India: Assistant Controller (Finance & Accounting)

Organizational Profile:

Room to Read is a global organization transforming the lives of millions of children in low-income countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, our innovative model focuses on deep, systemic transformation within schools in low-income countries during two time periods which are most critical in a child’s schooling: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls’ education. We work in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensure girls can complete secondary school with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions. Room to Read has benefited 10 million children across 17,500 communities in Asia and Africa, and aims to reach 15 million children by 2020. Learn more at www.roomtoread.org.

Position Overview:

The Assistant Controller reports to the Global Controller in San Francisco. In collaboration with the Global Controller and the CFO, the Assistant Controller will build, mentor and develop Room to Read’s Accounting team, play a hands-on role in evaluating, improving and documenting existing accounting processes, and represent the Finance department to internal and external business partners.

Key responsibilities include providing technical non-profit accounting leadership; overseeing the maintenance and implementation of compliance requirements, particularly for US Government funding; managing and streamlining the monthly close process; and managing accounting operations (General Ledger, Revenue, Inventory, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets, Cash, Payroll, Intercompany Transactions, Chart of Accounting). The Assistant Controller is also the primary point of contact for our external auditors, has regular communication with the Audit Committee, is responsible for financial reporting.

The ideal candidate for this position is an individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment, is adept at change, and is capable of innovating and building controlled scalable processes to help facilitate our next phase of growth.

This position can be based in San Francisco, USA or New Delhi, India.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Develop the accounting team capabilities
• Provide technical expertise and leadership to the finance and business organization on the treatment of accounting issues, implementation of new non-profit accounting standards and compliance with U.S. GAAP
• Liaise with internal auditors, legal counsel and independent external auditors to ensure that critical processes, including internal control/compliance narratives and accounting policies, are well documented and broadly understood. Introduce new policies as necessary.
• Ensure that financial reporting and internal control/compliance are in place and operating effectively
• Work with the Controller in producing accurate and timely financial statements
• Improve, optimize and automate reporting capabilities
• Lead statutory audits and serve as the primary contact point for the global consolidated audits
• Act as key point of contact for all global banking relationships
• Assist with special projects for the Controller and CFO as necessary
• In Intacct, manage the month end close cycle, including journal entry review, account analyses and reconciliations
• Ensure proper consolidation and intercompany elimination of legal entities
• Perform financial statement analytics and provide relevant explanations for fluctuations
• Maintain and control global cash flow in line with Revenue and Expenditure projections and Investment Reserve policy
• Review and approve monthly reconciliation of global revenue streams from a variety of donor sources and instruments, ensure that revenue recognition is in compliance with local and global accounting standards
• Lead the research, evaluation and documentation of new organization wide initiatives to determine proper accounting treatment
• Maintain Chart of Accounts and Dimension Tables in coordination with FP&A/budget owners, ensuring key mapping for different system and reporting requirements.

Qualifications:

• Chartered Accountant required / BA/BS in Accounting or Finance and CPA
• Non-profit accounting experience and a solid understanding of non-profit accounting standards and U.S. GAAP

• 8-10 years of progressive accounting experience, ideally including:

• 3 years of management experience

• Experience in a top tier public accounting firm

• International experience

• Demonstrated ability to clearly and concisely document technical accounting and reporting matters

• Experience leading the development, implementation and maintenance of internal controls

• Demonstrated track record of overseeing systems integrations/improvements

• Ability and desire to develop and mentor a team

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills. Ability to communicate and work cross-functionally with all levels and departments in the Organization as well as clearly explain accounting concepts to non-accounting people

• Strong organizational and time management skills

• Strong desire to work within a fast-paced, growing and increasingly complex global organization

• Strong project management skills with demonstrated success in planning and directing high level projects across the enterprise with a multitude of key functional partners

• Willingness to “roll up the sleeves” and dig hard for the right answers

• Should have a valid passport

Compensation:

Room to Read offers a competitive salary with excellent benefits. The non-monetary compensation includes a unique opportunity to be part of an innovative, meaningful, fun, and rapidly growing organization that is changing transforming the lives of millions of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education.

Application Instructions:
Please visit our job board to apply or go to www.roomtoread.org and visit the career section. Due to high applicant volume, we regret that we are not able to send personalized responses to all applicants. Applications are accepted until the position is filled.

Room to Read is proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to identifying and developing
the skills and leadership of people from diverse backgrounds.