Finance & Compliance Manager

Full Time | Fully Remote
Position Type:
Flexible, Full-Time
Location: Fully Remote from South Africa
Duration: Temporary employment from September 2025 - September 2026 with possibility of extension
Deadline to Apply: July 30, 2025

Introduction

The world’s largest fossil fuel producers are already on track to produce more than twice the amount of coal, oil and gas than can ever be burned if we are to hit our climate targets. The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative champions a new international mechanism to complement the Paris Agreement, one that would hold governments accountable for their fossil fuel production plans in an effort to advance a just transition.

The Position

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative (FFNPTI) is seeking an experienced and motivated Finance and Compliance Manager to manage our financial operations in South Africa. As we move from being a fiscally sponsored organisation to an independent entity, this position is crucial for ensuring that our financial practices comply with South African regulations, including nonprofit standards, accounting rules, and tax laws. This person will also be responsible for managing our daily financial activities within a global context. This is a key opportunity to help FFNPTI navigate this transition smoothly from a US 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsorship model to full financial independence. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to an ambitious, values-driven initiative with global impact. The Finance & Compliance Manager will be a foundational member of our South African entity, joining a passionate and collaborative operations team.

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative welcomes and values diversity of people, cultural experiences and perspectives. We actively encourage applications from all corners of our global society, especially from people who have experience working with, or identities that reflect, communities who are at the frontlines of the climate crisis, which could be because of their geographic location, economic status, race, ethnicity, first nations identity, immigrant or asylum seeking status, language, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

Key Responsibilities

  • Manage day-to-day financial operations, including foreign currency accounts, bank reconciliations, payments, and transfers.

  • Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports, including balance sheets and income statements.

  • Draft financial statements in line with accounting standards and internal requirements.

  • Support donor and grant compliance, ensuring financial reporting meets contractual obligations.

  • Assist in developing and implementing internal financial controls and compliance systems in collaboration with the Operations Director.

  • Monitor and ensure adherence to organisational financial policies and donor regulations.

  • Oversee expense tracking, coding, and categorisation, ensuring consistency and audit readiness.

  • Ensure full compliance with the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) regulations, SARS obligations, and relevant nonprofit financial legislation.

  • Provide strategic financial insight to the Operations Director and broader team.

  • Coordinate with the external payroll provider for timely and compliant payroll processing.

  • Liaise with external auditors during annual audits and reporting cycles.

  • Contribute to budgeting, forecasting, and strategic financial planning.

Required & desired experience and attributes:

Required:

  • Progress toward or completion of a professional qualification such as CIMA or a South African equivalent.

  • Minimum 5 years of experience in nonprofit accounting & financial management, ideally in international organisations.

  • Familiarity with IFRS for SMEs and compliance with the South African Revenue Authority (SARS) and South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and banking institutions.

  • Experience managing foreign currency transactions

  • Strong knowledge of South African tax and nonprofit legislation.

  • Strong audit experience and preparation of financial statements for external review.

  • Fluency in accounting systems (e.g., Sage QuickBooks, Xero), CRMs, and remote payment processing

  • Excellent communication, analytical, and creative problem-solving skills

  • High degree of autonomy, initiative, and organisational skill

  • Fluency in English required

Desired:

  • Experience supporting operational transitions or setting up finance systems in new entities.

  • Knowledge of international donor compliance standards.

  • Experience in creating new financial processes, systems, and policies

  • Experience working in a cross-cultural and Global environment

Compensation

This is a full-time, salaried, exempt, temporary position. Salary is commensurate with experience. The total compensation package for this role, including mandated employer paid pensions if mandated by the country’s labor laws, will be in the range of $60,000 to $70,000 USD, and starting salaries are usually in the lower half of the band. This role includes a remote working allowance, professional development fund, health benefits (where available globally), flexible working hours, and generous paid vacation. We encourage applicants to apply as soon as possible, and will process them as they are received.  

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative is a fiscally sponsored project of Earth Island Institute. As such the successful candidate will be an employee of Deel, our Employer of Record Deel.

Earth Island does not unlawfully discriminate against employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, religious creed, sex (including pregnancy, breastfeeding, childbirth, or related medical conditions), national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, military and veteran status, or any other basis protected by state or federal laws, local law, or ordinance.

Contingency of Employment

Appointment to the position of Finance & Compliance Manager, including confirmation of start date, is expressly contingent upon the availability of sufficient funding to support the South African entity’s operational launch and financial commitments. The effective date of employment will align with the commencement of the transitional funding tranche, and the Organisation reserves the right to adjust the start date accordingly.

Pollution, climate change, and corporations’ bad behavior disproportionately hurts the most marginalized people in society — including people from and in the Global South, Indigenous people, people of color, people from working class backgrounds, people with disabilities, women and LGBTQ+ people. To develop transformative solutions, these communities must be centered in the work we do. Hence, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other historically marginalized communities.

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative welcomes and values diversity of people, cultural experiences and perspectives. We actively encourage applications from all corners of our global society.
The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative is a fiscally sponsored project of Earth Island Institute. As such, new hires will be an employee of Earth Island Institute if based in the United States, and otherwise hired through a third-party employment platform, subject to employment standards at the Earth Island Institute.

Earth Island does not unlawfully discriminate against employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, religious creed, sex (including pregnancy, breastfeeding, childbirth, or related medical conditions), national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, military and veteran status, or any other basis protected by state or federal laws, local law, or ordinance.

Job Application Tips and Information

  • The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty is a fast-moving, fast-growing team that is passionate about climate justice. We aim to have a great impact on the world, and because of that we have great expectations of our team. We welcome and value diversity of people, cultural experiences and perspectives. We work in a high trust, high autonomy environment and encourage everyone to drive and manage their own work with the support of the team. Here is a snapshot of our values and how we strive to be together:

    • Active listening

    • Trust

    • Collaboration

    • Honest & Reliable Communication

    • Humanity

    • Equity & Justice

    • Adaptability

    • Focus

    We work continually to improve our internal processes and be nimble and flexible to meet our team’s needs and our organizational goals. If that sounds like the team for you, read on!

    • Read the posting thoroughly and ensure that the required experience and role aligns with your experience and aspirations

    • Look through our website to read about our mission, actions, history and team. Get a sense of how we communicate and take action and if that feels like an exciting fit for you, and if your values align with the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

    • Review the posted salary band to ensure that it aligns with your needs and expectations

    • Put your most relevant experience at the top of your resume

    • Highlight experience over education

    • Ideally limit your resume to 2 pages of your most relevant experience and biggest accomplishments

    • Please do not include personal information including; birthday, age, photos, marital status, or religion. While this is very common in many parts of the world and candidates will not be excluded for doing so, removing this information helps our team eliminate bias in the recruitment process.

    • Avoid acronyms- they might not be understood outside of your region or industry

    • Review the job requirements and clearly demonstrate in your resume how you meet those requirements. Here’s an example- we’ve highlighted the requirements and matched them to a line in the resume

    • Requirements:

      • At least 3 years of experience in political advocacy or campaigning (1)

      • Experience in direct diplomatic engagement, ideally with policymakers in local governments (2)

      • Commitment to contributing to an anti-racist, inclusive organisational culture. (3)

      • Fluency in English and Spanish, other languages desirable (4)

      • Experience in engaging and activating a network of organisations and individuals to join a campaign and advocate for a specific policy demand (5)

      • Experience in campaign communications including copywriting, digital advocacy, social media or content production, educational design (6)

    • Latin American Campaign Coordinator Example Resume:

      • WeCampaignForClimate.org.nz
        February 2017-April 2020 (1)

        • Developed Latin America campaign strategy under the supervision of the Regional Campaigns Director (tip: this person should ideally be listed in your references!) (1)

        • Coordinated local partner groups to participate in joint action, including email campaigns and led local educational events (4) in English and Spanish (5)

        • Designed and ran workshops for partner groups and community members (6)

        • Contributed to the communications strategy for Latin America including newsletters, campaign emails and social media posts (6)

        • Met and advocated with local elected officials in Mexico and Panama (2)

        • Contributed to the internal decolonization strategy and partnered with local Indigenous groups to feature their climate action and policy demands (3)

  • We use application questions instead of a cover letter so you can save time in your application process and we can learn more about you quickly.

    • Location information: This does not affect your candidacy, but helps us move quickly when we need to schedule interviews and potentially hire you. Different countries have different employment regulations and timelines, so knowing that information in advance allows us to prepare for those scenarios

    • Questions: This gives us a snapshot of why you’re applying for the role, and lets you highlight your experience and qualities that are most relevant to your application. We want to know who you are, so honesty and clarity are very helpful here!

  • Please include three references in your application. We will not contact them unless we are in the final stage of your candidacy.

    • They should be:

      • At least two people who were your direct supervisor

      • At least one person who has supervised you in the last 5 years

      • At least one person who has supervised you in the most closely related role to the one you’re applying for

    • Include full information for your references, including:

      • Their full names

      • Organization and title

      • When and how you worked together

      • Their phone numbers, email addresses and time zones

      • Languages spoken if not English

    • For your references:

    • Let them know to expect an email from us!

    • Give them the title and brief description of the job that you’re applying for

    Example:

    Reference #1
    Akhila Sharma, she/her
    English/Spanish
    Time Zone: GMT -5
    Campaigns Director, WeCampaignForClimate.org.nz
    Direct Supervisor from 2018-2020
    52-333-425-6778
    Akhila.Sharma@wecampaignforclimate.org.nz

  • Here is the general hiring process we follow. Each timeline will be slightly different depending on the role, the time of year, and the team, but we will share the timelines with you if you are selected for the Skills Assessment.

    Step 1: Application and Review

    • Once the deadline for applications has passed, we will review each application carefully. We do these personally, and don’t use any filtering or AI software. We typically receive at least 100 applications from around the world for each role.

    Step 2: Skills Assessment

    • 10 or fewer applicants will be selected to do a skills assessment that takes two hours or less. Applicants will be given an option of when to do these tasks according to their own schedule and convenience.

    • Skills assessments are a part of our hiring processes to offer candidates another way to show what they can do apart from an interview. All skills assessments are tasks and their only value is for assessment, they are of no relevance to our current or future projects. We accept the studies that show practical exercises are better than interviews to fairly assess candidates’ skills, reduce bias, and effectively compare candidates.

    Step 3: Interview #1

    • Five or fewer applicants will be selected to do a video interview with a few members of our team, including the open position’s direct supervisor

    • These interviews are scheduled for one hour, and candidates will be sent an overview of the interview questions 24 hours in advance. We provide all this information to interview candidates to even the playing field and help candidates feel less nervous and more prepared.

    Step 4: Interview #2 (optional)

    • Most positions will only require one interview, but some management or executive positions may have two interviews to meet with additional team members and explore further questions. Three or fewer candidates will be selected for a second interview.

    Step 5: Reference Check

    • Two or fewer candidates will be selected for the reference check phase. Each reference is asked to speak for about 15 minutes.

    Step 6: Final Decision

    • We notify everyone who has completed a Skills Assessment or Interview whether or not they were selected for the role. We will speak to the chosen candidate to let them know that they were selected and confirm their interest, and then send them a detailed offer in writing to review.

    • According to our compensation policy, we do not negotiate with candidates over salary, as negotiation tends to disadvantage people from traditionally marginalized and oppressed communities and result in pay disparity. Within the salary band, salary is calculated based on cost of living in the candidate's location and experience based on the role qualifications. Most people will start at the bottom of the salary band unless they significantly exceed the required experience for the role.

Non-Compete Hiring Agreement

The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative is a global effort to foster International cooperation to accelerate a transition to clean energy for everyone to address the climate crisis. 

We are a collective network campaign, meaning that FFNPT works with local partners around the world to strengthen and amplify their efforts to achieve our collective goals. To keep those local organizations strong, FFNPT commits to refrain from hiring or contracting any of their staff or contractors in a way that would disrupt their work at their local organizations.

FFNPT commits to refrain from entering a hiring process with any employee of a partner organization unless there is clarity on their intended departure from the partner organization and the opportunity to work in the FFNPT is not the primary cause of that departure.

If a local organization ends the agreement with their employee or contractor, this commitment does not apply.

  • Core and Volunteer Partners, including but not limited to:

    • Global Climate Health Alliance

    • Health Care Without Harm

    • Laudato Si' Movement

    • Greenfaith

    • Indigenous Environmental Network

    • Confederation of Indigenous Organisations of the Amazon Basin

    • Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

    • Climate Action Network International

    • Satat Sampada 

    • Climate Action Network South Asia

    • Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development

    • Third World Network

    • Power Shift Africa

    • Movimiento Ciudadano Frente al Cambio Climático

    • AIDA

    • Stamp Out Poverty

    • Friends of Earth Ireland

    • Pacific Islands Climate Action Network

    • Climate Equity Reference Project (CERP)

    • Environmental Impact Agency (EIA)

    • Global Justice Now

    • Friends Of Earth Sweden

    • Censat Agua Viva - Friends of the Earth Colombia

    • WhatNext

    • United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

    • Stanley Center

    • ICA