Senior Manager, Finance & Program Coordination

Maliasili is a dynamic and innovative organization that is taking a different approach to drive locally-led conservation impact in Africa. We find the best local African conservation organizations and make them better by strengthening their organizational performance, leadership, and resourcing so that they can achieve greater impact. Our partner portfolio includes outstanding local and national organizations at the forefront of wildlife conservation, land restoration, and coastal fisheries. Our partners are pioneering conservation approaches grounded in community and indigenous land rights, generating economic opportunities from nature-based businesses, and restoring ecosystems across many of Africa’s most important landscapes. 

Since its founding over a decade ago, Maliasili has built a portfolio of roughly 55 partners working across over 64 million hectares of critical landscapes and ecosystems in seventeen countries. We have helped our partners generate or leverage more than $27.3 million in funding for their work, developed a growing set of tools to help improve their organizational performance, and supported many of our partners to grow their impacts in the field significantly. Our goals are to build a portfolio of Africa’s best local conservation organizations, help them collaborate and learn from each other, and scale up their community-based conservation work on the ground and their leadership capacity within the conservation field.

Position Summary

The Senior Manager, Finance & Programs Coordination, plays a key role in strengthening alignment between Maliasili’s finance and programmatic functions. This position will serve as a core member of the finance team and work closely with program team members to support budget development, financial management, grant budget reporting, and internal coordination across teams.

Reporting to the Deputy Director of Finance & Administration, this role is responsible for providing finance technical assistance to program staff, ensuring accurate and timely development of grant budgets and reports, and supporting effective internal coordination between finance, programs, and fundraising functions. The Senior Manager will collaborate closely with the Senior Manager, Grants & Fundraising and the Senior Manager, Partner Funding to ensure financial processes are integrated, compliant, and responsive to programmatic and donor needs.

This role supports Maliasili’s commitment to strong financial stewardship, operational excellence, and effective cross-team collaboration to advance our mission and support our growing portfolio of partners.

Responsibilities

• Program Budget Development & Financial Planning. Support program team members in developing accurate and compliant project and grant budgets aligned with organizational financial systems and donor requirements. Provide guidance on cost allocation, allowable expenses, and financial assumptions. Ensure proposed budgets reflect full programmatic needs while aligning with organizational financial sustainability and internal policies. Coordinate with the Deputy Director of Finance & Administration and CFO as needed to ensure alignment with core and restricted funding streams.

• Budget Management & Financial Monitoring. Work with program leads to monitor project and grant budgets throughout implementation. Provide regular financial analysis to program teams to support proactive management of expenditures and forecasting. Identify potential budget variances and collaborate with program and finance leadership to develop corrective actions. Support tracking of restricted funds and adherence to donor restrictions in coordination with the finance team.

• Grant Budget Reporting. Draft and review financial components of grant reports in collaboration with program team members. Ensure financial reports are accurate, timely, and aligned with internal accounting records and donor requirements. Coordinate closely with the Senior Manager, Grants & Fundraising to ensure consistency between narrative and financial reporting. Support preparation of financial documentation required for grant renewals, amendments, and closeouts.

• Finance Technical Assistance to Program Teams. Provide ongoing technical assistance and training to program staff in budgeting, financial tracking, and donor compliance. Strengthen internal understanding of financial policies, procedures, and reporting requirements. Support continuous improvement of internal tools and templates that enhance financial clarity and usability for non-finance staff. Serve as a bridge between finance systems and program implementation needs.

• Cross-Team Coordination & Internal Process Alignment. Coordinate closely with the Senior Manager, Grants & Fundraising and Senior Manager, Partner Funding to ensure strong internal alignment across proposal development, budget creation, reporting, and compliance processes. Support internal process improvements that enhance efficiency and clarity across teams. Ensure financial processes are integrated into broader organizational workflows and fundraising cycles. Contribute to strengthening internal communication between finance and program functions.

• Grant Agreement Compliance. Support adherence to executed grant agreement terms to ensure approved use of restricted funds and in compliance with organizational policy. Assist in maintaining appropriate documentation to support audits and financial reviews. Ensure financial processes align with organizational standards for transparency and accountability.

Other duties as assigned.

Reporting and Supervision

The Senior Manager, Finance & Programs Coordination reports to the Deputy Director of Finance & Administration and has no supervisory responsibilities at this time.