Finance Operations Lead at Mastercard Foundation: (Deadline 14 March 2022)

Finance Operations Lead at Mastercard Foundation: (Deadline 14 March 2022)

ABOUT MASTERCARD FOUNDATION

Mastercard Foundation seeks a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper. Through its Young Africa Works strategy and Canadian EleV program, the Foundation works with partners to ensure that millions of young people, especially young women, access quality education, financial services, and dignified work. Mastercard Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. The Foundation is independent with its own Board of Directors and CEO.

THE WORK AT THE FOUNDATION

We have entered a very exciting time at the Foundation as we scale up our operations across Africa to realize our Young Africa Works strategy. Our role at the Mastercard Foundation is to be a catalyst. Our Young Africa Works strategy focuses on working with others to spur systemic change so young people have the opportunity to find work that is dignified and fulfilling.

The Foundation has opened offices in Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Uganda, building a broader leadership presence in Africa to develop specific strategies that support youth employment.  Within a country, we work with governments, the private sector, educators, young people, and other funders to improve the quality of education and vocational training, prepare young people for the work force, expand access to financial services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and connect job seekers to dignified and fulfilling work.

We are ambitious and driven. Our values transcend and rise above everything else as our guide. We encourage you to bring your bold ideas, curiosity, and expertise to your work. We laugh at ourselves and with each other. We are a team. Our journey together makes our impact even more meaningful.

UNDERSTANDING CANADA PROGRAMS AT THE FOUNDATION

The Foundation has begun working within Canada in partnership with Indigenous communities and post-secondary institutions to listen, learn, and best understand how we can act in meaningful ways. The EleV strategy was co-created with Indigenous communities, young people, and partners to enable 30,000 Indigenous youth to complete their education and transition to dignified work aligned with their values and aspirations.

As reflected in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action, education is a key driver of improved socio-economic well-being. Through building partnerships with Indigenous communities, we look to expand our initiative ultimately helping to support a generation of transformative Indigenous young leaders who will be change agents within their communities. We believe that by setting a bold target, we will encourage engagement across sectors and create momentum that will elevate the strengths and opportunities of Indigenous youth. In keeping with our approach, Indigenous communities and young people will be the drivers of this transformation. The program will promote innovations to address longer-term systemic change to achieve economic prosperity and social well-being within Indigenous communities.

The EleV team oversees current and emerging partnerships related to Indigenous education. Consistent with our overall vision and Youth Africa Works strategy, we will share learnings and opportunities to connect across the work of the Foundation. While operating in distinct contexts, the centrality of youth voice and vision, affirmation of culture and identity, and priority to enhance community capacity for self-determination are common threads upon which our work is strengthened and reinforced.

If you are an experienced Finance Operations professional looking to increase your impact, read on!

THE OPPORTUNITY

Reporting to the Head of Finance & Accounting, Africa, the role will lead the delivery of operational excellence of Finance and Accounting work in support of the Foundation’s programmatic work. The incumbent leads overall planning, transformational programs and effectiveness of F&A strategic and operational work. The role leads continuous improvement of financial tools, systems, and processes that will effectively scale with the Foundation’s growth.

The successful candidate will be based in any of our Africa hubs; Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE 

• Lead the design, seek approvals and drive implementation of the Finance transformation projects and partner the Strategy and planning function in their transformation programs to deliver a strengthened organization capability.
• Determine and align the full scope of Finance transformation activities/roadmap that support both the F&A team, Programs and overall organizational strategic direction.
• Expertly advise finance and senior leadership, provide integration across functions and propose solutions for execution of roadmap activities including what should be done, who should do it and how it should be done.
• Cultivate strong, positive and collaborative relationships with leadership and staff at all levels across all functions to ensure credibility, buy-in and understanding of the transformational activities.
• Engage Finance and Cross-functional leadership to ensure that all transformation roadmaps are achieved and provide advanced interventional guidance when required.
• Work closely with Operations colleagues to develop system roadmaps, select automation tools and coordinate implementation and improvement.
• Lead the design of optimum future-state processes and policies leveraging automated, cloud-based capabilities.
• Understand risk management and control frameworks to ensure the finance transformational activities are conducted within these and organizational policies and procedures.
• Manage the global F&A planning activities including coordinating regional and program submissions, consolidation of management reporting data and presentation outputs.
• Manage the reporting of performance to plans including the integration of both historical F&A performance with forward looking operational forecasts. Create insight, exception driven and future focused financial outputs.
• Partner with the Director F&A to build up business cases, run due diligence processes and analytics to support strategic initiatives.
• Partner with the DoF&A and FLT to support the development of Program Finance strategic plan.
• Manage resources and capabilities planning to support the FLT and programs to ensure delivery of strategies and ensure alignment with Program/Finance growth.
• Translating regional plans into tangible workplan(s) including the identification of resourcing requirements to support delivery & ensure completion of deliverables as per approved Workplans.
• Lead F&A ways of working; Finance strategic alignment, planning, coordination, performance (against strategic KPIs) monitoring, norms, routines processes management and reporting.
• Identify projects, prioritize and lead all project management work to ensure implementation.
• Monitor information flow, act as a gatekeeper, ensuring a Director’s involvement in a project or decision-making process at the right moment.
• Liaise with the Director on key management issues and factors blocking operational effectiveness including decision-making and help drive closure to ensure overall productivity.
• Lead the planning and execution of Program Finance governance including, committee meetings, workshops and other regional convenings.
• Lead cross collaboration & integration – linking activities across Functions.
• Partner with other functions across the Foundation to prepare and keep updated a short-term and long-term strategic roadmap for the finance function, allowing the finance team to plan in advance for resourcing and other needs.
• Manage the agenda for key cross-function meetings, including core team meetings and off-sites, and ensure communication and coordination between teams is as efficient as possible.
• Build strong relationships with other key Operations leads across the foundation to ensure alignment and cohesion of the various projects and implementation.

WHO YOU ARE

• Bachelor’s degree, MBA strongly preferred
• 10+ years of prior experience in strategy, management consulting, or finance, 4+ years in Mid-level Senior Management experience.
• Experience in Transformation programs and Projects at a regional/global scale an added advantage.
• Creativity in solving problems and generating innovative solutions.
• Strong Project Management skills and experience: ability to drive multiple high-profile projects, effective leverage all resources to drive results (Sigma six green/black belt added advantage).
• Well-honed written, verbal and creative communication skills, including ability to translate insight into content, create slide or written presentations, create overall communication plans.
• Broad Knowledge of financial analysis and reporting techniques; human resources and risk management planning; and/or accounting and payroll.
• Broad knowledge of processes, protocols and procedures with a focus on Finance.
• Strong collaborator and relationship builder who can establish trust, respect, and credibility to co-create solutions across a range of stakeholders.
• A highly analytical problem-solver and critical thinker who can define root cause, evaluate alternatives, and find solutions effectively.
• Comfortable with uncertainty and possess the flexibility to co-create with dynamic, cross-functional teams to deliver integrated solutions.
• Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity.
• Focus on execution and attention to detail.
• Experience in coordinating diverse programs and functions for a very diverse department.
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
• Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.
• Demonstrate a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.

Deadline for Applications is March 15, 2022.

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