Director, Finance & Operations

Luminate is a global foundation working to ensure that technology serves our needs and wellbeing. Founded by The Omidyar Group in 2018 and funded by Pierre and Pam Omidyar, we are a US foundation with an independent board of directors, operating through entities in the US, the UK, and Kenya. We ask who benefits from a technology, and who is harmed by it. Digital technology must serve our needs and wellbeing. We know it has the potential to create connection, spark creativity, and provide a space of freedom and choice, because that was the promise of the early internet. But as state and corporate control tightened their grip on digital tools, that promise has narrowed. We want to change that trajectory, motivated by a radical vision: to restore the liberating potential of technology so that it serves the public good, planet, and people – particularly those historically marginalised. In the end our pursuit isn’t really about technology at all. It’s about the world we want to live in. We work in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, with staff in those regions, including in Nigeria and Kenya, and locations in London, Washington, DC, and Nairobi. A global ecosystems programme strengthens the field as a whole. Since 2018 we have supported more than 500 partners and moved around $370 million to the field, with 252 partnerships live today. We do not bet on a single route to change. We fund policy engagement, strategic litigation, campaigning, and narrative work at once, and support organisations at every stage, from an idea that needs incubating to an institution that needs sustaining. We fund shared infrastructure that no single grantee would build alone, run our own advocacy where we can add something to it, and convene other funders to bring new resources into the field.

ROLE

As Director, Finance & Operations you are a senior leader in the organisation. Finance is the core of the role: you lead the finance function hands-on, including audit and treasury, while providing direction and support to small, capable People and IT teams. The role exists at a point of change. Our funding model is moving from a single funder providing unrestricted, flexible support towards a multi-revenue model, and we need leadership equal to that shift. The functions you inherit are stable, and much of how they work has been in place for some years. You provide leadership and mission-aligned advice across the three functions. You ensure that internal operations are high-performing, resilient, values driven, and scalable. In addition, you build and maintain strong systems, manage operational risk, allocate resources effectively and help the organisation adapt to a changing external environment. You are a trusted advisor who balances expertise, innovation, and risk, helping the organisation connect operational excellence with mission impact.

Primary Systems Focus

• Operational systems (Finance, IT, People): ensuring efficiency and regulatory compliance is embedded in organisational workflows, with particular depth in financial systems, controls, and reporting.
• External stakeholder experience: ensuring vendors, partners, consultants, and employees engage with Luminate through clear and well-structured processes and workflows.
• Funder and related-entity relationships: managing reporting, security requirements, and working relationships with our funder’s associated entities, where requirements can be complex and communication styles differ from Luminate’s own.

Employment type: Full Time

Team: Operations

Location: District of Columbia, USA, London, United Kingdom or Nairobi, Kenya

Reports to: Chief Operations Officer

Manages: A team of approximately seven across Finance, People, and IT.

Works closely with: COO; Legal (Contracts, Grants Management, Risk); Strategy; Programme Delivery; Executive Team; Board (audit findings and budget materials); our funder’s associated entities

Salary Range: The recruiting range for this role represents the entry point into the salary band (not the full range). Actual salary will be determined based on skills and experience. US: US$ 180,000 – US$ 240,000

Benefits: Visit our Careers page for more information.

HOW YOU CREATE CHANGE: LEVERAGE POINTS

Your role shifts systems through:

• Embedding operational clarity into operations: Designing policies, systems, and governance frameworks that are interconnected and enable teams to move with confidence.
• Promoting informed decision-making: Support informed decision-making through the compilation and analysis of organisation-wide data, using dashboards and other transparent reporting tools.
• Strengthening accountability discipline: Ensure transparency and accessible systems that enable the organisation to be held accountable for delivery.
• Translating complexity into practical action: Turning complex cross-border operations requirements into clear, actionable guidance.

MENTAL MODELS WE VALUE

The following mental models will enable high performance in this role:

• Systems-level thinking: You look beyond individual functional areas to assess how they intersect to create higher impact.
• First Principles thinking: You are able to redesign outdated processes by focusing on the problem to be solved rather than the process as inherited.
• Clarity over control: You prioritise transparency and shared understanding over defensive positioning.
• Learning over defence: You treat process gaps or incidents as opportunities to strengthen systems and understanding.
• Service orientation: You recognise that internal functions exist to enable mission delivery, not to create bureaucracy.