Job Opportunity for Sr. Manager Finance at The Convergence Foundation in Delhi

About The Convergence Foundation

Ashish Dhawan is one of India’s leading philanthropists. He founded and ran one of India’s first private equity funds, ChrysCapital, and in the last decade has helped build successful institutions (for e.g., Ashoka University) and strategic foundations (for e.g., Central Square Foundation, which works on school education reform). More recently, these include organizations that are working on building a better understanding between India and East Asia, improving the performance of the public sector, solving the air pollution crisis, and improving the pipeline of leadership and talent in the social sector.

We have set up The Convergence Foundation to do this in an institutionalized manner – identify critical voids in the social sector and build strong, long-lasting organizations to solve complex problems.

In order to ensure that our organizations reach their maximum potential, The Convergence Foundation will work closely with each of the organizations and provide strategic support in a variety of ways: developing deep connections with the broader ecosystem (including the government, donors, and others influencers), recruiting best-in-class talent, establishing robust impact and outcome measurement processes and capacity, building a strong brand and network of champions, initiating cross-learning between organizations, and building fundraising capacity.

We aim to build 20+ new foundations in the next 15 years that will create impact at scale in the sectors they operate in. We are looking for smart, entrepreneurial, and mission driven people to join us on this journey.

Our Current Portfolio

• Central Square Foundation (est. 2012)
• Air Pollution Action Group (est. 2019)
• India Leaders for Social Sector (est. 2017)
• Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States (est. 2019)
• ACT EdTech Ambition Fund (est. 2020)
• Accelerate Indian Philanthropy (est. 2021)
• Foundation for Advancing Science and Technology (est. 2021)
• Circle In (est. 2022)
• Foundation for Economic Development (est. 2022)
• ChangeINKK (est. 2022)
• Sports and Society Accelerator (est.2022)
• The Infravision Foundation (est. 2022)

Position Summary

The Sr. Manager is a key role that spans across all portfolio organisations and involves both operational and advisory support to senior leaders. The role involves interacting with members of the leadership team, overseeing financial and MIS reporting functions including budget, financial statements, payables, payroll, banking, managing administrative activities and office operations for all organisations within the TCF portfolio (with the exception of Ashoka University and Central Square Foundation). This leader will also be responsible for building robust, seamless processes, effectively driving operations across TCF and early-stage portfolio organisations, and managing the finance and administrative team members while working closely with numerous vendors and consultants.

The role is critical to ensuring we ensure the best processes are in place at TCF and our organisations in order to drive philanthropy work, strategic policy and advocacy work, and ecosystem development work. The role will report to the CFO of The Convergence Foundation.

Key Responsibilities

The core focus of this role is to collaborate with leadership teams of a few portfolio organisations to assist them in determining and fulfilling their financial needs, and executing all finance-related processes from start to end. Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Safeguard all organisations’ charitable status through a comprehensive knowledge of relevant law, guidance and best practice in relation to the structure of the organisation Ensure compliance with administration and financial regulations in relation to charity, trust and company law and regulations
• Review contractual agreements between organisations and outside vendors and consultants, including managing and negotiating office and equipment leases
• Oversee preparation of taxes and reports
• Facilitate preparation of annual independent audit
• Oversee information technology and office purchases, policies, contracts, and equipment Liaise with external advisers – accountants, lawyers, and other advisers where appropriate
• Monitor billing/issuing receipts for all grants and contracts, make recommendations to management based on trends, future projections and business goals and objectives. Ensures fiscal compliance for all grants of assigned clients
• Review, approve and ensure timely and accurate processing of payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash receipts, general ledger, and reconciliations
• Ensure financial records are maintained in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Accounting Policies, grant/contract requirements, and monitor the use of all funds
• Prepare timely, accurate monthly, quarterly and annual internal/external financial and other meaningful ad hoc reports along with supporting documentation
• Investigate and explain material variances, highlight trends for management, and provide recommendations
• Develop and oversee accounting policies and procedures to meet both current and future business models and comply

Required Qualifications, Skills and Abilities

Ideal candidates should have the following qualifications and skills that are required for this role:

• A CA or ICMA with a Bachelor’s degree in business, accounting, finance, or related discipline.
• 12-15+ years of work experience in business finance and controllership demonstrating strong operational and leadership skills, including the ability to build and lead teams from scratch
• Ability to analyze complex qualitative and quantitative data, craft possible solutions, and recommend actions
• Ability to build and maintain positive and collaborative relationships both within and outside the organization, including with colleagues, regulators, foundations, researchers, grantees, and education product/service providers
• Ability to lead meetings, deliver presentations, and represent TCF or the organisations to external audiences
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, strong presentation skills
• Strong planning and organizational skills, and an ability to be able to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines
• Technology savvy with experience selecting and overseeing software installations and managing relationships with software vendors; knowledge of accounting and reporting software

Personal Characteristics and Desired Qualities

• Professional attitude and time management skills
• Flexibility and collaboration skills
• Multitasking and time-management skills, with the ability to prioritize tasks
• Able to contribute positively as part of a team, helping out with various tasks as required
• Multiple leadership Stakeholder Management

Compensation

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate’s experience.