Operations and Finance Manager 183 views0 applications

Employment type: This is a full time, permanent contract subject to funding availability
Start date: Monday 1 June 2020 (negotiable)
Location: Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa
Deadline to apply: 5pm, Friday 17 April 2020. Late applications may be accepted at the organisations discretion
Black women, members of the LGBTQI community and people living with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

Summary of position:

amandla.mobi is inviting applicants to join our small, but highly skilled team, based in Johannesburg, to serve our members across South Africa. The organisation launched in 2014 and has grown rapidly from a startup.

The ideal candidate must be excited about working in a small team that campaigns for social justice, using technology, communications and tools that enable our members to build people-power and hold decision makers to account. Our workplace is fast paced and ever changing, and we’re looking for a skilled individual with enormous initiative who thrives in a shifting environment and is task oriented.

If this sounds like you, we can’t wait to receive your application!

The Organisation

amandla.mobi is an independent, community advocacy organisation that seeks to build a more just and people powered Mzansi. We do this through our work, which aims to turn every cell phone into a democracy building tool, so that those most affected by poverty, violence and corruption – Black women from low-income backgrounds – can organise in numbers that hold power to account. amandla.mobi supports a movement of over 300,000 members across South Africa.

amandla.mobi is currently a team of 8 people who, on a daily basis, work with our members to set up campaigns on different social justice issues by using different tactics such as petitions, public submissions, meetings with decision makers, crowdfunding for campaign tactics, events, mobilising communities etc. We work with over 40 different values-aligned partner organisations who, together with our members, set up and run campaigns on www.awethu.mobi.

amandla.mobi communicates with its members through SMS, USSD, Whatsapp, email, our mobi site and social media, and we work hard to ensure as many of our campaigns as possible are translated into isiZulu, isiXhosa and Setswana.
amandla.mobi is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer.

Location

The amandla.mobi office is based in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. The Operations and Finance Manager will need to be able to work from this office 5 days a week.

About the role

We are looking for someone who can thrive under pressure. Someone who isn’t overwhelmed by multiple workflows and who, when facing deadlines for a financial report, onboarding staff and the need to set up systems and processes from scratch, enjoys the challenge of making things happen.

Our ideal Operations and Finance Manager is someone who enjoys the challenge of maintaining, developing and  improving existing finance and HR systems and processes. The role is for a detail-oriented person who is also very flexible and understands that we are an evolving organisation that cannot operate with unnecessary red tape.

amandla.mobi is very different from other organisations. In particular, we very rarely roll out specific projects or programmes. Instead, all our work is focused on campaigns, most of which are rapid response. We are looking for an Operations and Finance Manager who likes structure but isn’t rigid. To be happy in this role, you need to be flexible and not get frustrated when plans change. We’re looking for someone who can also manage up and sideways to ensure all staff deliver on the organisation’s Key Performance Outputs and complete financial reports and other requirements on time.

The Operations and Finance Manager will be part of the organisation’s management team, and will report to the Executive Director.

Responsibilities

The Operations and Finance Manager will have the following responsibilities:

Operations Management:

• Work with legal and other consultants to ensure compliance with South African law. This may include, but is not limited to, compliance with POPI, labour law etc.
• Manage the operations team to ensure the smooth administrative operations of the office.
• Work with senior management to ensure strict adherence to the Performance Management Policy and processes, as well as the Disciplinary Policy and procedures, to ensure that all staff and contractors complete tasks and meet Key Performance targets in line with their respective employment contracts.
• Oversee office and facilities’ management, including coordinating equipment purchases and maintenance, ensuring an up-to-date asset register including the tracking of assets signed out by staff,
• Ensure  staff development and organisational culture in line with amandla.mobi core values and vision.
• Manage recruitment (of staff, volunteers, interns and consultants).

Financial Management:

• Work with senior management to approve and track the organisation’s budget, as well as campaign and project specific budgets.
• Track income and expenditure, manage cash flow, adjust the organisation’s financial forecasts, spot weaknesses and challenges in the short and long-term, and develop plans with senior management to ensure the organisation’s short and long-term financial sustainability. This includes ensuring expenditure and income across different grant specific budgets are tracked and in line with grant contracts; and routine comparison of budget projections with actual spending to identify potential areas of concern and recommend necessary budget modifications.
• Prepare documentation for monthly meetings with our external accountants to go through income and expenditure in order to ensure our books are up to date.
• Manage financial service providers including our external accountants and auditors.
• Ensure the organisation’s financial systems, policies, procedures and strategies are followed, including enhancing financial policies and ensuring highly efficient systems for processing requisitions, reimbursements and other financial systems. This includes ensuring strong internal financial controls, implementing and monitoring systems, policies and procedures and budgeting/planning processes, as well as suggesting and implementing best practices.
• Supervising the Office Administrator to prepare invoices and requisitions for payments, including researching and finding service providers that are ideally Black, women-owned businesses.
• Liaise with accountants on monthly salaries and tax deductions, work with staff and partners to prepare operations and activity budgets.
• Take full responsibility for ensuring all financial reports, statements and audits for donors are prepared well in advance and submitted on time. This includes ensuring compliance with donor specific financial reporting, financial monitoring etc., as well as working with our external accountants and auditors to complete our annual financial statements.
• Ensure financial compliance with CIPC, SARS and other bodies in order to maintain amandla.mobi’s good standing as a Non-Profit Company with Public Benefit Organisation (18A) status.
• Ensure strong financial systems are in place for processing donations and ensuring our donations policy is complied with.
• Develop  collaborative working relationships with partners and funders’ financial staff.
• Provide oversight, support and training to staff on financial tasks such as financial reporting, and tracking activity expenses.
• Oversee employee and consultants payroll.

Fundraising:

Write fundraising proposals and grant applications in collaboration with other senior managers. This may involve managing relationships with existing funders, and ensure compliance and reporting with existing grant agreements.

The Operations and Finance Manager may also work alongside the rest of the senior managers in developing and managing new funding streams to ensure the organisation’s long term financial sustainability.

Skills and experience required:

• Proven track record in managing finances and operations.
• Proven track record of being able to work independently and take initiative at management level.
• Track record in organisational development, people management and working closely with others.
• Strong experience managing budgets and finances
• Fluent in writing and speaking at least one local language and English.
• Extremely comfortable using technology from word processors, spreadsheets and databases, to online task and project management tools, cloud-based platforms and internal communication tools such as Slack; and able to quickly adapt to using new technology tools, and easily use Google to work out how to use different tools.
• Experience in report writing and grant applications
•  There are no educational requirements for this role.

Big pluses include:

• Experience working in a startup environment with a team of innovative campaigners and administrators.
• An understanding of the amandla.mobi model of mobile campaigning.
• Experience in working closely with communities and individuals affected by the issues we campaign on.
• Extensive network of community organisations, nonprofits and advocacy groups.
• A political, economic and social understanding of South Africa that is pro-Black, pro-women and pro-poor.
• Member-focused fundraising experience.
• Experience managing/running campaigns in a digital context.

Compensation

Salary will be determined based on your experience. All employees are subject to a three month probation period.
amandla.mobi does not provide medical aid, pension, life assurance or any other benefits, to any of its staff.

How to apply

Applications will close at 5pm on Wednesday 22 April 2020. Late applications will only be accepted at the discretion of the organisation. Click https://www.amandla.mobi/operations_finance_manager to complete the online application and upload a comprehensive CV (8 pages maximum).
If you have any queries, please email [email protected].