I - Position Summary 

The primary function of the Country Office (CO) Financial Director is to develop, manage and administer the CO plans for proper recording, documentation, control, monitoring and reporting of financial operations in compliance with CARE and donor rules & regulations. S/He provides oversight of the day-to-day financial operations at the CO level and is accountable for organizing and providing high level quality financial services to CO programs, projects, CI members, donors and units staff. S/He works closely with the Shared Services Center (SSC) and Regional Management Unit (RMU), CO partners and CO senior management team (SMT) to ensure appropriate financial support and resources are available. S/He ensures a partnership is developed and nurtured between Finance, Program and other program support units in the CO. He/she assumes responsibility for implementation of donor rules and regulations and ensures that all compliance requirements are adequately met, with particular attention and adherence to legal provisions that are specific to the Syria crisis (such as BIS, OFAC and antiterrorism regulations of various donors). He/she will play a critical role in developing systems and processes that support implementation of programming through partner sub-granting and monitoring. He/she is expected to work very closely with program and operations teams to ensure accountability and transparency of the operations.

The CO Financial Director profile includes: very strong accounting and financial management knowledge, analytical skills, attention to details, ability to work effectively under time pressure, very strong business partnering skills with ability to influence CO senior staff, team player, proactive individual with ability to offer structured guidance, ability to ensure that the right priorities are set for the CO finance team, proven experience in training finance and non-finance staff, proficiency in English.

The CO Financial Director position has direct reporting line to the Assistant Country Director for Program Support. S/He is an integral member of the CO senior management team. 

The CO Finance Director will manage the finances of 2 types of programming implemented by CARE Turkey – Refugee programs implemented inside Turkey and cross-borders programs implemented inside Syria through the Partner agencies CARE’s programming in Syria is a highly complex operation, working through partners from Gaziantep in Turkey and in the region in the future; and we are looking for an exceptional individual with high level technical and people management skills. He/she is expected not only to run a financial system, but to build up a strong team and set up systems and processes that are suitable to the context as well as meeting donor and internal requirements.

Job Responsibility #1: Financial System Operations Management and CO Data Processing - the CO Financial Director plays a crucial coordination and management role in financial system operations to ensure the system is functioning properly and is being effectively used by CO staff. S/He provides day-to-day oversight of CO financial operations and ensures efficient process flows and controls over finance and accounting functions are adequate. S/He ensures financial data are processed in the system accurately and reported to donors, management and other partners timely. Specific roles and responsibilities include (45%);

• PeopleSoft operations, workflows, roles and user management: ensures CO users are setup in the system and trained appropriately; ensures workflows are developed and implemented adequately in the CO system; ensures budget holders and other users are trained properly in their roles; ensures policies, procedures, user manuals and other quick reference guides are available to CO staff and disseminated; ensures the maintenance and management of PeopleSoft chart fields (e.g. fund code and project ID requests, activity ID, category ID, etc.) and other tables (vendor files, cost allocation tables, users table, etc.) are performed timely and satisfactorily; documents system issues experienced by users and escalate to SSC appropriately;
• Accounts Payable, Treasury and Cash functions: Determines CO short and long terms cash needs and coordinates cash requests and approvals, including the submission of cash flow projections; ensures vendors are paid and account receivables are collected timely; ensures staffs receive proper training and are effectively using the cash related modules (e.g. Account Payable, Cash Management).
• General Ledger, Accounts Receivable and other modules: Ensures journal entries (e.g. payroll, allocation, etc.) are processed timely and accurately, cash receipts are recorded properly, and all modules (e.g. procurement, asset management, etc.) are used by CO staff adequately.
• Data processing and period closing functions: accountable for ensuring that the period closing processes defined for Business Units (BUs) are performed timely and adequately; accountable for the preparation and submission of complete, reliable and timely financial reports to CO managers and donors, local entities and other partners as relevant; ensures that reports prepared by SSC (e.g. USG awards) are completed and submitted timely; supervises the quality and integrity of financial data and supporting documentation and ensures completeness of data recorded in the system. This includes but not limited to the following transactions: a) Accounts Payable vouchers --e.g. cash disbursements, settlement of cash advances--; b) General Ledger journal entries --e.g. payroll allocation, adjustments, accruals--.; c) Cash Management module --e.g. cash transfer processing and dispatching--.; d) Asset Management entries --e.g. depreciation entries--; e) Account Receivables --e.g. donor receipts; f) Budgeting and Forecasting --e.g. budget data created in PeopleSoft or other budgeting tool.
• Budgeting and Forecasting functions: ensures all budgets (e.g. project proposal, annual operating budgets, etc.) are prepared in the budgeting tool in use by the organization; coordinates and supervises the preparation of CO forecasts and future years budgets; leads the preparation of the CO shared program cost (SPC) budgets and implements CARE policy and guidelines related to fair sharing of support costs; supervises the monitoring of actual expenses against budgets and ensure partnership between CO finance staff and budget holders and all managers who make budget decisions in the CO to ensure costs expenses are managed properly within the approved budgets.

Job Responsibility #2: Staff Management and Development, Talent Management and Capacity Building - the CO Financial Director is responsible for finance staff and talent management and development as well capacity building in financial management for finance and non-finance staff in the country office. Major roles and responsibilities include (20%);

• Assesses training and development needs of finance and non-finance staff within the CO;
• identifies gap in skills, develops training materials and provides training in accounting and financial management as needed;
• Participates in the elaboration and leads the implementation of the CO’s Annual Performance Assessment policy and processes to include the preparation and monitoring of Individual Operating Plan (IOPs) for finance staff;
• Leads the hiring and firing of CO finance staff in close coordination with the ACD/Program Support;
• ensures succession plans are developed and implemented for finance staff in a way that assures CO staffs receive high quality support services at all times;
• Works with the CO human resources unit as well as SSC and RMU to develop and manage talent in the CO finance unit.

Job Responsibility #3: Quality review and analysis of financial reports to support management decision making in the CO (20%)

• Performs quality reviews and analyses of CO books as well as any financial performance reports and provides feedback to CO management to improve financial management. The reviews and analyses include but are not limited to: bank reconciliation; balance sheet; income statement; grants/contracts reports; unrestricted and private contributions reports; actual expenses vs. budget; shared program costs and cost recovery; payroll allocation and timesheets, COMFORT reports; etc.
• Takes appropriate actions to address all issues noted (e.g. collect receivables; prevent overspending, match funding, etc.).
• Accountable for the overall quality of the CO financial reports and communications of issues to CO management, RMU and SSC.

Job Responsibility #4: Compliance and Control functions (10%)

• Controllership and Accounting functions: ensures CO compliance with CARE’s accounting policy and procedures and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP); ensures CO accounting systems and procedures comply with CARE's global policy and procedures; protects the organization assets through internal controls; ensures the CO payroll and other non-PeopleSoft systems provide adequate controls; reviews all leases and other contracts that require current and future use of the organization's assets and make any relevant recommendations to the ACD Program Support;
• Compliance and Audit support functions: ensures CO compliance with donor rules and regulations; ensures CO preparedness for annual financial and donor audits; facilitates internal and external audits conducted in the CO; assists the ACD/Program Support in preparing CO responses to audit findings as well as planning and implementing audit recommendations;
• Compliance with US and other donor/government regulations specific to the Syria context: ensures the adherence to US BIS, OFAC and anti-terrorism regulations and CARE's host government registrations, in particular the Turkish government regulations; the post will keep abreast of any changes in legal provisions in coordination with our legal team in HQ, local lawyers, and works with program staff to ensure understanding of and compliance with regulations.
• Fraud prevention: works with program, M&E and program support functions to ensure systems to mitigate the risk of fraud, vendor collusion and diversion of assistance are robust and adhered to. The position is expected to have a high level of situational awareness on this issue given the high risks posed by the context.

Job Responsibility #5 (5%)

General CO oversight and other duties - assists the ACD Program Support and the Country Director and other senior staff in the development of project proposals and CO staff development plans and the review of contracts, IPIAs and other financial commitments; performs other duties as assigned.

Perform other duties as assigned.

III - Requirements 

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance or Business Management or equivalent

• Seven (7) to ten (10) years as Finance Controller or Finance Manager in country office environment

• Ten (10) years’ experience in not-for-profit financial, budgeting, accounting, financial reporting, grants / contract management and business management in developing countries;

• Thorough knowledge of financial and accounting practices and procedures.

• Experience with OFDA, ECHO, DFID,UN funding

• Solid accounting systems experience and thorough understanding of financial accounting, reporting, grants and contract management processes

• Facilitation skills to conduct training sessions for small, medium and large sized groups

• Solid analytical skills, problem solving and experience with major donor audits (e.g USAID, EU, etc.)

• Strong oral and written communication skills; Customer focused while handling multiple priorities

• Ability to quickly learn new systems, processes and procedures and adapt local practices to global standards

• Good leadership, coaching and negotiation skills

• Ability to work on teams, work at detailed level and understand the larger picture

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office including Excel and Word

• Proficiency in using financial software applications, preferably including PeopleSoft

Desired

• Masters degree in Business Administration or Accounting

• Country Office experience.

• Experience with and understanding of US BIS, OFAC and antiterrorism regulations

• Arabic language skills

• Understanding of CARE Financial systems and compliance policies.

• Web-based financial system experience (PeopleSoft)

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Child Protection Policy

Child abuse in all forms is unacceptable to CARE Turkey, which recognizes its responsibility to protect children from harm in all areas of its work. CARE Turkey is committed to ensuring a child-safe environment and is applying a zero-tolerance approach towards any kind of child abuse and exploitation.

Discrimination, Abuse and Harassment Policy

 CARE Turkey expressly prohibits and will not tolerate any form of discrimination, abuse, harassment (sexual or otherwise), based upon race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship status, disability, or military status. CARE employees and related personnel must under no circumstances take part in any form of discrimination, harassment, or abuse (physical, sexual or verbal), intimidation or exploitation, or in any other way infringe the rights of others inside or outside CARE.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Employment is subject to the possession of valid identification documents (passport, residency card, temporary protection card, etc.) and successfully obtaining permission to work by the Government of Turkey (work permit). CARE will submit the work permit application on behalf of the selected candidate after the job offer accepted. Candidate can start to work for CARE only after the work permit is received. Failure to provide the required documents or rejection of a work permit application by the Government of Turkey will result in your employment offer being rescinded.

HOW TO APPLY

Interested candidates, please send a Curriculum Vitae in English and a Cover letter (in a separate file of no more than one A4 page) describing how your skills and experience match the requirements of this post, following to email

provided when you click the apply button.

Reference Code: Financial Director

Applications in languages other than English will not be reviewed.

 “Applications are strongly encouraged from female candidates“

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

** CARE International is an Equal Opportunity Employer **