Director of Finance and Administration job opportunity at Wildlife Conservation Society

Job Title:  Director of Finance and Administration

Organization: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

About WCS:

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), an international conservation NGO with headquarters at the Bronx Zoo, New York, USA, currently seeks a new Director of Finance for our Uganda Program. WCS has been working in Uganda for over 50 years and currently employs 17 Ugandan staff, and works closely with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and National Forestry Authority (NFA).

Job Summary: The Director of Finance and administration (DFA) is primarily responsible for all administrative and financial matters in the country and reports to Country Director, and WCS-New York, Comptroller. The key role of the DFA is to manage and monitor efficient systems for financial and personnel management for the WCS Country Program Office and Field Projects. The DFA is required to maintain appropriate communication with WCS Project leaders (Directors, Managers, and Administrators), key donors and funding agencies and local governmental institutions, and prepare timely and accurate financial reports for submission to WCS-New York and our donors.

Key Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Overall supervision of the Finance and Administration department and staff
• Support the Country Director and WCS New York in preparing budgets for project proposals and annual budgeting, projections and cash flow management
• Ensure timely preparation  of monthly reports of expenditure against budgets for internal use, including monitoring of expenditure against project activity budgets as well as WCS project, grant/fund accounts
• Ensure that all administrative and financial policies and procedures in place are followed by field staff
• Ensure financial efficiency in all aspects of operations, advising the Country Director of any problems or weakness in financial controls and procedures, and any ways in which costs could be reduced
• Maintain an accurate database of project funding, including contracts, project budgets and donor-specific procedures and regulations
• Responsible for building capacity of WCS office staff, and sub-awardees in budgeting and budget tracking, and financial accounting
• Oversee the management of funds disbursed to our project implementing partners (i.e. contractees, and sub-awardees)
• Ensure that all financial and administrative systems established comply with the international financial accounting standards and comply with the national taxation, labour, and work safety laws of Uganda.
• The DFA will also provide training to and help establish the financial management systems for the proposed Uganda Biodiversity Trust Fund.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:  

• The suitable candidate must have a minimum of bachelor’s degree in financial accounting, but possession of an MBA or certificate in chartered professional accounting will be an added advantage.
• Working knowledge of SAP or Sunsystem accounting software, reasonable knowledge of financial auditing and reporting, and contracts management is an added advantage

How to Apply for the job: 

All candidates are strongly encouraged to send an electronic application via email: wcsugandajobs@gmail.com and copy to snampindo@wcs.org. Only a cover letter, CV, including at least three referees (with active contact details, e.g. phone numbers) are expected.

Deadline:  30^th November, 2014