Senior Accountant

About The Wilderness Society

The Wilderness Society is a national conservation organization dedicated to protecting America’s wild places since 1935. Our mission is to unite people to protect America’s wild places. Through science, advocacy and partnerships with communities and policymakers, we champion the protection of wilderness, national parks, forests, and other public lands that provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat and the freedom to connect with nature. For more information, visit www.wilderness.org.

Position Overview

The Senior Accountant plays a critical role in ensuring efficient, accurate, and well-controlled accounting operations for TWS. This position owns key accounting processes end-to-end, including general ledger maintenance, balance sheet reconciliations, bank reconciliations, revenue accounting, and month-end close. The Senior Accountant exercises strong professional judgment, proactively identifies and resolves accounting issues, and ensures transactions are recorded in accordance with GAAP and nonprofit accounting standards.

This role serves as a financial steward for restricted and unrestricted funds, supporting fund accounting, grants, and multi-year contributions while maintaining audit-ready documentation and internal controls. This role requires a high degree of independence, initiative, and accountability. The Senior Accountant does not simply execute tasks, but diagnoses issues, proposes solutions, and implements corrective actions. The position regularly reviews financial statements, substantiates balance sheet accounts with well-documented support, and understands the profit and loss statements for all business units.

The Senior Accountant partners cross-functionally with program, development, and operations teams to provide accurate reporting, financial insight, and guidance. They coach and support junior accounting staff (whether or not they are direct reports), contribute to process improvement and documentation, and act as a trusted resource to colleagues across TWS.

This position plays a critical role in fostering an organizational culture where people feel respected, included, and accountable to shared goals and outcomes. Across our team, we aspire to be campaign-oriented, collaborative, innovative, transparent, and supportive of staff – our greatest asset.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

GENERAL ACCOUNTING

• Partner with the Controller in overseeing the month-end close process, ensuring timelines are met, and all reconciliations are completed and properly substantiated.
• Prepare, review, and post routine and complex journal entries, exercising independent judgment.
• Maintain the general ledger and ensure accuracy, completeness, and consistency across accounts and dimensions.
• Support the Grants and Financial Analyst in reviewing monthly transactions for accuracy and appropriate classification.
• Partner with the Controller on accounting policies, internal controls, and risk mitigation.
• Contribute to the ongoing maintenance of the Accounting Policies & Procedures Manual to document and improve internal procedures and controls.

BUDGETING, FORECASTING & FINANCIAL INSIGHTS

• Participate in annual budgeting and periodic reforecasting processes.
• Analyze budget-to-actual results and investigate any variances.
• Proactively communicate financial trends, risks, and insights to the Controller and relevant stakeholders.
• Translate financial data into clear, actionable information for non-finance colleagues.

BANKING & CASH MANAGEMENT

• Monitor cash balances and liquidity trends and flag risks or anomalies.
• Prepare and review monthly banking journal entries, ensuring accurate coding.
• Reconcile bank accounts monthly and investigate and resolve reconciling items.
• Monitor cash balances and recommend transfers as appropriate.
• Support internal controls related to cash handling, fraud prevention, and segregation of duties.
• Assist the Controller in maintaining relationships with banking partners, including account setup, security, and transitions when needed.

REVENUE, GRANTS & CONTRIBUTIONS

• Process monthly revenue journal entries, ensuring proper classification between GL accounts, business units, and restricted and unrestricted funds.
• Reconcile revenue accounts monthly and track multi-year and restricted gifts.
• Support Assistant Manager, Grants & Financial Reporting in accounting across the full grant lifecycle, including setup, tracking, compliance support and closeout.
• Partner closely with giving & impact and program teams to ensure revenue is recognized accurately, timely, and in alignment with donor and funder requirements.
• Assist with planned giving team on accounting, including maintaining balances and processing contributions and disbursements.

COMPLIANCE & AUDIT

• Ensure balance sheet reconciliations and internal control processes are maintained consistently throughout the year.
• Ensure accounting activities comply with GAAP, FASB standards, and nonprofit best practices.
• Partner with the Controller in preparing schedules and documentation for the annual external audit and 990 preparation.
• Respond to auditor inquiries and support the implementation of audit recommendations.
• Participate in strengthening internal controls, including evaluating risks, recommending improvements, and implementing audit findings.

SYSTEM & PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

• Act as a subject-matter expert for the accounting system, chart of accounts, and reporting dimensions.
• Support system implementations, upgrades, and integrations (e.g. NetSuite, CRM, add-on modules).
• Identify opportunities to streamline processes, improve data integrity, and accelerate close timelines.
• Leverage technology to streamline processes, improve efficiency, strengthen controls, and enhance reporting quality.
• Adhere to all policies and procedures set forth by TWS (including, but not limited to, finance, human resources and legal) to maintain a compliant and efficient work environment.

QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate will possess most or all of the following qualifications:

• • Minimum of 7 years of progressive accounting experience, with demonstrated ownership of month-end close, reconciliations, and financial reporting.
  • CPA or progress toward CPA preferred.
  • Strong understanding of GAAP and nonprofit accounting principles, including fund accounting and restricted funds.
  • Proven ability to support external audits with well-documented, audit-ready work.
  • Demonstrated ability to exercise sound professional judgment in ambiguous or complex situations.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to independently identify issues, assess risk, and recommend appropriate solutions.
  • Willingness and ability to respectfully challenge assumptions and raise concerns when necessary
  • Experience with cloud-based accounting systems (e.g. NetSuite) and related tools.
  • Advanced Excel skills required.
  • Strong documentation discipline and appreciation for controls and data integrity.
  • Excellent written and verbal communications skills, with the ability to explain financial concepts to non-finance audiences.
  • Customer-service mindset and ability to collaborate effectively across departments.
  • Ability to coach, train, and support junior staff
  • Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
  • Interest in or alignment with mission-driven or conservation organizations.

This position is located in Washington, DC and will be a hybrid role with approximately 2-3 days in the office. The ​salary range for this position is $114,000-$124,000. ​To apply, please submit resume and ​cover ​letter by March 15th, 2026.

The Wilderness Society offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, and pet insurance; sick and vacation leave; a sabbatical program; and a retirement plan with employer contribution subject to certain limits and requirements. TWS is an equal opportunity employer and actively works to ensure fair treatment of our employees and constituents across culture, socioeconomic status, race, marital or family situation, gender, age, ethnicity, religious beliefs, physical ability, veteran status or sexual orientation.

As an organization, we aspire to being inclusive in the work that we do, and in the kind of organization we are. Internally, this means working as a team that listens to different points of view, recognizes the contributions of every employee and empowers each employee to bring their whole selves to work every day. Externally, this means ensuring that public lands are inclusive and welcoming, so that our shared wildlands can help people and nature to thrive. We are committed to equity throughout our work, which we define as our commitment to realizing the promise of our public lands and ensuring that all can share in their universal benefits.

To learn more about our commitment, please see http://wilderness.org/our-commitment-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-wilderness-society

Pursuant to applicable fair chance laws, TWS will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

TWS complies with federal and state disability laws and is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities. If you require accommodation to complete the application process or to perform the essential functions of the position, please contact careers@tws.org. TWS only accepts resumes submitted for positions that are currently open. Unsolicited resumes or resumes for posted positions that are not submitted via the online application process (where applicable), will not be reviewed or retained.