Controller

Description:

About Us:

The American Forest Foundation (AFF) unlocks the power of family forests as a climate solution while helping thousands of landowners care for their land and improve forest health. Through its Family Forest Carbon Program, AFF expands access to the voluntary carbon market for family forest owners from all walks of life while producing high quality forest carbon credits to help companies reach their net zero goals. The organization’s strategic direction seeks to enable family forests to capture and store one billion tonnes of carbon by 2050.

We do not do this alone. AFF works across a broad coalition of conservation partners, corporations, and policymakers to equip family forest owners with financial and technical support to implement sustainable forest management practices on their lands and activate their forests as a critical tool in the fight against climate change.

AFF is in a mode of complex problem solving and rapid iteration. All teams at AFF are working to discover solutions to the planet’s most pressing climate issues through developing and iterating viable and scalable models for impact. AFF is driven by values of our shared purpose, measurable and verifiable results, and learning for continuous improvement to tackle big conservation challenges.

About the Role:

Reporting to the Executive Vice President, Finance & Operations, the Controller is responsible within the Finance & Accounting Team for all accounting and day-to-day financial operations with two core primary objectives: (1) deliver on-time accurate and trusted numbers and (2) operate in an “always audit ready” manner. Critical to timely capturing of the transactional flows needed to steward and marshal well AFF’s resources, the Controller plays a pivotal role in enabling strong strategic decision making, building trust in the integrity of AFF’s financial information, and ensuring that the Controllership operates as a value-add strategic partner throughout AFF.

Responsibilities:

• Lead all day-to-day financial operations of a budget of $37 million and three entities and supervise a team of two accounting staff members including functional responsibility over GAAP aligned accounting/ledgers, accounts payable, accounts receivable, revenue recognition, intercompany flows, and monthly close.
• Manage and handle the financial operations so that they produce clean audits; provide timely, accurate, and useful GAAP aligned information; and are compliant.
• Serve as a strategic business partner and “go to" resource with all AFF business units building the financial stewardship and literacy, self-empowerment, risk management, compliance, and resiliency of the organization.
• Partner closely with and provide support to:

• The Strategic Finance Team on financial reporting and budgeting;
• The Awards and Contracts team on grants financial management; and
• The Human Resources Team on payroll.

• Unleash and support the potential and development of Controllership team members in delivering value-add and solutions oriented strategic partnership while working efficiently.
• Ensure and improve accounting workflows and system utilization so that they demonstrate strong internal controls and audit readiness and are efficacious, efficient, and internal stakeholder serving.
• Optimize utilization of new accounting software, Oracle NetSuite, by the Finance Team, the broader AFF team, and via integrations and seamless connections with other systems.
• Lead and coordinate audit activities.

Requirements:

Candidate requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting/finance or equivalent and at least 10 years of relevant experience including:

• CPA
• Prior experience in or with complex non-profits
• At least 5 years leadership experience performing Controllership functions and developing accounting staff.

• Evidenced success in delivering clean audits and aligning to GAAP; familiarity with Uniform Guidance desired.
• Demonstrated proficiency with various accounting systems and integration of accounting flows and systems.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment while proactively managing competing priorities and meeting deadlines while delivering high quality and high integrity trusted financials.
• Keen analytic, organizational, and problem-solving skills with an orientation to drive to results.
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills and ability to thrive in a collaborative environment.
• Personal qualities and commitment to integrity, initiative, resilience, and AFF’s mission.

Core Competencies:

• Agility – Thriving in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments by anticipating and responding to changes with swift, focused and flexible actions.
• Collaborating with Others – Working together with others in a cooperative and supportive manner to achieve shared goals.
• Ensuring Accountability – Holding yourself and others to high standards of accountability, creating an infrastructure and transparent organization culture that supports and measures personal and organizational responsibility and accountability.
• Problem Solving – Identifying problems and the solutions to them. Your contributions and leadership will be appreciated. Our staff is passionate, dedicated and good at what they do, and will be deeply grateful for your efforts to create and preserve an environment that is both fun and fair.

Leadership Competencies:

• Thinking Strategically – Seeing and synthesizing different sides of an issue, examining the full range of options and outcomes, and building intellectual frameworks to guide analysis and action.
• Leading Change – Recognizing the need for change, being open to new ideas and methods, and championing transformational change with the organization and beyond. Demonstrated ability to strategically translate organizational strategy and policy priorities into tangible actions.
• Decision Making – Using critical thinking, good business sense and organizational values to make decisions involving varying levels or risk and ambiguity.
• Diversity and Inclusion – Working effectively with individuals of diverse backgrounds in a variety of work contexts.

Job Function Competencies:

• Auditing – Applying and understanding of auditing concepts and methodologies for internal and external audits.
• Partnering – Seeking and building partnerships and alliances that further the organization’s objectives.
• Cost Management/Internal Controls Assessment - Ensuring the effective and efficient use of organizational resources through appropriate tools and systems.
• Planning and Organizing - Planning and organizing multiple, complex activities including that resources are prioritized across initiatives/programs, resources are efficient, and continuous improvement is sought via ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

What’s attractive to the right candidate:

• You have the unique and exciting opportunity to work with amazing colleagues, partners and landowners to help connect forest landowners with technical and financial assistance to better steward their land and achieve vital landscape-scale conservation impacts.
• Your contributions and leadership will be appreciated. Our staff is passionate, dedicated and good at what they do, and will be deeply grateful for your efforts to create and preserve an environment that is both fun and fair.
• We offer a flexible work environment that respects your life outside of work.
• Salary is commensurate with experience.
• AFF offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package.

Contact us to apply

We know there are great candidates who may not check all these boxes, and we also know you might bring important skills that we haven’t considered. If that applies to you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.

We are committed to creating a diverse work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other basis protected by law.