Finance and Operations Officer

Pact is an international nonprofit that works in nearly 40 countries building solutions for human development that are evidence-based, data-driven and owned by the communities we serve. Founded in 1971, Pact works with partners to build resilience, improve accountability, and strengthen knowledge and skills for sustainable social impact.

Department

Programs - Pact strives for a world where all people are heard, capable, and vibrant. The Programs Team helps realize this objective by bridging program management, technical support, and business development, enabling Pact to achieve its global strategy. We ensure program excellence through continuous learning, monitoring and evaluation and provide organizational and industry-wide thought leadership by leveraging a complementary set of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary skills, expertise, and experiences. The Programs team: influences progressive change through the development and implementation of global and regional strategies and business plans; supports advancement of innovative solutions; pursues new business opportunities; and drives effective internal and external engagement to maximize Pact’s impact across the globe. Across all aspects of its role, the Programs Department adheres to and promotes a culture of inclusion, accountability, and respect.

Position Overview

Pact is seeking an experienced Finance and Operations Officer to support Pact’s overall financial operations of a USAID-funded program in El Salvador. Reporting to the Deputy Chief of Party and to the Global Finance Manager in Washington DC, they will provide oversight for daily finance and operations tasks. The Finance and Operations Officer will oversee expenses liquidations, program sub-grants and sub-contracts payments, procurements, travel advances for field staff, Activity administration, HR management tasks, and compliance with USAID financial and accounting rules and regulations, and other daily finance and operations tasks.

Key Responsibilities

Finance 

• Contribute to the development of policies, guidelines, and criteria for the management of project finances in accordance with Pact standards and USAID regulations, and in close coordination with lead partner teams in the project office; 
• In collaboration with Pact DC-staff, prepare and submit financial reports and cash requests to successfully administer payroll and process departmental invoices for payment; 
• Work closely with Pact DC to ensure compliance and effective and proactive fiscal management; 
• Establish appropriate internal control for effective and efficient utilization of Pact resources. 
• Monitor and analyze Pact’s program budgets, which allow accurate projection of expenditures and comparisons of actual and budget spending and advise on corrective plans; 
• Support quarterly reforecasting exercises; 
• Maintain sufficient and appropriate financial files for cash deposits, payments and journals according to GAAP and Pact standards. 
• Manage the project payroll and statutory deductions upon Pact’s registration in country; 
• Record financial data in Serenic on monthly basis. Financial data includes cash receipts, payments, journals, and others. The monthly data should be entered daily. 
• Facilitate the establishment of a bank account in collaboration with Global Finance and maintain a good relationship with the bank. 
• Prepare monthly bank reconciliations and other relevant monthly financial reports to be submitted to Washington DC Global Finance Department. 
• Support annual budget preparations which include overseeing work plan costing and the integration of work plan and donor-approved budgets; 
• Coordinate review of Pact’s financial and audit reports; and 
• Liaise, as necessary, with in-country payroll company. 
• Assist as required to the partners in the correct preparation of their budgets. 
• Review, observe and remedy financial reports coming from grants, complying with USAID regulations and accounting, labor and tax laws of the country. 
• Review the USAID VAT report. 
• Update the Grants tracker, to provide information about grants and subawards disbursements. 

Operations 

• Provide regular timely and clear operations and administration-related communications and updates to Pact DC staff and key stakeholders; 
• Support project reporting, as required; 
• Assume primary responsibility for setup, maintenance and compliance of Pact’s finance files; and 
• Oversee the fixed assets inventory under Pact funds. 
• Oversee and if necessary, manage procurement processes in compliance with donor polices and IREX regulations.

Human Resources 

• Support with full life cycle of recruitment for national job vacancies, including partnering with hiring managers, drafting job advertisements, posting jobs, screening candidates for minimum qualifications, ensuring compliance with labor laws, coordinating testing and interviews, preparing contingent offers, performing reference checks and Bridger checks, sharing information about compensation and benefits and ensuring the recruitment file is complete; 
• Support with new hire orientations; 
• Assist with maintenance of the Employee Handbook including tracking amendments; 
• Maintain accurate and complete recruitment and personnel files; 
• Work closely with management to support the Performance Management Process in compliance with policy; including distribution and collection of documents, scheduling meetings, tracking and reviewing forms as they are received;   
• Track employee benefits in compliance with labor law, including requests for leave balances, advising staff on the procedures for taking leave, following up on required documentation for taking leave or returning from leave, maintaining an accurate record of all leave and ensuring the leave trackers are updated monthly, ensuring leave requests are filed in the personnel files, ensuring leave carry over balances are communicated at the end of each calendar year; 
• Prepare Public Holiday (annually) calendar and send out notifications; 
• Assist with internal communications to staff, such as amendments to the employee handbook, end/beginning year activities, performance review process, public holidays, benefits changes and new policies. 

Basic Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as business administration, finance, or accounting and 7+ years relevant experience in financial and operations management related to international development or equivalent combination of education and experience, or Master's with 5+ years relevant experience.
• Experience with USG project management and managing the finances of USAID-funded programs; 
• Previous human resources experience and ability to exercise sound and timely judgement and maintain confidentiality of sensitive information. 
• Fluency in written and spoken Spanish and functional proficiency in English.  
• Demonstrated knowledge of Salvadoran laws strongly preferred. 
• Knowledge of accounting and finance principles including Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). 
• Critical thinker with a can-do approach to problem solving, disaggregating larger/complex problems to identify underlying drivers and critical nuances; 
• Ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks; 
• High degree of professionalism and ability to deal sensitively with confidential material; 
• Strong interpersonal (verbal and written) communication skills. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional-level English language skills (written and oral). 
• Salvadoran nationals are encouraged to apply.

Pact is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, citizenship status, genetic information, matriculation, family responsibilities, personal appearance, credit information, tobacco use (except in the workplace), membership in an employee organization, or other protected classifications or non-merit factors.