Operations & Finance Associate

About Emma’s Torch

Emma’s Torch is a nonprofit social enterprise with a mission to empower refugees, asylees, and survivors of human trafficking through culinary education. Through our paid culinary training programs, cafés, and catering businesses, we help our students build skills, confidence, and meaningful careers in the food industry. We believe in creating a workplace grounded in inclusion, empowerment, integrity, and gratitude.

Position Overview

Emma’s Torch is seeking a highly organized and detail orientated Operations and Finance Associate to support the day-to-day operations of the organization. The Associate implements Emma’s Torch systems and processes to support the team in delivering impactful programs to change lives. The Associate works across Corporate Operations, Finance, Grants, IT and HR. While reporting to the Director of Operations and Finance, the position will also provide support to additional positions.

Key Responsibilities

1. Finance and Audits

• Receive, code, and submit vendor invoices through the accounting system.
• Reconcile vendor statements and resolve invoice or payment discrepancies.
• Maintain organized vendor and financial records and respond to ad hoc vendor inquiries.
• Coordinate closely with the Finance Team to support a timely financial close each month.
• Assist in reviewing key monthly financial data to ensure accuracy.
• During audits, respond to requests for documents, financial records, and other supporting data.

1. Grants

• Prepare and organize outcome and financial data needed for grant reporting.
• Prepare data to support grants applications and reports.
• Provide administrative support for giving platforms.

1. IT

• Set up IT system accounts and laptops for staff during onboarding.
• Update and troubleshoot IT system accounts as needed for staff during their employment.
• Terminate IT system accounts in a timely manner at the end of employment to ensure data security.

1. Human Resources

• Process employee benefit enrollments, changes, and terminations through benefits administrator portals.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date employee and organizational administrative records.
• Assist in preparing payroll and ensuring the accuracy of payroll.

1. Other Operations Support

• Provide day-to-day administrative and operational support wherever needed.
• Ensure that key administrative information and files are properly organized and maintained in Google Drive.
• Identify administrative gaps or recurring issues and proactively develop solutions.
• Manage multiple requests and priorities while maintaining attention to detail and follow-through.
• Handle sensitive financial, employee, and organizational information with discretion and care.
• Contribute to a collaborative, inclusive workplace and support the broader mission and values of Emma’s Torch.

This job description is intended to convey essential information about the scope and requirements of the position. It is not an exhaustive list of responsibilities and may be updated to reflect organizational needs.

Qualifications

• 1–3 years of experience in operations, administrative coordination, office management, finance administration, or a related field. Years of college education can be substituted for professional experience.
• Strong organizational skills and exceptional attention to detail.
• Comfortable working with invoices, accounting systems, and budgets.
• Ability to learn new software and IT systems quickly.
• Strong follow-through and ability to keep multiple tasks and requests moving simultaneously.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong judgment and resourcefulness, with a willingness to jump in and solve problems.
• Ability to work collaboratively with people across different functions and levels of the organization.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment where priorities can shift.

What We’re Looking For

The right person for this role is someone who believes in the Emma’s Torch mission, and wants to support the team through operational excellence. The person should have a customer service focus, and proactively notice where improvements can be made. When there is a problem or a challenge this person raises their hand to help find a solution. The position will involve a variety of tasks, and the ideal candidate is comfortable with this variety and takes pride in making the organization run more smoothly behind the scenes.

• Health, vision, dental
• 401k with employer match
• Generous PTO
• Professional development funds
• Daily meals and discounts in our cafes when on site
• Employee Assistance Program