Senior Finance Officer

The Terre des hommes Foundation (Tdh), with headquarters in Lausanne and an office in Zurich, is the leading Swiss child rights organisation with more than 2000 employees worldwide. We stand together with children to uphold their rights, protect their lives and improve their well-being. We achieve this through innovative programmes focused on health, migration and access to justice, specially designed to have a positive and sustainable impact.

Tdh has been working in Afghanistan since 1995 and carry out projects related to Child Protection, Mother and Child health and Livelihood Programs in Kabul, Balkh, Kunar and Nangarhar provinces

General Responsibilities:

Under the direct management of the Finance Manager, the Senior Finance Officer provides senior technical support in budget monitoring, donor financial compliance, partner financial follow-up, internal controls, financial reporting, and finance support to field bases. The position collaborates with the Senior Accountant on analytical allocation review, budget availability checks, and audit readiness from a budget and compliance perspective. The position does not currently have direct staff management responsibilities.

• Monitors Country Office financial resources from a budget, donor compliance, cash-flow planning, and internal control perspective, contributing to financial equilibrium and early risk identification.

• Coordinates the preparation, review, consolidation, and quality assurance of internal and donor financial reports, ensuring accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and consistency with approved budgets and reporting requirements.

• Maintains and analyses the Financial Monitoring Tool, supports budget holders in budget follow-up and forecasting, flags financial risks, and proposes corrective actions to the Finance Manager and relevant managers.

• Provides finance technical support to field bases, budget holders, programme teams, and partners on budget management, documentation standards, donor compliance, and financial reporting.
  

Main Responsibilities:

Cash-flow support and field-base finance support

• Monitor cash-flow needs with the Finance Manager, field bases, and HQ to support timely implementation and flag potential funding or liquidity risks.

• Support the monthly closing process from a budget and compliance perspective by reviewing analytical allocation consistency, identifying issues, and following up with budget holders, field bases, and the Senior Accountant on required corrections.

   

Budget and donor funding contracts management

• Coordinate, under the supervision of the Finance Manager, the preparation and revision of annual and interim budgets, ensuring alignment with Tdh financial guidelines, donor rules, operational priorities, cost-efficiency principles, and the Country Office financial strategy.

• Ensure realistic budgeting, proper codification of expenses, and effective budget steering.

• Provide finance approval for budget availability checks and verify that PR and PAWR expense requests are aligned with approved budgets, donor eligibility rules, correct budget lines, cost centres, and analytical allocations before validation.

• Ensure adherence to the Tdh signatory schedule for purchases and payment authorizations within the finance review and validation process.

• Follow up Country Office and donor budgets, including partner contract budgets, and escalate significant deviations to the Finance Manager and relevant managers.

• Support operational teams in the design of budgets for the proposals to be submitted to donors and review and ensure approval from the Country Office before sending to HQ.

• Lead the monthly update and analysis of the Financial Monitoring Tool for donor and Country Office budgets, consolidate budget follow-up inputs, explain variances, and provide recommendations to budget holders and management.

• Anticipate and prepare cost or no-cost extension of donor contracts or budget amendments.

• Keep up to date with the procedures of institutional donors providing funding for the Country Office and ensure compliance with these procedures.

• Prepare financial risk analyses, budget scenarios, expenditure forecasts, and funding gap updates to support timely decision-making by the Finance Manager, Country Representative, and programme managers.

• Participate in the training of the top management teams on budget management tools.

• Ensure the respect of HQ deadlines and monitoring process.

• Provide technical support and coaching to field-base finance focal points and relevant staff on budget follow-up, analytical allocations, documentation standards, donor compliance, financial tools, and reporting requirements, without direct line-management responsibility.

• Conduct remote and on-site technical follow-up with field bases to identify capacity-building needs, clarify procedures, and support resolution of finance-related issues.

Partnership Management:

• Coordinate the financial component of partner due diligence, review partner financial capacity, identify risks, and contribute to the development and monitoring of partner capacity-building plans in line with Tdh and donor requirements.

• Review and validate partner financial reports, supporting documents, budget follow-up, forecasts, and liquidation files, providing timely feedback and ensuring compliance before consolidation and booking.

• Strengthen partners’ financial monitoring and control mechanisms through targeted capacity building and follow-up.

• Coordinate with logistics and programme teams to review partner supporting documents, expenses, and payment requests before validation.

• Conduct partners field visits and spot checks.

• Document partner financial monitoring findings, agree on corrective action plans, follow up implementation, and escalate significant compliance or financial risks to the Finance Manager and relevant programme managers.

Reporting and communication

• Represent the finance function, within delegated authority, in coordination with internal teams, partners, auditors, banks, financial institutions, and relevant external stakeholders on finance-related matters.

• Disseminate the financial information within the Country Office for both for institutional and internal reporting.

• Prepare and consolidate finance inputs for monthly and ad hoc reports, including budget analysis, cash-flow status, donor reporting, partner financial monitoring, audit follow-up, and key financial risks.

• Track donor reporting deadlines and prepare financial reporting inputs in coordination with the Finance Manager, programme teams, and HQ.

• Follow up on monetary market, prices and exchange rates.

Audit, Compliance & Internal Control

• Support the Finance Manager and audit focal point in maintaining compliance with Tdh financial procedures, donor conditions, statutory requirements, anti-fraud measures, and internal control standards.

• Follow up VAT and duty exemption procedures and maintain records of exempted materials in coordination with relevant teams.

• Contribute to audit preparation by coordinating budget, donor compliance, partner financial monitoring, and internal control inputs, while accounting records remain under the accounting function.

• Develop and monitor audit recommendation action plans with responsible staff, ensuring deadlines are documented, corrective measures are implemented, and recurrent findings are addressed.

• Conduct periodic internal control checks, document findings, recommend improvements, and support the implementation of finance SOPs and risk mitigation measures.

• Contribute to the drafting and updating of finance manuals and SOPs, ensuring alignment with Tdh procedures, donor requirements, and internal control principles.

Perform any other tasks as maybe be requested by the line manager.

Education & Qualification :

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, Management, or another relevant field. A professional certification or advanced training in finance, accounting, audit, grants management, or donor compliance is an asset.

Experience / Skills :

• Minimum 6 years of relevant experience in finance, accounting, budgeting, grants, audit, or financial compliance, preferably in an NGO or international organization, including at least 2 years in a senior finance, supervisory, coordination, or advisory role.
• Advanced technical knowledge of budgeting, donor compliance, financial monitoring, internal controls, partner financial follow-up, cash-flow planning, and financial reporting.
• Ability to interpret and apply legal, administrative, donor, contractual, and financial documents and translate them into practical guidance for teams and partners.
• Strong capacity to analyse budgets, forecasts, variances, financial risks, and funding gaps and to propose timely corrective actions.
• Ability to guide and build the capacity of field-base finance focal points, finance colleagues, budget holders, programme teams, and partners on financial procedures and tools, without direct staff supervision.
• Ability to contribute to audit preparation, follow up audit recommendations, review analytical allocations and budget coding from a compliance perspective, and strengthen internal control systems.
• Excellent planning, communication, coordination, problem-solving, and analytical skills, with the ability to work independently and escalate risks appropriately.

Languages:

Excellent verbal and written English, in addition to fluency in Pashto and Dari

IT knowledge :

Advanced command of Microsoft Office, especially Excel; strong knowledge of accounting and financial management software, with SAGA experience considered an advantage.

Please click on the below email to apply to the position:

https://jobs.tdh.org/en-GB/jobs/internal/f4133347-4926-4403-80f5-b6258ca776ee