Finance Manager

Location: London-based or remote in the UK, as long as travel to the office in London for two consecutive days per month is feasible

Role: Permanent

Salary: £50,000 plus 10% employer-contributed pension; 4 day full-time work week (Monday Thursday). Open to candidates seeking a part-time role.

About us

Established in 2021, Opportunity Green is a fast-growing not-for-profit organisation that helps to identify and unlock opportunities to tackle climate change. We build ambitious coalitions, support climate vulnerable countries in international negotiations and find innovative legal pathways to fight climate change.

What s the role?

The Finance Manager, a new role for OG, will be part of the core operations team, working closely with Opportunity Green s COO as the organisation grows, overseeing finance for our UK and Europe offices. We have grown to 25 people with a turnover of £3m in just over 3 years. There is significantly more potential for Opportunity Green to reach even further and have an even greater impact.

The finance manager will oversee all of the charity s finances daily transactions and reconciliation, budgeting and cash flow, VAT returns, payroll and charity accounts. We have excellent support from an external finance partner, ExcluServ, and the Finance Manager will work closely with them and the wider team to support financial modelling, costing and process improvement.

This role is essential in Opportunity Green s expanding team and organisation. You will be detail-oriented with a strong knowledge of UK charity finance, willing to throw yourself into the day-to-day financial management as well as support the COO to build clear and efficient financial systems and processes, keeping them up to date to reflect changing charity financial regulation and trends. There is huge potential for the right candidate to grow this role.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage OG s finance systems and processes including bookkeeping, invoicing, monthly reconciliation of bank accounts, Soldo and other expenses via Xero, ensuring solid financial controls are in place in line with our financial management policies

• Prepare monthly management accounts, cash flow forecasts and grant spend reviews and prepare financial reports for the Senior Leadership Team and Trustees

• Work closely with the COO on all financial reporting for grants, accurately track and allocate restricted grant funds for spending and reporting purposes, and ensure correct exchange rates for reporting

• Working with ExcluServ and the People & Culture Manager, support payroll, ensuring correct calculations of pension and NI contributions

• Review payment runs prepared by ExcluServ

• Oversee VAT returns

• Manage Soldo expenses software, cards and other aspects of employee and externals expense claims as required

• Process Gift Aid Claims

• Lead the external audit process for Opportunity Green and any other audits of the charity finances

• Be proactive in process improvement as we grow including writing, editing and updating procedures and processes, updating/implementing new software as needed and financial control improvements

• Stay up to date with changes in charity finances regulation and ensure OG is updating procedures as needed

About the candidate

We are looking for a candidate with:

• A passion for using their financial skills to tackle climate change.

• Broad knowledge of multiple aspects of UK charity finance and be willing to get stuck in.

Desirable skills and experience:

We do not expect any candidate to have all skills listed below but rather we look for transferable skills and potential as well as past experience. We are looking for someone with:

• Experience of UK charity finance, including charity tax and VAT and understanding of statutory charity accounting, and financial administration

• Qualified in any of the main financial qualifications (e.g. CIMA, ACA, ACCA or QBE)

• Able to build organisational level and project level budgets ensuring full cost recovery, producing and analysing actuals against budget, profit and loss statements and balance sheet reconciliations

• Ability to present financial information to all level of stakeholders in a clear and concise way

• Understanding of UK charity finance regulation SORP, UK GAP and FRS102 accounting standards

• Understanding of exchange rates for financial management and grant reporting

• Experience of managing the complexities of restricted income projects

• Knowledge and experience of using Xero or similar accounting software alongside good IT skills in MS Office and other relevant software.

• Organised and methodical approach to plan and deliver against a varied workload, managing competing priorities under your own initiative and to strict deadlines

Diversity and inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are important principles at Opportunity Green. We believe that diversity and inclusion make teams stronger and more effective. We are committed to fair and equitable employment practices, and we are striving to ensure that a variety of voices and experiences are included in our organisation. Our commitment to diversity and our parental leave policy are available to view on our website, here.

We will consider all applicants who meet most or all of the essential competencies regardless of their identity or background. That said, we know that diverse candidates may be reluctant to apply for jobs where they don t meet 100% of the criteria outlined in the job description. We encourage anyone to apply who can demonstrate the variety of skills and experiences relevant to meeting the requirements of this role.

We recognise that many diverse experiences and perspectives are not represented in our current workforce, and are seriously underrepresented across the non-profit sector in general. As such, we particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities, from marginalised backgrounds, non-white ethnic backgrounds, and members of the LGBTQIA+ communities. We will use positive action under the Equality Act 2010 to appoint from these groups if two candidates are equally qualified. We also value flexible working and are open to those who would want to work part-time in this role. This could include working a shorter week, school hours, a job share.

To learn more about our application process and receive advice on how to prepare in such a way as to showcase your full potential, please find our Application Guide here.

What we offer

The successful candidate will be offered an annual salary of £50,000 plus 10% employer-contributed pension. Please note that Opportunity Green has fixed salary scales, with the possibility of step increases with strong performance. When hiring we always hire at the bottom of a band and do not enter negotiations with new employees as negotiations have been historically shown to disadvantage women and minorities.

We take our team s well-being and professional development seriously. In addition to a competitive salary, we offer:

• A commitment to work/life balance, with a 4-day work week at 28 hours.

• A generous holiday entitlement of 20 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays and office closure between Christmas and New Year s that does not count towards your holiday entitlement (and expectation that you fully disconnect when taking time off).

• A market-leading pension of 10%.

• A progressive family leave policy, including 26 weeks paid leave for both parents, as well as other support.

• Lots of flexibility within a hybrid working arrangement, with regular opportunities to come together as a team.

• Support for your professional development as part of Opportunity Green, with a budget to support your learning & development plus opportunities to lead projects, publish content, learn from experts, work directly with policymakers and stakeholders, and take part in conferences and events.

However, it is important to note that while this role is permanent, employment is always reliant on Opportunity Green continuing to receive philanthropic support from our funders, which we expect every member of the team to play their part in working towards.

How to apply

To minimise the risk of unconscious bias, we ask that applicants remove certain identifying elements from their CVs. If you do not remove these details, we reserve the right to withdraw your application from review.

• Photos

• Name if needed, please use Applicant

• Age

• Email and/or phone number

We also reserve the right to withdraw your application from review if you use AI tools such as Chat GPT to complete the sift questions / write your CV.

Unfortunately, if you do not already hold the right to work in the UK and/or require sponsorship to continue working in the UK, Opportunity Green will not be able to consider your application at this time.

The closing date for applications is 3 March 2025 at 9am GMT.

We actively encourage applicants to reach out if there are any reasonable adjustments we can make to help them demonstrate their full potential in the hiring process.

Please get in touch and we can discuss how to best make the recruitment process as accessible and comfortable for you as possible.

You can read our application guide on our website.

What happens next?
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