Controller

Location: Remote. African or European timezones preferred to maximize overlap with finance colleagues based in East Africa. Timezones in the Americas are feasible if you have a very early workday.   

Job Type: Full-time. Interim for at least 6 months; seeking candidates interested in interim-to-permanent if the fit seems right on both sides.

Priority Application Deadline: September 3rd, 2025

About this role

We’re looking for an exceptional controller to bring our accounting processes and systems up to the bar of the rest of GiveDirectly’s operations - making them efficient, timely, reliable, and tech-driven.

As Controller, you’ll define how GiveDirectly’s accounting processes work, who interacts with them, and how they produce reliable finished products in the form of our financial statements and tax filings. You’ll develop and enforce internal controls, and work closely with our finance team as a hands-on manager, mentor, and leader. 

Reports to: CFO

Level: Senior Director

Responsibilities:

Accounting 

• Manage all aspects of accounting; billing, financial statements, general ledger, cost accounting, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, tax compliance, inventory accounting, cost accounting, revenue recognition, and various special analyses
• Oversee all accounts, ledgers, and reporting systems ensuring compliance with appropriate GAAP standards and regulatory requirements.
• Design and manage efficient and effective organizational accounting processes
• Manage the accounting team to a timely monthly close 
• Ensure accurate and complete coding of transactions, so that budget-to-actuals can be viewed at the program/campaign level, functional level, and any other view needed by internal or external stakeholders 

Auditing and reporting 

• Coordinate all audit activity globally, including personal responsibility for the global audit in the US and providing oversight and coordination of country audits 
• Prepare the annual financial statements, designing accounting processes that make this preparation efficient and seamless 
• Execute and provide oversight on tax filings, including preparation of the organization-wide 990 and providing oversight on country-specific tax filings prepared by the team in various African countries and/or US states 
• Present regular financial reports to GiveDirectly’s senior leadership team in an accurate and timely manner following each monthly close, clearly communicating trends of concern or interest 

Controls 

• Establish an effective system of financial controls organization-wide to protect organizational resources while still enabling dynamic operations, and enforce compliance with this system 
• Design and own finance policies organization-wide 

Team management 

Leverage the strengths of the current finance team members, and identify development areas 
Clarify roles and responsibilities to create an effective division of labor to maximize these strengths, and create efficient ways of working 
Provide hands-on mentorship, training, and professional development to the team where needed
Set up effective processes for collaboration and communication within the team, and between the team and their stakeholders 

Requirements:

• Prior experience serving as a controller at at least two organizations of a similar or greater size (our revenue is at $200m/year; total team size is 800-900 FTE)
• Expertise in US Federal Uniform Guidance related to our grants from USAID
• Strong people management skills and an ability to be hands-on with the whole finance team, whether directly managed by you or not (20+ total finance team members across accounting, financial planning & analysis, payments, and treasury)
• International experience and cultural competency working with our largely Africa-based finance team as well as US-based stakeholders (e.g., CEO)
• Familiarity with both IFRS and US GAAP - including an understanding of the differences and errors which may occur when knowledgeable about one system but working in the other 
• Strong in process improvements and designing efficient accounting processes
• Tech savvy and knowledgeable about how to get the most out of accounting systems - ideally familiar with Sage Intacct in particular  
• Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly Values 
• Active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity. We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the communities that we serve.

For candidates not based in Africa, we also require: 

• Availability for regular meetings at 8am Eastern US timezone; 7am occasionally in order to overlap with our largely Africa-based finance team. 10am EST is 5pm in Nairobi, and so we are requiring at least 2 hours of overlap with the East Africa timezone to facilitate team management. 
• Ability to travel to Nairobi or Kigali for working sessions with the team (e.g., a trip of 1-2 weeks to start)