Chief Financial Officer 

Position: Chief Financial Officer 

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer

Location: Continental US 

Position Type: Full-Time, Remote

Location Requirement:

We are a global organization with a mix of remote, field-based, and in-office staff. This role is U.S.-based and must be based within the continental U.S.

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE: 

For more than 43 million people, blindness is a daily reality; another 295 million suffer from moderate to severe vision impairment. 90% of these people live in low- and middle-income countries where access to eye care is limited and the challenges for those who can’t see are severe. But there is hope: 80% of this burden is treatable or preventable. For example, 17 million blind people could be cured with a 10-minute cataract surgery. Millions more suffer from corneal blindness, which is often preventable or treatable. At Cure Blindness Project, we believe avoidable blindness can – and must – be overcome. For more than 30 years, we have worked alongside a capable network of collaborators to help people around the world retain and regain their sight by developing high-quality, cost-effective eye care systems in underserved areas of the world. With the help of partners in more than 30 countries, Cure Blindness Project has provided more than 1.6 million sight-restoring surgeries and screened more than 5 million people

to provide care and basic treatments. We’ve trained more than 20,100 eye health professionals and have established 5 eye hospitals. There is more work left to do, but we can overcome the mountain of global blindness together.

Cure Blindness Project has expanded significantly in the past few years and now is expanding and elevating its team to meet new challenges, scale its work, and broaden its reach. We are seeking individuals who are passionate about changing lives and want to be a part of a team that works together to reach new heights. We want leaders who can aim high, make things happen, and are invested in building a positive team dynamic to bring the work to life.

VISION: A world where no one is needlessly blind

MISSION: We enable countries to cure avoidable blindness by developing high quality, cost-effective eye care in underserved areas of the world.

SCOPE OF WORK:

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is a strategic leader responsible for overseeing the financial health and sustainability of the organization. This role partners closely with the CEO and executive team to drive growth strategies, manage risk, and ensure financial systems and practices support both short-term execution and long-term vision. The ideal candidate brings deep experience in international nonprofit finance, including managing restricted and unrestricted funding, and is a collaborative, empowering leader.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

Strategic Financial Leadership

• Develop and execute financial strategies that support organizational growth and impact. Proactively identify risks and suggest mitigation options.
• Advise the CEO, executive leadership team and Board on financial planning, forecasting, and risk management.
• Lead scenario planning and financial modeling to support strategic decision-making; lead annual planning and budgeting process with regular updates throughout the year.

Financial Management & Compliance

• Oversee budgeting, financial reporting, audits, and financial compliance across global operations. Lead relationships with audit firms, and ensure timely completion of audit, 990 reporting and inputs to annual report.
• Ensure accurate and timely reporting of restricted and unrestricted funds. Proactively manage cash flow to ensure sufficient fund availability to support programs and internal operation continuity.
• Consolidating financials from multiple jurisdictions with different accounting standards.
• Maintain strong internal controls and financial policies aligned with international standards.
• Lead all Treasury activities including management of bank accounts, investment portfolio and relationships and treasury strategy development across jurisdictions.
• Support fundraising with financial due diligence, budgets for proposals, donor reporting and best practices for financial stewardship and tracking.
• Lead the organization in developing and maintaining organization’s indirect cost rate (ICR) methodology to accurately capture the true cost of program delivery across country operations; Partner with development to ensure proposal budgets reflect full costs and lead analysis of cost recovery performance by funder to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.
• Ensure timely reporting, forecasting and related financial updates are available for the team, Board members or donors to enable informed decision-making and alignment.

Systems & Efficiency

• Leverage financial systems to continually improve operational efficiency and data-driven decision-making.
• Lead the implementation and optimization of financial technologies; familiarity with Sage Intacct is a strong plus.
• Collaborate with IT and operations to integrate finance with broader organizational systems.

Management and Organizational Leadership

• Contribute to organizational strategy as a member of Cure Blindness Project’s leadership team, including the development of organization-wide and department annual goals, strategies, and desired outcomes, along with the development of corresponding budgets.
• Lead and mentor a global finance team of 9 direct and indirect reports with a focus on coaching, collaboration, and professional growth. Establish clear expectations to motivate and assess team effectiveness. Develop local finance capacity and ensure consistent policies globally.
• Serve as primary liaison to Board of Directors Finance, Audit and Investment committee.
• Foster a positive, inclusive culture that prioritizes transparency, accountability, innovation and represents team values.
• Build capacity across departments to understand and manage financial resources effectively.

QUALIFICATIONS:  

Seeking a seasoned professional with a proven track record of leadership and financial acumen, coupled with strategic insight and strong organizational management as demonstrated by the following:

• Proven experience as a CFO or senior leader in an international NGO or mission-driven organization with multicountry operations
• and management of a budget of at least $20M annually.
• Strong strategic thinking and demonstrated ability to proactively align financial planning with organizational goals and lead others’ thinking in developing long-term strategies.
• Proven ability to think at both the ‘big picture’ visionary level as well as the more tactical level to ensure necessary follow-through of key financial deliverables.
• Deep understanding of unrestricted funding, donor compliance, grant management and effective ways to track and leverage these.
• Exceptional leadership, coaching, and interpersonal skills. Demonstrated track record of elevating teams through feedback and mentoring.
• Proven experience and comfort in interactions with Board of Directors.

Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required; CPA, MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum of fifteen years of financial leadership, including increasing levels of responsibility demonstrating strong understanding of accounting, financial strategy and team leadership.
• Minimum of 10 years managing and developing a team of finance professionals.

Additional qualifications include:

• A sense of discretion and a high degree of professionalism is required, including the ability to maintain confidentiality of highly sensitive information. 
• Strong interpersonal, communication, facilitation, and presentation skills. 
• Flexibility to adjust and contribute to continually evolving work situations and changing priorities. 
• Proficiency with ERP systems and financial consolidation across distributed operations; direct experience with Sage Intacct and Vena or similar financial systems preferred. Familiarity with Salesforce a plus.
• Experience developing and implementing cost allocation methodologies in multi-country NGO settings.
• Ability and willingness to travel on an occasional basis
• could include international travel to deepen understanding of field programs and collaborate with country offices.
• Ability to translate complex financial information for non-financial audiences including board members and program staff.
• Willingness and ability to work across multiple time zones, including participating in morning and evening calls.  
• Excellent computer skills and technical aptitude, proficient with Microsoft 365. 
• Committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.  

Physical requirements: 

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer. 
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at a time. 

Cure Blindness Project encourages applications from people of all races, religions, national origins, genders, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and ages, as well as veterans and individuals with disabilities. 

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