Work at Wild Animal Initiative

 
 

Applications closed

As of 14 August 2023, we are no longer accepting applications for this position.

This is an archived copy of the job description for your reference.

Basics

Posted: July 25, 2023

Job title: Finance Operations Coordinator

Department: Operations

Application deadline: 9 am ET Monday August 14 2023

Application materials:

Please submit an application using this form. 

Please note that we do not ask for a cover letter. Instead, we ask that you submit a resume and an application form. The form will ask you to provide answers to short answer and multiple choice questions regarding your qualifications. 

You are welcome to preview the questions before beginning. We estimate that completing the application form will take you no longer than 1 hour, but there is no time limit. 

If you’re interested, this academic paper provides an overview of the reasons to favor application forms that collect specific kinds of information over resumes and cover letters.  

Application process timeline:

  • Stage 1 - phone screen: late August 2023

  • Stage 2 - compensated skills assessment: early September 2023

  • Stage 3 - video interview: mid September 2023

  • Target start: October 2023

Terms of employment

Location:

  • Full-time remote; exempt position.

  • Limited to US applicants. Note: We are not able to sponsor work visas and are only considering applicants who are eligible to work in the US.

  • Must be able to meet with colleagues in Eastern Time (US) (GMT-4) and Mountain Time (US) (GMT-6) most days of the week and European time zones (GMT+1 & GMT+2) and Pacific Time (US) (GMT-7) a few times a week. Due to the global nature of our operations, some meetings may fall outside of local business hours.

COVID-19: 

  • Public health is a high priority of ours. We strongly encourage employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

  • We will consider requests for reasonable accommodation regarding vaccination based on medical or religious reasons, in accordance with our policy and applicable law.

Expected start date: 

  • October 2023

Expected Salary:

  • $58,781-$71,843, depending on the approximate cost of living in your area.

  • For a complete description of how we set and raise salaries, see our salary algorithm.

Benefits:

  • Comprehensive health and dental insurance. Vision insurance is available.

  • Generous paid time off and leave policies. Four weeks of paid vacation time, 13 paid holidays, and an additional paid two-week organization-wide break at the end of December.

  • Two weeks of paid sick leave, which may also be used for caring for human or non-human family members.

  • A remote environment that allows you to balance work and family requirements and a technology stipend to cover associated costs.

  • A friendly, open work culture that encourages feedback, collaboration, experimentation, and evidence-based innovation.

  • Opportunities for advancement as our team and programs continue their growth trajectory.

  • Leadership and colleagues committed to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, including a dedicated internal JEDI committee, annual staff and manager trainings to combat our biases at work, and support for employees with visible and invisible disabilities.

  • Reimbursement for books you buy and read for professional development.

Reports to:

  • Operations Director Jason Orlando (he/him)

Travel:

  • Ability to independently self-book travel to the United States and Europe for staff retreats (one to three per year), conferences, and other in-person events (zero to five per year), including driving or taking flights for extended durations. Staff are responsible for booking their own reservations within specified dates and meeting times. Work-related travel expenses will be reimbursed.

  • Must be able to obtain legal permission to make such trips (e.g., by having a valid passport and obtaining any necessary visas for travel).

Responsibilities

Position mission statement:

In the role of Finance Operations Coordinator, you will play a crucial role in financial management, compliance, and operational efficiency at Wild Animal Initiative. You will work closely with the Operations Director and the People Operations Coordinator to ensure the smooth operation of Wild Animal Initiative to enable our staff to focus on the research, services, and programs needed to advance our mission of understanding and improving the lives of free-ranging animals in the wild. Your responsibilities will include assisting with audits and budget preparation, managing expense reports, maintaining accurate bookkeeping records, generating financial statements, ensuring fundraising and organizational compliance, administering grant payments, providing administrative support, and collaborating on projects for operational improvement. Your work is essential in supporting the organization's mission.

Supervisory responsibilities:

None currently, but if you are interested and able, we are open to your duties evolving to include managing other staff as opportunities arise.

Core responsibilities:

Financial management and reporting:

  • Audit support and budget preparation: You will assist with audit efforts and annual budget preparation, evaluation, and review.

  • Expense report management: You will collect and verify expense reports, granting approval for payment by the Operations Director.

  • Bookkeeping and recordkeeping: You will log all weekly expenses and donations in QuickBooks, following GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) standards.

  • Statement of Activity updates: You will generate Statement of Activity reports in QuickBooks and update corresponding spreadsheets at the end of each month.

  • Financial reporting: You will prepare financial reports (e.g., quarterly revenues, restricted grant balances, year-over-year comparisons of expenses) for board meetings and review by the Executive Director, in collaboration with the Board Treasurer.

Compliance and grant support:

  • Ensure fundraising compliance: You will work with Harbor Compliance to ensure adherence to fundraising regulations.

  • Federal and state organizational compliance: You will handle state registrations, state taxes, filings, and other compliance-related tasks.

  • Collect W-9s: You will gather W-9 forms from new contractors.

  • Review and confirm bank details: You will review bank details from grantees and connect with grantees to verify information before payments are processed by the Operations Director.

  • Manage grant documentation: You will provide necessary bank details to grantors when required, collect and file signed grant agreements as requested by leadership, and log grant documents in the document repository.

  • Administer grants: In collaboration with the Grants team and Operations Director, you will engage in grant administration activities, such as coordinating grant payment schedules, ensuring availability of funds, logging of payments, and confirming receipt of grant funds.

Administrative support and operational efficiency: 

    • Correspondence management: You will triage the general organization email account and physical mail account to direct inquiries appropriately.

    • Relationship building and staff support: You will interact with our staff to ensure that Wild Animal Initiative has a positive working environment.

    • Support the Operations Director: You will provide administrative support to the Operations Director as needed to support major initiatives and allow the director to focus on highest priority tasks.

    • Collaborate with People Operations Coordinator on projects: You will work with the People Operations Coordinator on efforts such as updating or managing the maintenance of our standard operating procedure documents (such as the Finance SOP), as needed, or developing an improved Google Drive structure by defining naming methodology and organization of the drive to maintain drive integrity.

Other duties: As a young nonprofit, our organization's needs are still evolving, necessitating flexibility and openness to new duties as they may be assigned on short notice. We're seeking someone adaptable and responsive to changing requirements.

Qualifications

Note that we do not require any specific academic credentials or prior work experience for you to be considered for this position. 

This role will require you to have the following qualifications: 

  • Attention to detail: Demonstrated attention to detail in completing work tasks with minimal errors.

  • Integrity: Demonstrated commitment to completing all work tasks with integrity and honesty.

  • Nonprofit accounting and GAAP knowledge: Understanding of nonprofit accounting nuances or ability to independently research, along with knowledge of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and nonprofit audit processes.

  • Problem sensitivity and critical thinking: Ability to proactively anticipate and identify potential problems in systems or processes, with a focus on efficiency and critical thinking to evaluate possible solutions.

  • Coordination and time management: Strong proven ability to coordinate with others to accomplish tasks, paired with effective time management skills to meet deadlines.

  • Software proficiency and adaptability: Fluent knowledge of or willingness to learn online accounting software (Quickbooks Online) and cloud-based productivity software like Google Suite and Microsoft. Additionally, a willingness to learn new software or platforms.

  • Active learning: Demonstrated ability to incorporate new information or others' actions into current thinking.

  • English communication: Demonstrated strong oral and written communication skills in English, particularly in a remote environment.

  • JEDI commitment: Openness to embracing and actively participating in a culture that prioritizes diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, with a continuous willingness to learn and grow in these areas.

This role might also benefit from you having some of the following qualifications. You should still apply even if you don’t have any of these qualifications. 

  • Software familiarity: Knowledge of and familiarity with Salesforce, Asana, and Airtable.

  • Service orientation: A welcoming, composed, and community-minded attitude with a desire to help and support others, even with challenging deadlines or complex interpersonal situations.

  • Lived JEDI experience: Lived experience in championing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, with a demonstrated ability to integrate these values into all aspects of professional work.

About our mission

Wild Animal Initiative is a remote 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to understanding and improving the lives of wild animals. Our work funds cutting-edge science, supports researchers, and contributes to original research.

We are looking to work with people that approach our mission as an inherently inclusive endeavor and celebrate the differences of others. We strongly encourage Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, and people of other historically marginalized communities to apply and welcome applicants of any religion, age, origin, class, citizenship, parental status, disability status, genetics, veteran status, sexual orientation, and gender. We view diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and ways of understanding the world and wild animals as an asset which can improve the performance, collective intelligence, innovation, and quality of science at Wild Animal Initiative, while also addressing the exclusionary aspects of the spaces we operate in. We integrate these values into all aspects of our work and seek to constantly improve our implementation of them. We seek to benefit and share power with everyone at Wild Animal Initiative. 

Please note that we are unable to sponsor work visas at this time. Candidates must be eligible to work in their respective jurisdictions.

If you have any questions about our hiring process or open positions, or if you would like to recommend excellent candidates, please reach out to us at hiring@wildanimalinitiative.org.

To express your interest in working with us in a capacity not currently open, please submit your information via our Job Interest Form. By doing so, you will be added to our talent database, which we consult for new roles and when recommending candidates to other mission-aligned organizations.

Thank you for considering Wild Animal Initiative as the next part of your vocational journey. We hope to hear from you!

Requests for accommodation: If you are a qualified individual with a disability, we welcome requests for reasonable accommodations if you are unable or limited in your ability to apply for this job as a result of your disability. You can request reasonable accommodations by contacting Hiring Manager Emily Sharp at emily.sharp@wildanimalinitiative.org.