Senior Finance Controller
New Energy Nexus
The Organization
New Energy Nexus (NEX) is an international not-for-profit organization that supports clean energy entrepreneurs with funds, accelerators and networks. We started in California and have expanded operations into China, India, Southeast Asia, and East Africa. Our mission is to support diverse entrepreneurs to drive innovation and build equity in the global clean energy economy. Our goal is to support 100,000 startups to succeed by 2030 – a decisive decade in our collective struggle with climate change. With our network, we directly boost hundreds of entrepreneurs annually while uplifting thousands more. Since 2004, New Energy Nexus (up until recently known as California Clean Energy Fund) has leveraged $1.5 billion in investment, invested in over 100 clean energy enterprises, and launched industry leading centers for solution collaboration.
The Opportunity
New Energy Nexus is looking for a Senior Controller to support California Programming as we prepare for continued growth and expansion. The person in this role should bring a high level of grit and curiosity and will work in collaboration with Finance & Operations (FiOps) and CA leadership teams, to ensure that CA programming is operating efficiently, effectively and within budget. You will be tasked with providing strategic direction on budgeting, forecasting and financial planning. If you have a passion for clean energy, entrepreneurship, enjoy process design, operational excellence and enabling organizations and people to succeed, this position may be for you! This job is located in Oakland, CA.
The Ideal Candidate
Our ideal candidate will bring a solid background in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and financial forecasting.We are looking for an outgoing, motivated Senior Controller to join the New Energy Nexus’ California programs. The Senior Controller for CA Programs will be responsible for all daily general accounting related duties, including a broad range of transactional, reconciliation and other accounting activities. The successful candidate will have a "roll-up-the-sleeves" attitude, who is inherently hands-on and ready to take the next step forward in their career and help us plan and strategize for growth in order to scale California Programming.
NEX offers a flexible work environment with this position being based in Oakland/Bay Area, CA and with an expectation to work out of our physical office minimum 2 designated days a week. Unfortunately, relocation assistance is not available for this role.
Essential Functions
Budgeting & Reporting
- In collaboration with the Senior Director of CA Operations, prepare and monitor budgets and financial forecasts, analyze deficiencies, and report variances to CA leadership.
- Ability to build and maintain resource plans (budgets) for the California-based team that is delivering on multiple projects with shared resource allocations.
- Working knowledge of restricted grant budget management and reporting.
- Build integrated budgeting and reporting workflows that satisfy multiple reporting objectives (e.g. Budgets to Actual for the team as a whole, for a program etc.) from a given data architecture and source data set.
- Work in collaboration with the Senior Director of CA Operations to provide financial analysis and modeling to support strategic and operational decision-making, this includes analyzing and reporting on operational metrics to identify trends and opportunities for improvement.
- Ability to routinely and consistently create and collate government invoicing packages subject to specific templates and procedures.
- Project budgeting expert on the team, provide guidance, training, tools and templates to the CA team for Accounting related processes including, but not limited to, independent contractor budgetary development and contract execution.
Contracts Analysis & Management
- Develop, implement, and monitor controls and procedures to manage operational expenses.
- Prepare and publish timely monthly financial statements to CA leadership and executive team as required.
- Ability to analyze complex fact patterns and distill them into simple and understandable concepts for internal and external stakeholder groups
- Maintain capitalized tracking ledger.
- Ability to analyze and solve complex problems with multi-dimensional constraints that require both creativity and attention to detail.
- Ability and patience to read and comprehend complex contracts and regulations and design smart (resource efficient /effective) workflows and controls that are additional to or separate from standard organizational processes.
- Working knowledge of Federal Cost Principles (2 CFR 200) and Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).
- Work with external auditors and provide needed documentation and support for the annual audit.
- Responsible for compliance with all contracted terms and embedded regulations, and preparation of reports, audit trail documentation and end-to-end management of program audits (by funders, government agencies etc).
- Act as a liaison between New Energy Nexus’ FiOps team and CA staff.
- Additional financial planning and accounting responsibilities as needed.
Skills & Competencies
- Familiarity with cost allocation methodologies.
- Have a positive attitude, strong communication skills and have an affinity for numbers.
- High level of attention to detail, with the ability to analyze and solve problems quickly and creatively with attention to detail.
- Remain flexible in a constantly changing environment and work independently with strong planning and prioritization skills, able to succeed in a regularly expanding environment.
- Ability to navigate ambiguity and find solutions for concurrent conflicting challenges.
- Significant track record of progressively responsible experience in budgeting and forecasting.
- Proven professional experience as an upper level Accountant, experience working at a medium to large sized not-for-profit organization a plus.
- Working knowledge of GAAP accounting principles and procedures.
- Experience with governmental contracts, invoicing/reimbursement structures and restrictions.
- Prior experience with Single Audits and / or other program audits is a plus.
- Expert in Excel and with prior experience creating financial statements.
- Excellent written and verbal skills to create internal and external communication pieces ranging from detailed audit trails to executive summaries.
- Ability to think through data structures and data integrations of mainstream SaaS solutions with manual interfaces.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance, or Business Administration.
- 7-10+ years of experience in financial accounting or controller management positions.
- Knowledge of GAAP and accounting concepts.
- Experience in developing and implementing policies and procedures.
- Advanced degree in Accounting, Finance, or related discipline is a plus.
- Nice to have: experience in reporting on match share requirements on grants.
- Drafting budgets for proposal development is a plus.
Competitive compensation of $135 - $145K annually plus generous benefits including, medical, dental, vision, unlimited PTO, paid holidays and 401(K)
How to Apply: NEX values and celebrates diversity among our employees and in the work we do. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer - all qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, family/marital status or veteran status. To be considered, click on the "APPLY FOR THIS JOB" button at the bottom of the page. Please submit your resume and cover letter expressing why you’re right for the role.
*Only applications including both resume and cover letter will be reviewed.