Controller

Overview

Salary Range:$165,000.00 To 175,000.00 Annually
To Apply: Please submit your resume & cover letter by September 29th.

This role is located in Washington, DC and will be a hybrid of office time and remote work.

OUR ORGANIZATION

The Wilderness Society is a non-profit organization with a mission to unite people to protect America’s wild places.  We build community-led coalitions and work within the federal administration and legislature, to advance a bold conservation agenda to protect our most cherished resources. Since our founding in 1932, we’ve worked with communities to protect over 111 million acres of wild public lands. Every day we’re working to ensure that all people benefit equally from federal public lands and to make our public lands work better for us all.

OUR TEAM

The Finance team at TWS plays a crucial role in providing accurate, transparent, timely and accessible financial information to stakeholders to support informed decisions that help us achieve our mission and ensure long-term financial sustainability. The team supports and works with the Chief Financial Officer in ensuring proper stewardship of our donor resources and creating and implementing effective policies that reduce and eliminate finance fraud, waste and abuse.

THE POSITION

Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, the Controller is responsible for leading a team of accounting professionals that work collaboratively to protect and account for TWS’ financial assets, ensuring clean financial audits, and produce timely and accurate regulatory filings and financial reporting.

As a key leader in the organization, the Controller maintains close, collaborative and productive relationships internally with our staff and externally with donors, Governing Council members (our Board of Directors), and with other stakeholders. The Controller demonstrates and models our values through visible and demonstrable action, contributing positively to our organization’s shared and ambitious efforts, including our efforts to build a more just and equitable organization and movement. Across our team, we aspire to be campaign oriented, nimble, collaborative, innovative, transparent, and supportive of staff – our greatest asset.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Nonprofit Accounting: The Controller ensures that all our financial transactions are timely recorded in accordance with GAAP, and that all supporting schedules, reconciliations, and documentation are timely completely, securely stored and readily accessible.
• Financial Audit: The Controller leads all internal and external financial audits, ensuring timely completion with no material or significant audit findings.
• Treasury: The Controller supports the Chief Financial Officer in maintaining all banking and investment relationships, monitoring our cash flow, and approving and controlling timely financial disbursements to vendors.
• Financial Systems: The Controller ensures that the finance team has the technology needed to implement the full financial accounting program, including managing our general ledger, expense management system, and payroll systems.
• Risk Management & Internal Controls: The Controller creates, implements and maintains a robust, effective and documented system of internal controls and policies and procedures, and works with our Chief Financial Officer and our General Counsel to ensure proper insurance coverage and other forms of risk mitigation.
• Team Leadership: The Controller creates and maintains a collegial, healthy, inclusive, and safe environment for their team, ensures their continued professional development and growth through effective performance management and continuous feedback systems, and ensures a highly functional team.
• Regulatory Compliance: The Controller works closely with our General Counsel and with our Chief Financial Officer to ensure we comply with all relevant and applicable laws and regulations, and that all required regulatory filings are timely and accurately filed.
• Organizational Leadership: The Controller partners with the Chief Financial Officer to prepare and present accurate, detailed, and easily accessible financial statements and other financial and operational data to our Governing Council (our Board of Directors), our finance committee, our audit committee, our staff and other stakeholders.
• Financial Reporting & Modeling: The Controller manages and records accounting data in a manner that facilitates ongoing and ad hoc detailed financial and operational analyses performed and required by the Chief Financial Officer, grants manager, financial analysts or other staff.
• Special Projects and Other Responsibilities: The Controller may be called on to lead and participate in cross-functional efforts and work teams, systems integrations and other necessary projects, as required.

 

QUALIFICATIONS

Experience, Competencies, and Education

• An MBA or CPA is preferred, with at least 10 years of finance or accounting experience, including 7 years leading a team in a supervisory capacity.
• A demonstrated ability to successfully lead complex audit processes and other projects and to juggle multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Demonstrated experience of leading and developing a team by building productive relationships, providing constructive feedback and recognizing team achievements.
• Deep understanding of non-profit GAAP and financial statements, including accounting for endowments, leases, grants and contributions, and planned giving transactions.
• Experience running an effective and timely month and yearend accounting close and reporting cycle.
• Strong client service skills with an ability to interface with and maintain effective relationships across all management levels, internally and externally, and to analyze, present, and communicate complex financial information easily.
• Solid critical thinking skills and demonstrated ability to make sound, independent judgments within established policies and procedures.
• Demonstrated ability to provide new ideas to improve process efficiencies and support TWS goals, including ways to build a more just and equitable organization and operation.
• Strong financial systems skills and acumen, and advanced user of Excel and other reporting tools.

Desired Skills

• Knowledge of financial regulatory rules as they pertain to 501(c)4 organizations and Political Action Committees is strongly preferred.
• Experience working with Concur, ADP, and NetSuite.

This job description is intended to convey information essential to understanding the scope of the position of Controller and it is not intended to be an exhaustive list of experience, skills, efforts, duties, responsibilities or working conditions associated with the position.

The Wilderness Society offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including: health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance,  sick and vacation leave, paid parental leave, a sabbatical program; and a retirement plan.   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