Controller, US-Based (Denver preferred)

Educate!, a fast-growing and award-winning social enterprise, is seeking a Controller to lead and execute US-based accounting functions for our complex, multi-country organization. The Controller will help us meet and exceed our impact goals by building and executing robust systems that support GAAP-compliant financial reporting, upgrading our financial controls, and leading collaboration between accounting and revenue teams across multiple countries. Reporting jointly to the CFO and the US Country Director, this position will be critical to the financial performance of Educate! as we drive towards our vision of measurably impacting millions of youth annually across Africa each year.

We are looking for someone fluent in numbers and comfortable with technology, experience in accounting for US nonprofits, and ready to build systems that enable strong collaboration and efficiency in a multi-country organization. You’ll join a motivated, mission-driven, high-performing international team that is redefining secondary education for youth in East Africa.

Sound like you or someone you know? Apply at this link. Read below or visit our careers page to learn more about Educate!

About Educate! 

Educate! prepares youth in Africa with the skills to succeed in today’s economy. We are a non-profit social enterprise with 150 staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. 

We tackle youth unemployment by partnering with schools and governments to reform what schools teach and how they teach it so that students in Africa have the skills to attain further education, overcome gender inequities, start businesses, get jobs and drive development in their communities. Our model is delivered through practically-trained teachers and youth mentors. Educate!’s goal is to make this practical, skills-based model part of national education systems.

Check out our COVID response page on our website to see how we’ve adapted to respond to school closures in East Africa in 2020.

In 2019, we partnered with the government to pilot in 60+ schools in Kenya, worked in 275+ secondary schools in Rwanda, and 800+ schools in Uganda (25% of the country), reaching over 46,000 students intensively and 470,000 more broadly. Two rigorous external evaluations, including a randomized controlled trial, found that towards the end of secondary school, our program participants earn nearly DOUBLE the income of their peers. A follow-up RCT found that four years later, our graduates demonstrate large and durable shifts in skills, coupled with significant improvements in education and gender equity-related outcomes. Girls achieve even greater results. Our graduates change their lives and their communities, such as Daniel who leveraged both his medical education and the transferable and business skills gained through Educate! to open a rural health clinic in his community employing two people and conducting about 350 checkups per month.

We have been backed by top foundations such as MasterCard, Big Bang Philanthropy, Mulago, Echoing Green, Ashoka, and Global Innovation Fund. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize (and was featured in a video), a 2015 WISE Award, and was highlighted by Bill Gates, in the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, Forbes 30 under 30, and The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies in their global scaling education learning initiative. Educate! was also selected by the UN’s Generation Unlimited as 1 of 20 innovative youth solutions. 

Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year.

Performance Objectives 

The  Controller will lead all day-to-day US accounting operations and have responsibility for accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, revenue accounting, and payroll accounting. The Controller will ensure that Educate! has the systems and procedures in place to comply with best practice internal control standards, fulfill all US nonprofit regulations, and conduct clean efficient audits. The Controller will work closely with East Africa-based accounting teams to ensure seamless and accurate financial reporting and with the US-based revenue team to ensure accurate revenue recognition and reporting. 

In addition, she or he will partner with the CFO, senior leadership, and information technology (IT) service providers, when necessary, to enhance and better integrate finance, HR, and IT functions, as well as serving as the main contact for our banking, audit and software service providers.

Accounting Excellence

• Oversee the consolidation (five countries at the moment), timeliness and accuracy of all accounts, ledgers, and reporting systems ensuring compliance with appropriate GAAP standards and regulatory requirements.
• Coordinate with East African accounting teams to ensure timely consolidated monthly closes
• Coordinate all pre, during, and post-audit activity to achieve clean, timely external global audits

Accounting Systems and Controls Oversight and Development

• Manage and continuously propose improvements on the integrity of controls, processes, and data in the accounting software environment, and support the CFO in training and use-maximization for all accounting teams
• Oversee and continuously improve communication and reconciliation between Accounting and Revenue Teams, ensuring that Accounts Receivable are reconciled and accurate, funder reports are accurate and timely
• Support the CFO in maintaining internal control and safeguards for receipt of revenue, costs, expenditures, and assets.
• Be the contact point for our banking, audit, and software service providers

Global Financial Analysis and Reporting 

• Consistently analyze financial data and present financial reports in an accurate and timely manner; clearly communicate monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements; monitor progress and changes and partner with the CFO 
• Oversee efficient and accurate labeling of restricted and unrestricted net assets
• Oversee an accurate Indirect Cost allocation process
• Support the CFO in preparing reports and presentations for the board’s finance committee
• Track the performance of invested assets in keeping with policies and investment guidelines.

US Office Accounting

• Lead the US Office’s monthly and annual budgeting and planning process
• Manage close and provide monthly US Office accounting reports to the US Country Director
• Ensure full compliance with all US nonprofit statutory reporting and filing requirements
• Develop and implement US Office Internal Controls Handbook

Qualifications 

We’re looking for a driven and collaborative CPA with at least some public accounting experience and experience in an accounting or finance role at a US nonprofit. We’re also looking for:

• Experience accounting for and reporting on grant funding and compliance for a US nonprofit with multiple types of funders and revenue streams
• Keen analytic and problem-solving skills allowing for strategic data interpretation that goes beyond simple reporting
• Personal qualities of integrity, honesty, and credibility
• An interest in accounting and reporting software. Experience with the roll-out of/migration to new software is a plus.
• Someone organized and collaborative, who will enjoy and excel at coordinating with a remote revenue team in the USA and an accounting team in East Africa to reconcile, meet deadlines, and align on tools and systems.
• Experience working in an organization with multiple locations. Multi-country experience is a plus but not required.
• A process-oriented person who can build and operationalize accounting and reporting systems and processes 
• A good fit with our Five Cultural Tenets (see “What is Educate! About?” Below; learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here. 

What Is Educate! About?

We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.

1. We Put Youth First - The youth we serve come first. Always. In everything. That means we wake up thinking of ways we can serve youth even better and get the highest impact out of every dollar that we spend. It means Educate! doesn’t own a single vehicle, because we’d rather take the bus if it means one more student can participate. It means making every decision like the future depends on it — because if we get our way, it does.
2. We Are Always Learning - When you work at Educate!, educating yourself is part of your job too. We encourage every employee to find the best book on management; share the latest article on graphic design; bring in your favorite college mentor, or meet the researcher pushing the edge of the field. We are always thirsty for knowledge and love to share.
3. We Only Solve a Problem Once - We are allergic to band-aids so we love the person who brings the new system to solve the problem for good, even problems we haven’t recognized yet.
4. We Are Flexible - We thrive on change — we’re driving it. We are growing every day, so we have to adapt quickly to meet new challenges, and our team keeps up.
5. We Exceed Expectations - We assume we can achieve the impossible because we already have, year after year. We want our staff to create their own challenges, ask the toughest questions, and dream scary big!

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do. 

Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community.  In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences to join our diverse team.