Finance Associate

About CEA

The Centre for Effective Altruism’s mission is to build and nurture a global community of people who are thinking carefully about the world’s biggest problems and taking impactful action to solve them.
To foster this community, we run conferences, support hundreds of local groups, and provide online resources and forums for discussion.

About this role

The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) is seeking a Finance Associate to assist in managing $42m in turnover across five major EA organizations.
CEA aims to improve the world by supporting the growth and development of the effective altruism community. Effective altruism is a growing social movement dedicated to using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible.
CEA is also the fiscal sponsor of 80,000 Hours, Giving What We Can, EA Funds, and the Forethought Foundation. In this role, you will provide vital financial support to all of these organizations. You will manage payroll and expenses for over 85 staff, and improve the systems that allow us to make over 400 grants per year to some of the world’s most effective projects.
We are a small team with high standards. You can find our team values here. We are growing rapidly, and we are looking for someone who can assist with the ownership of many of our core systems and help create more efficient, user-friendly, and scalable processes.

Responsibilities

This role works closely with the finance lead, and will focus on improving efficiency and accuracy within the finance team. The role will report directly to the Head of Operations.
Responsibilities include:
Day-to-day financial processing and oversight
  • Developing and maintaining financial systems that save time for staff
  • Maintaining good financial controls
  • Coordinating with our bookkeepers to ensure accurate accounting
  • Ensuring all invoices, grants, and expenses are paid on time
  • Supporting the EA Funds system by managing payroll donations (i.e. matching income from providers against reported information)
Basic financial analysis
  • Responding to ad-hoc queries from budget holders
  • Developing specific reports, such as for our payment card processes, and using these reports to guide decision-making

Who is suited to this role?

We would prefer previous experience in accounting or finance, but we are open to other backgrounds as well. Less experienced candidates must be able to demonstrate excellent potential to learn and develop quickly. Within the first few months, we expect you to get up to speed on complex and critical financial systems and processes.
The ideal candidate will be:
  • A quick learner: We process thousands of transactions annually, across two countries, six projects, and dozens of restrictions.
  • Detail-oriented: You will be combing through financial data and models, so you need a keen eye for inconsistencies and errors.
  • Passionate about systems: If you get excited by APIs, complex spreadsheets, and automation, this role may be for you.
  • Highly organized: This role requires tracking several concurrent projects, prioritizing effectively, and directing attention to what’s most important.
  • Committed: We’re looking for someone who is excited to stick with us as our programs grow, for at least two years.
  • Skilled in data analysis: You can analyze and present data effectively — and if you have relevant programming/technical skills, that’s a plus.
  • Mission-driven: Our ideal candidate is passionate about the goals of CEA and its constituent organizations.

Salary, Benefits, and Location

This is a full-time role, reporting to Josh Axford, Head of Operations. We prefer applicants who are able to work from our headquarters in Oxford, UK, but we will consider remote work for exceptional candidates.
Your starting salary range is £40,000 to £48,000, depending on prior experience. There may be flexibility in salary for exceptional candidates with significant experience. Benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance, flexible work hours, a £1,000 annual training budget, extended parental leave, ergonomic equipment, 3% pension contribution, 25 days of paid vacation, and more.

Application Process

We will consider applications as we receive them. We are ideally looking for someone able to start in January or February 2022.
After considering your written application, we may invite you to complete a short trial task followed by further interviews. We will invite finalists to provide references and participate in a multi-day paid work trial.
We are happy to consider applicants from overseas and may consider sponsorship if needed. CEA serves a global community, and our team works with people and organizations all over the world. We are committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from women, gender minorities, and people of color who are excited about contributing to our mission. We are an equal opportunity employer.
If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact caitlin@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.
This position is now closed.
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