Head of Operations (Part-Time)
Seefar Foundation is a social enterprise with a simple mission: to transform the lives of vulnerable people. Through programmes rooted in technology, psychology and behaviour change, we help people build the skills and confidence they need to make a positive contribution to their communities. It’s how we support governments in finding solutions to challenges around irregular migration, poverty, human trafficking, violent extremism, access to justice, and more. With our sister company Farsight Global, we solve high impact problems for governments and NGOs across communications, digital, and research, monitoring and evaluation in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Your Responsibilities
Core processes (30%). Oversee an integrated management system that delivers flawless payroll and cashflow forecasting processes each month; take steps to further streamline them through systemisation and automation; work with project managers and area heads to anticipate resource needs; own the enterprise risk matrix and ensure risks of all types are actively managed.
Project and entity compliance (30%). Support the Finance Officer, Human Resources Officer, and Project Managers to manage procurement and donor reporting accurately. Build and hold positive, trusting relationships with auditors and finance departments of donors. Anticipate issues and proactively plan resources to respond to them. Identify areas ready for automation.
Strategy (20%). Contribute to senior management strategy and planning, in particular through proactive analysis and suggestions that improve efficiencies, maximise income, and actively manage financial risk. Support the Seefar Foundation Board with governance, board meetings, and audit coordination. Lead the development and review of SOPs across the organisation to ensure consistency, compliance, and efficiency.
Operations talent management (10%). Provide pastoral support and professional guidance to the Finance and Human Resources Officers through weekly supervision sessions and talent management development. Identify additional resources where needed.
Enterprise talent management (10%). Work with the Human Resources Officer to devise and execute strategies that attract members to our high-performing teams. Develop talent within your team to reach their full potential and look after their wellbeing. Lead initiatives that strengthen engagement.
Who You Are
You’re motivated by applying your ability to understand and improve systems in a social enterprise. You want to work closely with executive leadership, help shape Seefar’s direction, and build a team of high-performing professionals. Perhaps more simply: from procurement to hiring, you see it as your job to make sure we do things the right way. You’re strategic and ambitious, but also hands-on. You’re deliberate about how you spend your time and you’re organised enough to manage a part-time role.
To succeed, you’ll need to be:
Highly productive, with attention to detail and comfort collaborating remotely.
Confident with accounting fundamentals.
Confident with rules and requirements of donors in the international development sector.
Motivated by conversations on how to improve financial management, compliance, and HR processes.
An executor, who gets things done, even when tedious.
An experimenter, instinctively testing solutions to problems rather than simply analysing them.
Welcoming of change, challenge, and ambiguity.
Champion of our values: productivity, smart risks, feedback, humility, social purpose, grit, and learning.
We welcome applications even where you do not obviously fit all of the criteria.
Essential Criteria
Fluency in spoken English. You chair internal and external meetings with confidence and efficiency, ensuring clear agendas and driving decisions toward productive outcomes.
Fluency in written English. You write compelling emails and reports with minimal errors. You can respond to sensitive questions from external parties with nuance and likeability.
Listening and reasoning. Your active listening and logical reasoning skills make you influential.
Digital skills. At least Level 3: Pioneer on the Seefar Technology Scale, meaning you embrace new tools and contribute to a positive technology culture. We’ll be especially impressed if you have built automations before but this is not required. You are (or could quickly become) comfortable with Google Suite and Wrike.
Financial management. You can manipulate moderately complex Google Sheets budgets and you’ve handled Xero accounts before. You can spot errors in others’ budgets.
Compliance. You interpret grant and contract rules correctly and know where to get answers, when you’re not sure. You’re confident enough to challenge others who may be misinterpreting them.
Systems. You can turn SMART goals into workstreams and workflows, which lets you think clearly about delegation, systemisation and automation.
People. You’re effective in helping colleagues to plan – and you care about their success. You can make hard decisions and lead the difficult conversations that accompany them with integrity.
Self regulation. You respond constructively to both professional and emotional challenges, including constructive feedback, maintaining a balanced perspective.
