Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Avaaz is an international campaigning and advocacy organization seeking an experienced Senior Finance Transformation & Systems Consultant to support significant finance systems and process changes. The consultant will work closely with Finance leadership to deliver connected workstreams, improve finance operations, and prepare for a future ERP transition.
Responsibilities
- Support Avaaz Finance in planning and implementing the Avaaz UK functional currency transition from USD to EUR, including:
- Mapping the operational, accounting and reporting impact of the transition
- Helping define the cutover approach, including treatment of transition-period transactions and opening balances
- Coordinating input from QuickBooks specialists, accounting advisers, auditors and tax advisers
- Identifying data, reconciliation and reporting requirements
- Ensuring the transition is properly documented for audit and accounts purposes
- Helping Finance understand the impact on monthly reporting, budget tracking, revenue reporting and consolidated reporting
- The consultant will also help Finance distinguish between urgent fixes, interim improvements and longer-term ERP requirements, ensuring that near-term decisions do not create unnecessary rework
- Review current finance systems and workflows, including accounting software, expense management, banking/payment processes, card processes, revenue reporting and related trackers
- This may include:
- Documenting current pain points across cards, payments, expenses, approvals and invoice workflows
- Identifying where current systems are creating manual work, control risk, delays or poor user experience
- Defining selection criteria for a spend / AP / card platform
- Assessing vendor capabilities across global cards, multi-currency payments, approvals, expense management, invoice processing, VAT, reporting, controls and ERP integration
- Coordinating demos and vendor follow-up
- Preparing recommendations for Finance and Operations leadership
- Supporting implementation if a platform is selected
- Support Avaaz in preparing for a future ERP transition, even if full implementation is led by a separate implementation partner
- This may include:
- Helping define future-state finance requirements
- Mapping processes and data flows that will need to be reflected in a new ERP
- Supporting chart of accounts, dimensions, entity, currency, campaign and reporting design considerations
- Identifying workflows that should be cleaned up before ERP implementation
- Preparing data, documentation and process maps for implementation partners
- Ensuring system design supports audit, tax, VAT, transfer pricing and reporting requirements
- Act as a central internal project lead across connected finance transformation workstreams
- This may include:
- Building and maintaining project plans, timelines, risk logs and decision logs
- Coordinating external advisers, implementation partners and vendors
- Preparing clear decision materials for Finance and Operations leadership
- Making dependencies visible and actively managed
- Keeping workstreams moving without overloading core Finance team members
- Documenting decisions, workflows, controls and handover materials
- Supporting knowledge transfer within the Finance team
- Helping embed improvements so they survive beyond the contract period
Skills
- Significant experience in finance transformation, finance systems implementation, accounting operations or finance process improvement
- Experience working with multi-entity and multi-currency finance environments
- Strong understanding of accounting operations, AP, expenses, payments, reconciliations, close processes and financial reporting
- Proven ability to lead or support systems/process change in a complex organisation
- Experience translating finance team needs into system requirements and implementation plans
- Strong project management skills, including managing timelines, risks, dependencies and external vendors
- Ability to work independently, structure ambiguity and drive work forward
- Strong judgement: able to distinguish urgent from important, strategic from tactical, and good-enough from over-engineered
- Excellent communication skills, including ability to explain complex finance systems issues clearly to non-specialists
- Strong documentation skills
- Ability to work effectively in a fully remote, global and multicultural team
- High level of proficiency in English
- Experience with ERP implementation or ERP readiness work
- Experience with Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online, Intuit Enterprise or similar finance systems
- Experience with spend management, AP automation, card or expense platforms such as Airwallex, Ramp, Brex, Concur or similar
- Experience supporting a functional currency transition or major accounting system migration
- Experience working with implementation partners, external accountants, auditors, tax advisers and software vendors
- Experience in nonprofit, NGO, advocacy, campaigning, grant-making or international organisations
- Experience with UK/US entity structures, VAT, multi-currency reporting or global payment operations
Benefits
- Workplace_type: Fully remote
- This is a fixed-term consulting contract, expected to run for an initial 6 months, with possibility to extend depending on the candidate profile, project needs and Avaaz’s implementation timeline.
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