individuals and their functions
• Oversee the service delivery of the activities of the finance function, setting and agreeing key performance indicators and targets for improvement
• Remain up-to-date with key technical accounting and legal developments and funder requirements, such that appropriate policies, procedures and systems can be maintained to meet these requirements, and that individual team members also receive appropriate education and development to fulfil requirements
• Recruit and train financial staff, including staff overseas; support the development of financial skills of programme managers
• Carry out any other reasonable duties that are consistent with the post and the aims and objectives of the position
• Undertake intermittent international travel as necessary

Essential

• Excellent understanding of activity-based accounting and financial management best practice
• Provision of high-quality ad hoc financial analysis
• Proactive and pragmatic problem-solving skills
• Exposure to multi-disciplinary skills, e.g. risk management, governance, legal
• Grant/contract management
• Financial systems design, implementation and management
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with ability to influence effectively at all levels
• Excellent organisation, prioritisation and time management skills
• Meticulous attention to detail
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel
• Excellent spoken and written English
• CCAB qualified or equivalent, with significant post-qualification experience
• Extensive experience as a senior finance leader within a similar organisation
• Proven line management of large teams in a complex global setting
• Extensive experience of managing statutory reporting and audits, including group consolidations
• Extensive experience of working within an international charity environment, with complex funding bases across multiple stakeholders
• Proven ability to develop and implement effective policies, procedures and controls to govern financial management processes
• Experience of treasury/FX management and foreign currency accounting
• Experience of compliance requirements for a UK-based company, such as VAT, PAYE, taxable benefits etc

Desirable

• Working knowledge of a language relevant to any of Fauna & Flora’s locations (particularly French or Spanish)
• Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree or equivalent
• Experience with Access Dimensions accounting software
• Substantial experience using accounting and financial reporting software
• Understanding of funding compliance requirements of key statutory funders, such as the EU and DEFRA

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