Sightsavers implements projects in over 30 countries in Africa and South Asia working to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote the rights of people with disabilities. We are looking for a new Project Finance and Risk Advisor to work closely with country office staff and other support teams to ensure that projects funded by donors run smoothly.

Location: Kenya (Nairobi) or Zambia (Lusaka)

Contract: Two-year fixed term contract

Salary: Local Terms and Conditions apply

About the role

Project Finance and Risk Advisors at Sightsavers specialise in support and advice of project financial management and donor compliance to key stakeholders across the organisation. They offer support and advice across the key stages of Sightsavers projects life cycle: design, launch, implementation and close-out. They ensure that project financial planning, monitoring and reporting are delivered on time and to a high standard.

A typical day could include:

• Calling a country office finance manager to discuss pending issues in the financial report
• Noticing an area for improvement in our review process. Making a note of it to bring up in our team meeting next week
• Dealing with ad-hoc requests about exchange rates and budget flexibility from various country office and global contacts
• Attending a meeting with stakeholders across the organisation to kick-start a proposal application
• Working on a payroll journal that charges staff time to donors for this month
• Pausing your work on the payroll journal to review and sign-off that project financial report that just came in your inbox.

About you

This job may be for you if you are:

• proactive by nature and have initiative
• comfortable taking decisions and have a good sense of when to escalate issues
• quick to notice irregularities, yet you do not lose sight of the bigger picture
• good at solving problems and have a keen eye for improvement
• confident holding close working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders

Jobholder Requirements

Essential:

• Able to demonstrate finance and accountancy experience or excellent numerical skills
• Awareness of overseas development context gained through working in the INGO sector
• Extensive experience of institutional donor project financial management
• Excellent numerical skills
• Advanced Proficiency with Microsoft Excel
• Good English language skills and experience working in English
• Good communication and stakeholder management skills
• Well organised with an appreciation of meeting reporting commitments
• Ability to work independently and manage a portfolio of projects, acting as a point of reference
• Strong attention to detail with a willingness to follow issues through to resolution
• Continuous improvement mindset, seeking ways to improve processes and mitigate risk
• Willingness to continuously develop skills and knowledge to remain current with donor funding developments

Desirable:

• Proven experience of USAID, EC and FCDO project financial management
• Proven experience of financial training to finance staff
• Experience of a computer-based accounting system
• Any knowledge of languages aside for English (notable focus on French, Portuguese, Wolof, Swahili)
• High level of programmatic and financial understanding of the project cycle
• Able to explain financial issues and procedures to a non-financial audience.