Job Opportunity for Senior Finance and Grants Officer at Wadhwani AI in Delhi

ABOUT US

The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Wadhwani AI) is the world’s first independent non-profit research institute developing AI solutions for social good. Our mission is to develop AI solutions to overcome challenges of societal importance in domains such as health, agriculture, financial inclusion, and infrastructure. Our team consists of world-renowned scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs from Stanford, Yale, Cornell, and the IITs, with experience at companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and DE Shaw. We have research collaborations with Stanford University, Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley and the IITs among others.

At Wadhwani AI, we use the power of modern artificial intelligence to help solve some of the most challenging problems in the world. Our work is open-access and free for use towards improving the lives of others. We believe that AI-based solutions must work within broader systems and programs. To identify the areas in which AI can make a difference, we collaborate closely with our partners such as non-profit organisations, governments, companies and academic and research institutes. Working with them, we build datasets, develop and test solutions, iterate, and scale.

Our current focus areas include Cotton Farming, Maternal Newborn Child Health (MNCH) and Tuberculosis (TB), Covid19. We are funded by Dr Romesh Wadhwani, Sunil Wadhwani, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, Foundation Botnar and USAID for our work in healthcare.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Grants Management:

• Ensure all awards are compliant with donor and WAI policies and procedures.
• Ensure adherence to the formats and schedules of reports as required by various donors.
• Work with Program leads on forecasting expenses and further analyzing project spending in order to ensure accurate spending of project funds.
• Review procurement requests to ensure that these are in line with approved budget and as per budget availability.
• Ensure record keeping of all grant agreements and contracts, modifications, financial reports, and documents pertaining to each grant.

Financial Analysis and Donor/Management Reporting: –

• Prepare the various reports for Donor compliance.
• To develop monthly financial tracking of each and highlight critical deviations, for resolution
• Preparing various analytical reports for leadership/project leads on the basis of funding available for their strategic planning/decision making purpose.
• Tracking and analyzing project performance on key metrics for all programs like direct program costs, general fund support etc.
• Work closely with Program Finance teams for preparation and finalization of various donor financial reports/Invoices as and when due per grant agreement.

Sub-Awards Management –

• Manage sub-grants – including developing, reviewing and finalizing sub-award proposals an budgets.
• Work with HQ and in-country finance for ensuring all documents are in place prior to issuance of sub grant agreement.
• Monitoring and tracking of sub-grantee spending, mapping actuals against budget and sharing with program lead on regular basis.
• Work with program lead in preparation of costed or no costed modifications.
• Assist in sub award close out processes.

Managing Grants Close Outs Functions:

• Ensure smooth and timely grants close out.
• Notifying well in advance grant close out guidelines, asset disposable, record keeping etc. and timelines to all concerned staff at national and state level.
• Ensure all project expenses are accounted and reported in final financial report to donor.
• Work with HQ for review and finalization of final report before its submission to donor.
• Work with management to provide support on staffing and operating costs related decisions in lieu of grants closure.

Handing Donor Audits/Internal Review:

• Managing various donor audits ensuring accurate and timely completion.
• Respond pro-actively to auditor’s query and providing management response in the audit report.
• Maintains proper documentation of all grant related documents and reports for audit purpose.
• Provide necessary support at the time of internal reviews conducted by HQ.

Preparing Budgets for New Proposal/Re-appropriation of Existing Budgets

• Work with the Business Development and program leads to develop financial budgets for proposals to funders
• Work with program leads and HQ backstop for preparing/re-appropriating project budgets, as per donor requirements and/or programmatic need.
• Ensure the cost/budget proposal are in line with the organizational policies and procedures.
• Ensure all relevant cost for the support functions are factored in.
• Ensure that the budgets submitted are in alignment with donor restriction and caveats.
• Uploading budgets in Quick Books Enterprise (QBE) accounting software as per organizations’s fiscal year. 

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelors Degree; Additional qualifications in Finance, Economics, Business or a related field would be preferred.
• Extensive contractual and financial management experience, with at least ten years at a mid-management level, working with USAID, CDC, DOD and other international donor agencies
• Five years related financial/accounting and finance management experience required; 7 years financial or cost management experience with multi-office and multi-national international development organization preferred
• 8-12 years’ experience supervising and mentoring Grants, Contracts and Finance.
• Knowledge of cost accounting methods and practices applicable to management of private and federal monies
• Experience development of policies, procedures and systems relative to finance and accounting practices
• Proficiency in MS Office, financial software applications and reporting package 

COMPETENCIES

• Experience with international, non-profit organizations
• Experience with Project Management tools to manage large projects efficiently and effectively
• Advanced knowledge of post-award process
• Strong understanding and interpretation of, CFRs (Code of Federal Regulations), and FARs (Federal Acquisition Regulations)
• Strong understanding of international contracts and cooperative agreements including their relevant terms, conditions and the differences between them
• Demonstrates leadership and management style that works in cooperation with others who represent a wide range of interests and needs
• Demonstrated high-level skills in planning, organizing and managing multiple tasks
• Ability to work independently and exercise independent judgment
• Ability to work in a fast-paced complex team environment with multiple projects/tasks, short deadlines, competing deadlines and intense pressure to perform
• Excellent organizational, presentation and verbal and written communications skills in English