Finance officer, Grants

By helping us manage and account for how we spent the money we receive from donations and from institutional and government donors, you’ll be working to lift individuals and communities around the world out of poverty.

Our projects depend on donations and institutional funding and every penny spent needs to be accounted for, so new funds can be released at key stages. It will be down to you to help manage the processes involved in that. From validating the monthly financial returns received from projects in around five countries and processing new grant payments, to reconciling sterling and foreign currency accounts, you’ll aim to do everything quickly, efficiently and make sure we meet our reporting requirements. And we’ll expect you to use your understanding of all that involves, and liaise with country officers where necessary, to identify and resolve potential issues at the earliest stage.

Proven skills in financial management or accounting are essential for this role. And ideally you’ll be working towards an accountancy qualification. Whatever your background you’ll have plenty of experience in bank reconciliation and reporting work, and ideally exposure to foreign currencies. You’ll also need to have a good knowledge of double-entry bookkeeping and strong IT skills, particularly in Excel and ideally experience of using Sun systems.

More than half the world lives in poverty. We aim to put a stop to that. So we campaign against the inequalities that keep people poor and we work with local organisations to give people strength to find their own solutions to the problems they face, irrespective of their religion. If you’re as determined as we are to end poverty and injustice across the world, work with us to make change happen.

Please show your suitability for this post by giving answers to the following questions: Using the guidance notes may help you formulate your answers.

Communication and interaction

Part of the role is to provide feedback to offices around the world. Tell us about a time when you had to provide comments or feedback on an important issue.

Describe your communication approach/strategy
Describe your success in getting the message across
What was the result?
How did the situation impact on the rest of the team?
How did the team deal with the issue?

Attention to detail

Describe a situation where you have ensured financial data in multiple currencies was processed accurately and in line with agreed timetables.

What was the situation and your role?
How did you ensure information was processed to agreed timetables?
What actions did you take to ensure accuracy?

Team work

Tell us about a time when you realized that you needed to involve other members of your team in order to achieve a shared objective.

What objective was involved?
How did you come to realise that other team members needed to be involved?
How did you go about involving others?
How did the other team members react to getting involved?
What was the outcome?

Information gathering and processing

Describe a situation where you had to examine the information surrounding a particular financial discrepancy

What was the situation?
What was the source of information?
How did you determine what the most essential pieces of information where?
What was the solution?

We value the contribution each person makes to the success of our organisation. That’s why you can expect a wide range of rewards and benefits, including a generous holiday allowance, a season ticket loan, and flexibility that will ensure you enjoy a good work/life balance.

As this post is UK based, non-EC nationals will require current and valid permission to work in the UK.

Download the role profile (63 KB pdf)

To apply for this post, please download an application pack and email your completed UK & Ireland application form to: recruitment@christian-aid.org (quoting the reference number). Alternatively, your completed application form can be printed out and posted to us at:

Christian Aid
35 Lower Marsh
Waterloo
London SE1 7RT

Job reference: 213/LJ

Closing date: 12 noon, Thursday 20 October 2011

Interview date: Monday 31 October 2011

Christian Aid values diversity and aspires to reflect this in our workforce. We welcome applications from people from all sections of the community, irrespective of race, colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief.