Chief Financial Officer

Job TypeFull Time

QualificationMBA/MSc/MA , Professional Certificate

Experience15 years

LocationNairobi

Job FieldFinance / Accounting / Audit

Roles & Responsibilities

Financial Strategy, Sustainability, and Blended Finance

• Lead the development of Splash’s long-term financial strategy in alignment with organizational growth, government partnership, and impact goals.
• Help Splash build a more sophisticated capital strategy that distinguishes between philanthropic funding, catalytic capital, government co-financing, donor-funded infrastructure, technical assistance, and long-term public ownership.
• Partner with the CEO, Development team, and program leadership to assess how different funding sources can support different needs across the organization.
• Support financial modeling for government co-financing, donor match requirements, phased implementation, working capital needs, and long-term sustainability.
• Advise the CEO and Board on tradeoffs related to scale, risk, unrestricted reserves, cost recovery, donor restrictions, and country-level financial exposure.
• Lead scenario planning and financial modeling for multi-year growth, including delayed disbursements, foreign exchange exposure, government payment timing, implementation shifts, and funding gaps.
• Build financial models that incorporate inflation, foreign exchange exposure, country-specific cost assumptions, and implementation timing so multi-year budgets are realistic and decision-useful.

Global Financial Management & Reporting

• Oversee global budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, and financial reporting across Splash’s US and international operations.
• Ensure timely, accurate, and decision-useful reporting for the CEO, management team, Board, Finance Committee, donors, and country teams.
• Strengthen financial dashboards and analysis so country, regional, and global teams can track burn rates against activities, deliverables, restricted donor budgets, and implementation progress in real time or near-real time.
• Manage organizational cash flow, reserves, restricted and unrestricted funding, and liquidity planning.
• Partner with program and Development teams to ensure budgets, forecasts, and donor reports accurately reflect implementation realities.
• Support budget modeling for new opportunities, including overall project budgets, donor-specific restricted budgets, match or co-financing assumptions, cost recovery, and implementation timelines.
• Ensure grant budgets, cost recovery, indirect cost allocation, and donor reporting are disciplined, transparent, and aligned with Splash’s operating model.

Government Co-Financing and Public Finance

• Support the design and financial oversight of government co-financing arrangements, including contribution models, annual workplans, budget alignment, and fund-flow options.
• Help assess the financial implications of government-funded implementation, direct government procurement, contractor payments, cost-share commitments, and delayed public disbursements.
• Partner with country teams to ensure government co-financing commitments are financially realistic, well documented, appropriately accounted for, and monitored.
• Support financial analysis related to public-sector ownership, operations and maintenance, and the long-term transition of responsibility to government systems.
• Bring practical understanding of the risks and realities of operating in low-income settings, including public finance cycles, procurement constraints, documentation gaps, currency exposure, and varying local accounting capacity.

International Compliance, VAT, Tax, and Risk

• Build and maintain strong financial systems, policies, processes, and internal controls that support a growing global organization.
• Strengthen financial technology, reporting tools, data integrity, and cross-country accounting processes.
• Build and enforce the accounting and reporting architecture needed to track restricted funds by donor, project, activity, deliverable, country, budget line, and spending status.
• Strengthen budgeting, forecasting, financial controls, cost documentation, and approval processes so they are clear, efficient, and scalable.
• Ensure finance processes support procurement, contracting, and implementation without making finance a bottleneck.
• Drive a culture of financial accountability, transparency, and timely decision-making.

Team Leadership and Cross-Functional Partnership

• Lead, mentor, and strengthen Splash’s global finance team.
• Build financial capacity across country teams and non-finance leaders so budget ownership is distributed and disciplined.
• Partner closely with Program, Development, Operations, and country leadership to align financial resources with program delivery and organizational priorities.
• Translate complex financial issues into clear, practical guidance for colleagues who are not finance specialists.
• Serve as a trusted partner to the CEO, Treasurer, Finance Committee, and Board.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 15 years of progressively senior financial leadership experience.
• Significant experience in global financial management, preferably in an international nonprofit, NGO, foundation-funded organization, development finance institution, or mission-driven organization operating across multiple countries.
• Experience with international accounting standards and practices, including IFRS and/or IPSAS where relevant, donor compliance, grants management, restricted funding, audits, internal controls, and multi-entity financial operations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead financial strategy in complex operating environments.
• Experience with low-income or lower-middle-income country contexts strongly preferred.
• Practical understanding of VAT, tax, multi-currency exposure, statutory compliance, procurement, and financial risk in international settings.
• Experience supporting government co-financing, public-sector partnerships, infrastructure financing, development finance, or blended finance strongly preferred.
• Strong financial modeling, scenario planning, forecasting, and analytical skills.
• Demonstrated experience building multi-year, multi-country budgets, donor-specific restricted budgets, and burn-rate analysis.
• Experience working with Boards, Finance Committees, Treasurers, CEOs, and senior leadership teams.
• Master’s degree in finance, accounting, business, public administration, or related field preferred. CPA, MBA, or equivalent experience strongly valued.
• Advanced proficiency with Excel and financial reporting systems. Experience with financial dashboards, accounting platforms, grant management tools, and reporting analytics is an asset.

• Lead the development of Splash’s long-term financial strategy in alignment with organizational growth, government partnership, and impact goals.
• Help Splash build a more sophisticated capital strategy that distinguishes between philanthropic funding, catalytic capital, government co-financing, donor-funded infrastructure, technical assistance, and long-term public ownership.
• Partner with the CEO, Development team, and program leadership to assess how different funding sources can support different needs across the organization.
• Support financial modeling for government co-financing, donor match requirements, phased implementation, working capital needs, and long-term sustainability.
• Advise the CEO and Board on tradeoffs related to scale, risk, unrestricted reserves, cost recovery, donor restrictions, and country-level financial exposure.
• Lead scenario planning and financial modeling for multi-year growth, including delayed disbursements, foreign exchange exposure, government payment timing, implementation shifts, and funding gaps.
• Build financial models that incorporate inflation, foreign exchange exposure, country-specific cost assumptions, and implementation timing so multi-year budgets are realistic and decision-useful.
• Oversee global budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, and financial reporting across Splash’s US and international operations.
• Ensure timely, accurate, and decision-useful reporting for the CEO, management team, Board, Finance Committee, donors, and country teams.
• Strengthen financial dashboards and analysis so country, regional, and global teams can track burn rates against activities, deliverables, restricted donor budgets, and implementation progress in real time or near-real time.
• Manage organizational cash flow, reserves, restricted and unrestricted funding, and liquidity planning.
• Partner with program and Development teams to ensure budgets, forecasts, and donor reports accurately reflect implementation realities.
• Support budget modeling for new opportunities, including overall project budgets, donor-specific restricted budgets, match or co-financing assumptions, cost recovery, and implementation timelines.
• Ensure grant budgets, cost recovery, indirect cost allocation, and donor reporting are disciplined, transparent, and aligned with Splash’s operating model.
• Support the design and financial oversight of government co-financing arrangements, including contribution models, annual workplans, budget alignment, and fund-flow options.
• Help assess the financial implications of government-funded implementation, direct government procurement, contractor payments, cost-share commitments, and delayed public disbursements.
• Partner with country teams to ensure government co-financing commitments are financially realistic, well documented, appropriately accounted for, and monitored.
• Support financial analysis related to public-sector ownership, operations and maintenance, and the long-term transition of responsibility to government systems.
• Bring practical understanding of the risks and realities of operating in low-income settings, including public finance cycles, procurement constraints, documentation gaps, currency exposure, and varying local accounting capacity.
• Build and maintain strong financial systems, policies, processes, and internal controls that support a growing global organization.
• Strengthen financial technology, reporting tools, data integrity, and cross-country accounting processes.
• Build and enforce the accounting and reporting architecture needed to track restricted funds by donor, project, activity, deliverable, country, budget line, and spending status.
• Strengthen budgeting, forecasting, financial controls, cost documentation, and approval processes so they are clear, efficient, and scalable.
• Ensure finance processes support procurement, contracting, and implementation without making finance a bottleneck.
• Drive a culture of financial accountability, transparency, and timely decision-making.
• Lead, mentor, and strengthen Splash’s global finance team.
• Build financial capacity across country teams and non-finance leaders so budget ownership is distributed and disciplined.
• Partner closely with Program, Development, Operations, and country leadership to align financial resources with program delivery and organizational priorities.
• Translate complex financial issues into clear, practical guidance for colleagues who are not finance specialists.
• Serve as a trusted partner to the CEO, Treasurer, Finance Committee, and Board.

• Financial Strategy
• Sustainability
• Blended Finance
• Capital Strategy
• Financial Modeling
• Scenario Planning
• Budgeting
• Forecasting
• Cash Flow Management
• Financial Reporting
• Financial Dashboards
• Data Integrity
• Cross-country Accounting
• Internal Controls
• Grant Management
• Cost Recovery
• Indirect Cost Allocation
• Government Co-Financing
• Public Finance
• International Compliance
• VAT
• Tax
• Risk Management
• Financial Systems
• Financial Policies
• Financial Processes
• Team Leadership
• Mentoring
• Financial Capacity Building
• Cross-functional Partnership
• Excel Proficiency
• Financial Reporting Systems

• Minimum of 15 years of progressively senior financial leadership experience.
• Significant experience in global financial management, preferably in an international nonprofit, NGO, foundation-funded organization, development finance institution, or mission-driven organization operating across multiple countries.
• Experience with international accounting standards and practices, including IFRS and/or IPSAS where relevant, donor compliance, grants management, restricted funding, audits, internal controls, and multi-entity financial operations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead financial strategy in complex operating environments.
• Experience with low-income or lower-middle-income country contexts strongly preferred.
• Practical understanding of VAT, tax, multi-currency exposure, statutory compliance, procurement, and financial risk in international settings.
• Experience supporting government co-financing, public-sector partnerships, infrastructure financing, development finance, or blended finance strongly preferred.
• Strong financial modeling, scenario planning, forecasting, and analytical skills.
• Demonstrated experience building multi-year, multi-country budgets, donor-specific restricted budgets, and burn-rate analysis.
• Experience working with Boards, Finance Committees, Treasurers, CEOs, and senior leadership teams.
• Master’s degree in finance, accounting, business, public administration, or related field preferred. CPA, MBA, or equivalent experience strongly valued.
• Advanced proficiency with Excel and financial reporting systems. Experience with financial dashboards, accounting platforms, grant management tools, and reporting analytics is an asset.