Finance & Operations Director (Part-Time Contractor)

About the GNOME Foundation

The GNOME Foundation is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting the GNOME Project — one of the world's leading open source projects — and a broader ecosystem of free and open source software. We are a small, distributed organization working alongside a global community of volunteers and contractors to advance software freedom.

About the Role

We're looking for an experienced Finance Director to join us as an independent contractor on an ongoing basis at 20 hours per week. This is a senior, hands-on role with real ownership: you'll be responsible for the financial health and operational soundness of the Foundation, working closely with senior officers, the Board of Directors, and a small finance team that includes bookkeeping and accounting contractors you will supervise.

This is not a back-office role. You'll lead financial planning, own compliance, manage the contracting lifecycle, and serve as the Foundation's primary point of contact for banking and financial platforms. You'll also oversee our fiscal sponsorship program, supporting the open source projects we sponsor.

You'll be working in a mission-driven environment where pragmatism, initiative, and comfort with ambiguity matter. Experience working with volunteers and in small or resource-constrained organizations is essential.

Key Responsibilities

Finance

• Lead financial planning including cash flow analysis, program and grant budget tracking
• Drive the annual budgeting process
• Approve expenditures — bill payments, reimbursements, card additions
• Serve as primary signatory and point of contact for banking and financial accounts
• Supervise bookkeeping and accounting contractors; escalate and resolve finance issues
• Co-facilitate finance team meetings (2–3x/month)

Legal & Compliance

• Manage the full contracting lifecycle (budgeting, renewals, amendments, storage)
• Maintain insurance policies
• File annual compliance documents
• Manage trademark renewals

Fiscal Sponsorship

• Serve as relationship manager for fiscally sponsored projects
• Provide oversight of the fiscal sponsorship program
• Handle non-standard requests from sponsored projects

Operations

• Maintain and develop finance and operations policies and procedures
• Manage and improve financial systems and workflows across platforms (Ramp, QuickBooks, PayPal, Stripe)
• Manage administrative accounts and official correspondence routing

About You

• Demonstrated experience in a senior finance role, ideally within a nonprofit
• Strong working knowledge of US nonprofit financial compliance, including 990 filing and audit preparation
• Comfortable working with volunteers as part of a small, mission-led organization
• Able to take ownership of the organization's financial wellbeing independently
• Experienced with financial platforms such as QuickBooks, Ramp, and Stripe
• Must be based in the United States, and able to work across time zones compatible with both US and European colleagues