Finance Officer (Roster Announcement)

JOB DESCRIPTION

1. Scope

2. Context

About Relief International

Relief International (RI) partners with communities impacted by conflict, climate change, and disaster to save lives, build greater resilience and promote long-term health and well being.

Currently, RI is active in 14 countries around the world, including some of the most fragile: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.

Relief International includes the four corporate members of the RI Alliance: Relief International Inc., Relief International-UK, Relief International-France and Relief International-Europe Under our alliance agreement, we operate with a single, shared management structure.

About our Country Program/ Regional Programs

RI established operations in Türkiye in 2013. RI is headquartered in Gaziantep and has a presence in Hatay, Kilis, Adiyaman, Malatya, Kahramanmaras, Adana, Mersin, and Istanbul. Key sectors of focus in Türkiye include Health Water Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH), Protection, and Livelihoods.

1. Job Profile

The Finance Officer will play a critical role in managing financial operations within Relief International's (RI) humanitarian programs in Türkiye. Operating in a complex environment, this position requires strict adherence to RI’s financial policies and Turkish regulations. The Finance Officer will ensure seamless cash and bank management, accurate financial reporting, and compliance with both RI and donor requirements. This includes maintaining sufficient petty cash, preparing bank orders, and reporting daily cash balances, while also supporting the Finance Manager in overseeing monthly account closeouts and audit readiness. Additionally, the role involves close coordination with partner NGOs and sub-offices to ensure their financial reports and expenditures align with strategic goals and donor expectations.

The Finance Officer will work closely with internal teams, including Programs, Grants, and Operations, to facilitate smooth financial transactions and cash flow management. They will support partner NGOs in improving their financial reporting capacity and will assist in preparing comprehensive financial reports and packages. This role is also pivotal in ensuring the organization's audit preparedness and collaborating with the Finance Manager to meet donor and legal compliance standards while fostering accountability and transparency in RI’s financial operations.

Key Responsibilities

Context background

• Operational Environment: The Finance Officer operates within a complex humanitarian context in Türkiye, requiring strict adherence to RI’s financial policies and compliance with local regulations. The role may involve managing financial operations across multiple sub-offices and partner NGOs, ensuring financial procedures align with Relief International’s standards and Turkish legal requirements.
• Security and Compliance: The Finance Officer must ensure that all financial operations comply with both RI’s policies and the regulatory environment in Türkiye, including accurate financial reporting and secure handling of financial data.
• Donor Compliance and Audit Readiness: The role demands maintaining audit readiness, especially for donor-driven projects. This includes assisting the Finance Manager in preparing for and assisting with external audits and ensuring that financial records are complete, accurate, and in line with donor requirements and international accounting standards.
• Program Coordination: Close coordination with program departments is critical, especially in managing payments to partner NGOs.

Relationships Management

• Internal Coordination: The Officer Finance must work closely with the Finance Manager, programs teams, HR, Grants, and Operations departments to ensure seamless financial operations regarding payment-related issues. This includes the timely processing of payments and the effective management of cash flow.
• Partner NGOs and Sub-offices: This role involves regular communication and coordination with partner NGOs, ensuring they meet financial reporting requirements and providing them with the necessary support. Managing these relationships is key to maintaining financial accountability and transparency.

Key deliverables 

• Financial Compliance: Assist the Finance Manager in ensuring all financial transactions are accurate, timely, and comply with RI policies and Turkish regulations. This includes assisting the Finance Manager in supervising monthly account closeouts, reconciling bank accounts, and preparing preliminary financial reports.
• Cash/Bank Management Tasks: Responsible for ensuring sufficient petty cash funds in both currencies, preparing and following up on bank orders, reporting daily cash and bank balances, and assisting with cash bank withdrawals.
• Partner NGO Financial Management: Regularly reviewing and providing feedback on partner NGOs’ financial reports, ensuring their budgets and expenditures align with agreed budgets and strategic plans.
  • Assist the Finance Manager in preparing reporting packages (Mobilization vs Actuals, Budget vs Actuals, Monthly Projection Monitoring, Fund Statement, and Payment Schedules) for partner sub-agreements received from the grants department.
  • Assist Finance Manager in reviewing financial budgets and budget narrative of sub-recipients/partner NGOs and make sure that the right costing of project expenses and host govt. statutory cost has been budgeted, e.g. social security contribution, taxes, severance, etc.
  • Ensure that the partners budget and expenditure are in line with the agreed budgets
  • Provide feedback to the partner on their financial reports monthly and when needed
  • Provide support and work closely with the partner to ensure quality and timely submission of periodic financial reports
  • Assist Finance Manager improving the financial reporting capacity of the partner
  • Keep track of requests for payments and disbursements made by partner
  • Facilitate requests for payments made by partners
  • Visit Partner NGOs office and review financial processes when requested by the Finance Manager
  • Prepare preliminary “issues reports” in coordination with program team and submit to the Finance Manager for review
  • Follow up the issue reports from Partner NGOs and make sure to save the final signed off versions of FRs on cloud drive
• Audit Preparation and Support: Assisting the Finance Manager in preparing for external audits, including those related to partner NGOs. This involves ensuring all financial records are audit-ready and compliant with donor and regulatory requirements.
• Reporting and Documentation: Assisting the Finance Manager in preparing and reviewing various financial reports, including Monthly Financial Reports such as AP Aging, Weighted Average FX Rates, Subledger reports and Partner Status Reports. Ensuring that all reports are complete, accurate, and submitted on time, and that all financial documentation is properly filed and accessible for audit purposes.
• Inter-Agency Coordination: Coordinate with NWS finance department for shared finance functions such as payroll, taxes, CO monthly financial report preparation etc.

Behavior and conduct

• Ensures that behavior inside and outside of work promotes the values in RI’s code of conduct and safeguarding policies
• Acts with integrity and holds themselves accountable for being respectful, inclusive and professional
• Reports any concerns

Management and leadership

• Promote the values in RI’s code of conduct and safeguarding policies.
• Embrace diversity, and model inclusive and equitable behaviour.
• Ensure safeguarding is embedded in all the work we do.
• Report any concerns.

5.      Qualifications

Skills, knowledge and expertise required for the role.

Essential criteria

• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience.
• Educated to bachelor’s level in related field such as Accounting, Finance, Auditing, Business Administration, or other educational background combined with relevant professional experience.
• Professional working proficiency in English and fluency in Turkish.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office package, especially in Excel.

Desirable criteria

• Previous experience working in an international NGO.
• Excellent skills in monitoring, reporting, presentation, facilitation, and communication.
• Ability to work under pressure, independently, and with limited supervision.
• Flexible and adaptable.
• Ability to work in a dynamic environment and multi-task to meet deadlines.
• Promotes teamwork, contributes to building team consensus, and acts as a team player.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates the ability to identify and solve problems.
• Strong communication, interpersonal and analytical skills
• Ability to analyze problems and provide systematic solutions in line with established policies / procedures.

1. RI Values

Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, as well as “Do No Harm,” Relief International Values:

• Integrity
• Adaptability
• Collaboration
• Inclusivity
• Sustainability