CaptiveAide - Head - Finance - CA

Description:

Role Purpose

The Head Finance (Projects) will provide strategic and operational leadership to the Projects Finance function, ensuring strong financial stewardship, donor compliance, and value-for-money across a large and complex grants portfolio.

- 80% Projects Finance: Budget planning, fund utilisation, variance analysis, project finance monitoring, and strong business partnering with programme and partnerships teams.

- 20% Compliance & Grant Audits: Strengthening internal controls, ensuring donor and statutory compliance, and driving timely and clean closure of grant audits.

This role serves as a critical bridge between Finance, Programmes, Partnerships, and Operations, ensuring financial decisions directly enhance programme quality, compliance, and impact outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

Projects Finance (80%)

- Oversee financial health of a 200250 Cr grants portfolio.

- Lead budgeting, forecasting, and rolling projections.

- Drive variance analysis and corrective action planning.

- Ensure timely donor reporting (UCs, BVAs, dashboards).

- Support financial modelling for proposals and scale-ups.

- Partner with Programme and Operations teams on fund utilisation and compliance.

Compliance & Audits (20%)

- Lead donor, statutory, and internal grant audits.

- Ensure timely closure of audit observations with zero high-risk findings.

- Strengthen internal controls, SOPs, and documentation.

- Ensure regulatory and donor compliance across projects.

Leadership & Ways of Working:

- Spend 60%+ time in the field validating fund utilisation and processes.

- Build and lead a high-performing Projects Finance team.

- Drive process improvement, digitisation, and automation.

- Promote strong cross-functional collaboration.

Key Competencies & Behaviours:

- Strategic and mission-oriented mindset.

- Strong business partnering and stakeholder management.

- High integrity and commitment to transparency.

- Analytical and insight-driven decision-making.

- Adaptable and proactive in dynamic environments.

Candidate Profile:

- Chartered Accountant (CA).

- 12 - 15+ years of finance experience; 8+ years in grants/NGO sector.

- Strong expertise in grant management and donor compliance.

- Experience handling multi-state project portfolios.

- Willingness to travel extensively (60%+).