Executive Director: Finance and Accounting - Mastercard Foundation

We are currently in an exciting period at the Mastercard Foundation as we intensify the implementation of the Young Africa Works strategy, aiming to empower 30 million young people throughout Africa to access dignified and fulfilling employment.

To ensure the Foundation's accessibility to our partners and program participants, we have established offices in Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Uganda. These offices provide strong in-country support for the implementation of Young Africa Works. We collaborate with governments, the private sector, educators, and other funders to enhance the quality of education and vocational training, equip young individuals with the necessary skills for the workforce, expand access to financial services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and facilitate connections between job seekers and meaningful employment opportunities.

Our values serve as our guiding principles, transcending and surpassing all other considerations. We wholeheartedly encourage you to bring your bold ideas, curiosity, and expertise to your work.

If you are an experienced Finance and Accounting professional looking to increase your impact, read on!

THE OPPORTUNITY

Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, the Executive Director, Finance and Accounting will be responsible for leading the Foundation’s finance business partnering function supporting programmatic work across the enterprise. The role is the primary Finance business partner for the Chief Programs Officer and the Chief Research and Impact Officer.

The role, alongside the Group Controller, is accountable for providing Strategic Financial leadership and stewardship for all Finance and Accounting operations across the enterprise as well as our programs portfolio. She/he will provide direction to the finance and accounting teams to effectively manage the Foundation’s financial matters, develop systems, procedures and internal processes as well as building the accounting, finance, and operations infrastructure and capability as part of a multi-year growth strategy.

The role accepts enterprise leadership accountability as part of the General Management Team

The successful candidate will be based in any of our offices in Africa (Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, or Uganda).

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

• Provide financial leadership and strategic direction to the Chief Programs Office and the Chief Research and Impact Officer in support of achieving the overall strategic objectives of the foundation.
• Instilling the Foundation values across Finance and Accounting teams and building an engaged and inclusive team.
• Responsible for ensuring the Foundation’s resources are invested appropriately to maximize return on impact and ensuring that the invested funds are used as intended through maintaining a sound control environment.
• Ensure appropriate and consistent financial management and due diligence of the Foundation’s programs during the full-cycle management of partner contracts, i.e., Expression of Interest (EOI), partner election, program design, contracting, disbursement, implementation/monitoring, and program close out.
• Design systems and processes that enable analysis of financial information that would enable effective decision making by senior leadership and the Board of Directors.
• Provide budgets and forecasts relating to opex, disbursements and commitments relating to the programs operations and coordinate long term planning with the enterprise Financial Planning & Analysis team.
• Review monthly reporting and analysis including program expenses, partner disbursements, cash flow projections, and other ad hoc reports as needed.
• Ensure appropriate information, processes and policies are in place to safeguard the Foundation resources are invested in programs as well ensure there is sufficient funding & information in place to enable the delivery of the strategic objectives of the Foundation programs.
• Adopt a risk-based approach to assessing programs and partner contracts and ensuring proper stewardship of the Foundation resources.
• Build and support relationships with external parties such as key partners, banks, local tax authorities, payroll service providers and legal counsel.
• Provide support on month-end and year-end closing including co-ordination with the Toronto accounting team and support the Foundation’s annual financial audit and any audits required in Africa.
• Work closely with and support the Toronto staff with respect to capital planning for facilities and technology.
• Coordinate the implementation of operational activities within the continent in partnership with the Director of Technology, Head of Security, Facilities & Travel, and other Operational functional heads to ensure smooth day-to-day operations on the ground.
• Build finance business partnering capabilities and competencies that can support the enterprise mission.
• Building a diverse Finance and Accounting talent pipeline and succession plans to ensure continued improvement in capability and performance delivery.
• Recruit, develop and provide coaching and leadership to the Finance and Accounting team.
• Design, plan and implement the finance infrastructures (People, Process & Systems) to enable effective financial support for foundation as the scope and scale of our work grows.
• Maintain an external network of relevant experts and bring relevant leading external practice into the Foundation.

WHO YOU ARE

• University degree in accounting or a related field. MBA is an asset.
• Minimum 15 years in progressively senior financial roles within large and/or global organizations, with at least 10 years in a senior management capacity and experience in managing across multi-territories.
• Experience building capabilities and capacity of accounting and operations teams in high growth organizations including supporting expansion in multi-jurisdictional and multi-currency environments.
• Experience in presenting financial and operational information to the senior leadership team and the Board of Directors including committees of the Board.
• Ability to analyze, assess and evaluate a wide range of development proposals.
• Ability to assess risks and exercise judgment in making important decisions.
• Strong commercial acumen as well as innovative and able to formulate new or creative approaches to problems.
• Proven leadership capabilities to accelerate talent and people processes.
• Flexible, adaptable, agile, and able to execute a range of job duties with multiple deadlines and changing priorities.
• Proven excellence in verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures and to distill complex information and data into accessible conversation and written pieces.
• Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.
• You have a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.