Finance Manager Job in Kenya

Position: Finance Manager

Reports To: Country Director

Deadline To Apply:Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, therefore early application is strongly recommended

Start Date: October 15th, 2014

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Eligibility: Position open to local Kenyan hires only

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to discovering and promoting effective solutions to global poverty problems. In close partnership with decision makers—the policymakers, practitioners, investors, and donors working with the poor around the world—we design and evaluate potential solutions to poverty problems using randomized evaluations,
the most rigorous evaluation method available. We also mobilize and support these decision makers to use these solutions to build better programs and policies at scale.

In collaboration with over 250 leading academics and implementing organizations, we have results from over 175 completed studies with over 225 in progress around the world. Our studies cover solutions for effective agriculture, education, health, finance, governance, social protection, and post conflict recovery. 

We have over 1,000 colleagues in 11 permanent offices supporting 16 countries, where we conduct research and routinely consult with governments, foundations, NGOs, and others to present evidence that can inform their work. For more information, visit www.poverty-action.org.

IPA-Kenya (IPAK) is IPA’s oldest country program, and the site of many of its most influential projects, including seminal studies on de-worming, clean water promotion, bed-net usage and fertilizer subsidies. IPAK is now also the site of IPA’s largest “scale-up” projects – including a national de-worming program and community-based chlorine dispensers. 

These are programs whose impact and cost-effectiveness have been proven by researchers and can now be implemented at scale, and millions of Kenyan children have been de-wormed, and hundreds of thousands have access to clean water as a result. IPAK employs more than 400 contracted staff working on 20 different projects across multiple offices.

The Head of Finance will consult directly with the Finance team at IPA’s HQ (New Haven, Connecticut).

Management Responsibility
  • To ensure effective utilization of Program/project funds according to the organization’s policies and procedures and the donor guidelines
  • Member of the Country Management team
General Outline of Responsibilities
  • Provide general oversight to ensure compliance, transparency and accountability of Finance functions.
  • Improve cost-effectiveness of finance structures while maintaining necessary support to projects
  • Ensure appropriate billings of costs to the appropriate grants and ensure that expenditure reallocations are timely and accurately executed
  • Create systems to closely track spending against grants and budgets, communicating to project managers regarding balances, deadlines and spending prioritization
  • Ensure that financial reports for each grant are timely issue and collaborate with research associates and research managers to eliminate residual errors.
  • Maintain budget projection documents and assist project/research managers to develop budgets in consultation with relevant senior managers
  • Participate in preparation of annual operational budgets for the program and projects by determining funds available for the budget, activities scheduled for the year and their cost.
  • Provide operational support to project managers on expenditure management to include: Short-term action plans and expenditure scheduling
  • Initiate and engage regular review meetings with research Managers to resolve and discuss various financial and accounting issues and queries.
  • Provide monthly progress reports for review by the Country Director on project funding status and cash management.
  • Participate in internal audits as scheduled and in external audits by providing auditors with accounting documents as requested and providing explanations for audit queries.
Required Qualifications
  • Degree in financial management, business administration, or related field
  • CPA-K/ACCA qualifications
  • At least 5 years of professional experience in finance.
  • Proven record as an excellent communicator and a strategic thinker
  • International work experience with a global organization, preferably in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Knowledge of Abila formerly SAGE accounting software
  • Experience working with large international donors
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience working in Kenya
  • Willingness to work in a dynamic, fast-paced organization and the ability to thrive in a collaborative, cross-cultural work culture.
  • Experience working on USAID-funded projects
Applications can be submitted by email to jobs-kenya@poverty-action.org. If you submit by email, please ensure that the subject line reads: “Finance Manager.” REF NO: FK-2014-09-01. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Disclaimer: 

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of the work being performed by the Finance Manager. The statements are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all possible duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Management reserves the right to amend and change responsibilities to meet organizational needs as necessary. 

Please note that IPA will never request any form of payment from an applicant. Applicants are encouraged to confirm the information listed above with IPA prior to releasing any extensive personal information to the organization. 


Please direct questions to jobs-kenya@poverty-action.org.