Senior Finance Transformation & Systems Consultant

Avaaz is seeking an experienced, mission-driven Senior Finance Transformation & Systems Consultant to support a major period of finance systems, process and operating model change. This is a fixed-term internal transformation role within the Finance team. The consultant will work alongside Finance leadership to help design, coordinate and deliver connected workstreams, including:

• Avaaz UK’s functional currency transition from USD to EUR
• Finance operations improvements across payments, cards, expenses and AP workflows
• Assessment and possible implementation of a spend/AP/card platform
• Preparation for a future ERP transition
• Alignment of finance systems and reporting with Avaaz’s evolving multi-entity, multi-currency operating model

This person is not expected to replace specialist implementation partners. Avaaz may separately engage product-specific or technical partners, such as ERP implementation partners, spend/AP platform vendors, QuickBooks specialists, tax advisers or accounting advisers. The purpose of this role is to sit on Avaaz’s side of the table: helping Finance define requirements, manage decisions, coordinate vendors, translate between operational needs and system design, and ensure implementation work is coherent, practical and sustainable.

The ideal candidate will be senior enough to reduce pressure on Finance leadership, not add to it. They should be able to quickly understand a complex global finance environment, identify what matters, structure decisions, manage interdependencies, and drive work forward with limited hand-holding. The role will report to the Finance Director and work closely with Finance team leadership, Operations leadership, external advisers and implementation partners.

Avaaz has completed substantial discovery work on its Finance systems needs and has identified the need to move away from highly manual, fragmented finance processes toward a more scalable operating model. The organisation now works across multiple entities, currencies, jurisdictions, payment routes and reporting needs. Avaaz is also managing a functional currency transition, resource-sharing between entities, evolving grant payment flows, audit/accounting requirements and growing demand for better internal reporting. This role exists to help Avaaz move through this transition in a structured, practical and sustainable way, while preparing the organisation for its longer-term finance systems architecture.

Responsibilities

• Functional currency transition and systems roadmap
  • Support Avaaz Finance in planning and implementing the Avaaz UK functional currency transition from USD to EUR, including:
  • Mapping the operational, accounting and reporting impact of the transition;
  • Helping define the cutover approach, including treatment of transition-period transactions and opening balances;
  • Coordinating input from QuickBooks specialists, accounting advisers, auditors and tax advisers;
  • Identifying data, reconciliation and reporting requirements;
  • Ensuring the transition is properly documented for audit and accounts purposes;
  • Helping Finance understand the impact on monthly reporting, budget tracking, revenue reporting and consolidated reporting.
• Finance operations, spend, AP, cards and payments improvement
  • Review current finance systems and workflows, including accounting software, expense management, banking/payment processes, card processes, revenue reporting and related trackers. This may include:
  • Documenting current pain points across cards, payments, expenses, approvals and invoice workflows
  • Identifying where current systems are creating manual work, control risk, delays or poor user experience
  • Defining selection criteria for a spend / AP / card platform
  • Assessing vendor capabilities across global cards, multi-currency payments, approvals, expense management, invoice processing, VAT, reporting, controls and ERP integration;
  • Coordinating demos and vendor follow-up
  • Preparing recommendations for Finance and Operations leadership
  • Supporting implementation if a platform is selected
• ERP readiness and multi-entity finance design
  • Support Avaaz in preparing for a future ERP transition, even if full implementation is led by a separate implementation partner. This may include:
  • Helping define future-state finance requirements
  • Mapping processes and data flows that will need to be reflected in a new ERP
  • Supporting chart of accounts, dimensions, entity, currency, campaign and reporting design considerations
  • Identifying workflows that should be cleaned up before ERP implementation
  • Preparing data, documentation and process maps for implementation partners
  • Ensuring system design supports audit, tax, VAT, transfer pricing and reporting requirements
• Project management, vendor coordination and documentation
  • Act as a central internal project lead across connected finance transformation workstreams. This may include:
  • Building and maintaining project plans, timelines, risk logs and decision logs
  • Coordinating external advisers, implementation partners and vendors
  • Preparing clear decision materials for Finance and Operations leadership
  • Making dependencies visible and actively managed
  • Keeping workstreams moving without overloading core Finance team members
  • Documenting decisions, workflows, controls and handover materials
  • Supporting knowledge transfer within the Finance team
  • Helping embed improvements so they survive beyond the contract period.

What success looks like

By the end of the engagement, the consultant will have helped Avaaz:

• Implement the Avaaz UK functional currency transition
• Reduce operational pressure around payments, cards, expenses and AP workflows
• Make a clear, well-evidenced decision on spend / AP / card platform options
• Prepare a practical roadmap for ERP implementation
• Improve documentation of finance processes, systems and controls
• Reduce reliance on manual workarounds and single-person knowledge
• Create a clearer finance operating model for a multi-entity, multi-currency organisation
• Strengthen Finance’s ability to support Avaaz’s global campaigning work at scale

Qualifications and experience

The following experience would help a candidate succeed in this role. We encourage applications from candidates who believe they can deliver the responsibilities above, even if they do not meet every item listed.

Essential experience

• Significant experience in finance transformation, finance systems implementation, accounting operations or finance process improvement.
• Experience working with multi-entity and multi-currency finance environments.
• Strong understanding of accounting operations, AP, expenses, payments, reconciliations, close processes and financial reporting.
• Proven ability to lead or support systems/process change in a complex organisation.
• Experience translating finance team needs into system requirements and implementation plans.
• Strong project management skills, including managing timelines, risks, dependencies and external vendors.
• Ability to work independently, structure ambiguity and drive work forward.
• Strong judgement: able to distinguish urgent from important, strategic from tactical, and good-enough from over-engineered.
• Excellent communication skills, including ability to explain complex finance systems issues clearly to non-specialists.
• Strong documentation skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fully remote, global and multicultural team.
• High level of proficiency in English.

Strongly preferred experience

• Experience with ERP implementation or ERP readiness work.
• Experience with Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online, Intuit Enterprise or similar finance systems.
• Experience with spend management, AP automation, card or expense platforms such as Airwallex, Ramp, Brex, Concur or similar.
• Experience supporting a functional currency transition or major accounting system migration.
• Experience working with implementation partners, external accountants, auditors, tax advisers and software vendors.
• Experience in nonprofit, NGO, advocacy, campaigning, grant-making or international organisations.
• Experience with UK/US entity structures, VAT, multi-currency reporting or global payment operations.

Candidate profile

We are looking for someone who is:

• A systems thinker who also understands day-to-day finance operations;
• Senior enough to operate with limited hand-holding;
• Practical and implementation-oriented, not just advisory;
• Comfortable working across messy, real-world finance processes;
• Able to bring structure to complexity;
• Collaborative, low-ego and mission-aligned;
• Able to work with both strategic leaders and hands-on finance staff;
• Clear, organised and calm under pressure;
• Focused on making Finance easier to run, not more complicated.

Location

Avaaz is a global organisation, with most of our work done remotely. Our staff are based all over the world. For this position, candidates based in the Americas, Europe, Africa or overlapping time zones are preferred, although strong candidates from other regions are encouraged to apply. The role will require meaningful overlap with UK, South Africa and US working hours.

Contract structure

This is a fixed-term consulting contract, expected to run for an initial 6 months, with possibility to extend depending on the candidate profile, project needs and Avaaz’s implementation timeline. Avaaz may also engage separate implementation partners or technical specialists during this period. This role is intended to provide internal transformation leadership and coordination across those workstreams.

Compensation

Compensation will vary with location, experience and time commitment, and will be competitive with international NGO and finance transformation consulting roles. Specific details will be discussed with shortlisted candidates.

Application Timeline

We are reviewing applications on a rolling basis, and encourage all candidates to submit applications as soon as possible.