Finance & Compliance Specialist

Job description

With 75 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith. Come join our 31,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories! Employee Contract Type: Local - Fixed Term Employee (Fixed Term) Job Description: Purpose of the Position The Finance & Compliance Specialist will play a strategic role in ensuring that financial resources are efficiently channelled to front-line health services while maintaining strong financial controls, donor compliance, accountability, and value for money. Provide practical financial management, grants compliance, internal controls, subawards oversight, budget management and financial reporting for the FCI country program in Eswatini, in line with World Vision policies, donor requirements, local statutory requirements, and the standards set by the World Vision USA. The Finance and Grants Manager supports the Project Director by preparing budgets and forecasts, reviewing expenditures, managing cash flow and advances, producing timely financial reports, maintaining audit-ready documentation, supporting partner financial management, reporting and monitoring, and escalating financial or compliance risks. The role strengthens the financial management and compliance capacity of FBOs, and other local partners while promoting responsible stewardship of project resources and readiness for donor, internal, and statutory audits. Key Functions Financial Management Prepare and maintain country-level budgets, phased spending plans, cash forecasts, and budget-versus-actual analyses in coordination with the Project Director, and the Ass. Finance Director . Review expenditures, account coding, journal entries, reconciliations, advances, liquidations, and supporting documentation to ensure transactions are accurate, properly approved, and charged to the correct budget lines. Prepare timely monthly, quarterly, annual, and donor financial reports, including variance explanations, burn-rate analysis, pipeline updates, and management recommendations. Manage country cash flow, funds requests, partner advances, and liquidation follow-up, ensuring advances are based on approved work plans, forecasted needs, and partner implementation schedules. Monitor financial flows to FBOs, and other local implementing partners, ensuring timely disbursement, proper utilization, reconciliation, and accountability of project resources. Lead country-level financial closeout preparation, including final expenditure review, accrual and obligation tracking, partner closeout, final financial reporting, documentation retention, and resolution of outstanding advances, questioned costs, and audit findings. Compliance, Risk, and Audit Apply U.S.A Government regulations, including 2 CFR 200, applicable award terms and conditions, World Vision policies, country legal and statutory requirements, and National Office procedures in day-to-day financial management and compliance decisions. Review costs for allowability, allocability, reasonableness, approval, coding accuracy, procurement compliance, and adequacy of supporting documentation before payment, reporting, or liquidation. Maintain practical internal controls, including segregation of duties, approval workflows, reconciliations, asset controls, document retention, fraud-mitigation practices, conflict-of-interest management, and timely escalation of control weaknesses. Maintain country-level compliance trackers, risk registers, audit action plans, advance aging schedules, and questioned-cost logs, ensuring follow-up actions are documented and closed on time. Support internal, external, donor, statutory, and partner audits by organizing financial records, procurement files, partner reports, payment documentation, approvals, and other audit evidence. Promote ethical financial management, fraud prevention, safeguarding-related financial controls, whistleblower awareness, and timely reporting of suspected misuse of funds or non-compliance through World Vision reporting channels. Sub-Grant Management and Partner Capacity Manage sub-grant processes, including partner due diligence, pre-award assessments, subrecipient risk assessments, subaward setup, budget review, agreement support, and start-up orientation in coordination with World Vision grants, finance, procurement, and compliance teams. Review partner budgets, advance requests, liquidation reports, invoices, financial reports, procurement files, payroll support, and other supporting documentation for compliance, accuracy, completeness, and timely resolution of issues. Develop and implement risk-based financial monitoring plans for FBOs, and other local partners receiving project resources, using practical tools such as desk reviews, field monitoring checklists, partner visit reports, and corrective action plans. Track partner advances, spending rates, budget balances, financial performance, compliance findings, questioned costs, corrective actions, and capacity-strengthening milestones through closure. Provide hands-on mentorship, coaching and technical assistance to sub-partners on budgeting, financial reporting, internal controls strengthening, procurement documentation, payroll support, donor compliance, document retention, and audit readiness. Coordinate subrecipient closeout processes, including final reconciliations, liquidation of advances, resolution of questioned costs, confirmation of asset disposition, retention of supporting documentation, and timely submission of final partner reports. Partner Financial Capacity Strengthening Assess the financial management, grants compliance, internal controls, and documentation capacity of FBOs, and other local implementing partners. Develop practical partner-capacity strengthening plans, tools, checklists, and templates to improve budgeting, cash management, financial reporting, procurement documentation, audit readiness, and closeout practices. Support local partners, including those with limited prior U.S.A Government funding experience, to progressively meet donor and World Vision financial and compliance standards. Track progress against partner-capacity strengthening milestones and provide regular updates to the Country Project Director, and Global Finance and Compliance teams. Coordination, Systems, and Grant Operations Coordinate with the Project Director, procurement, People and Culture/HR, operations, MEL, technical teams, and Global Finance and Compliance teams to align budgets, work plans, procurement plans, partner budgets, and reporting deadlines. Use World Vision financial systems, accounting software, shared drives, grant files, and reporting tools to maintain accurate financial records, supporting documentation, trackers, and audit evidence. Provide finance and compliance inputs for work plans, budget revisions, donor reports, partner performance reviews, management meetings, sustainability planning, and grant closeout. Support practical financial modeling for cost efficiency, partner resource needs, government absorption, domestic financing, and transition of selected activities to government, FBOs and locally owned systems. Technical Competencies Funding Mechanisms Knowledge: Understands diverse funding mechanisms (e.g., cost proposals, etc.), how they operate, and the requirements for each, and applies knowledge in developing budgets. Managing Resources: Identifies appropriate people, facilities, tools and materials, time constraints, vendors, etc. for accomplishing goals. Considers potential costs and benefits of resources prior to allocating them. Coaching and Developing Others: Coach and mentor others effectively. Understands the performance evaluation process, how to give and receive feedback, how to find and set up developmental opportunities, and how adults learn. English Language Proficiency: The ability to speak, understand and write fluently in English. Presentation and effective communication: the ability to clearly present financial information and effectively articulate presentations, templates, and reporting dashboards. Minimum Education/Experience Bachelor’s degree required in accounting, finance, business administration, or a related field; Master’s degree or professional certification such as CPA, ACCA, CIA, CFE, or equivalent is an added advantage. Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in financial management, grants compliance, and subaward oversight for donor-funded programs, preferably including U.S.A Government funding. Demonstrated practical knowledge of , including 2 CFR 200award terms and conditions, cost allowability, procurement documentation, internal controls, subrecipient monitoring, audit readiness, and closeout. Experience working with World Vision or similar international NGO financial policies, National Office finance processes, and donor-funded program operations strongly preferred. Proficiency with accounting software and ERP systems required, including use of experience using financial systems for budgeting, general ledger review, account coding, expenditure tracking, reconciliations, advances, reporting, cash management, and document retention. Advanced; advanced Excel skills and familiarity with donor financial reporting tools, grant trackers, partner monitoring templates, and shared document-management platforms strongly preferred. Experience supporting grant and subrecipient closeout processes, including final financial reporting, reconciliation of advances, resolution of questioned costs, asset disposition, and audit documentation. Experience coaching local partners and strengthening financial management and compliance capacity required. Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English; proficiency in the national/local language(s) strongly preferred. Working Environment/Conditions Country office environment with regular in-country travel to partner offices, implementation regions, districts, field sites, and finance monitoring locations for financial review, compliance monitoring, partner coaching, and audit follow-up, typically up to 60% of the time. May require travel to insecure or hazardous locations in line with World Vision security protocols. Applicant Types Accepted: Local Applicants Only