This approach to policymaking will strengthen the capacities of Ethiopia’s main agricultural policy system actors and institutions, and support them to engage stakeholders traditionally excluded from decision-making, including academia, financial institutions, the judiciary, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private sector representatives from the national, regional, and local levels.

This approach is underpinned by Policy LINK’s overarching theory of change focused on increasing human and social capital, engaging policy system actors in collaborative processes, and developing mechanisms for collaborative governance and dynamic learning systems and platforms to sustain collective action.

Position Objectives

The Accountant/Finance Specialist will oversee each step of the field project finance cycle for the LINK/Ethiopia office including estimating cash needs, requesting and processing weekly wire transfers from Bethesda, processing payments to goods and service providers, and recording financial transactions and subsequent documentation, compliant with statutory requirements, and preparing regular financial reports. S/he will ensure that all financial transactions are documented in compliance with DAI policies and procedures.

S/he will be expected to liaise with operations and technical points of contact in the LINK/Ethiopia office and the LINK team remotely based as well as home office staff in Bethesda/Washington.

S/he will continually reinforce Policy LINK’s agreed-upon core purpose and principles, and ensure all decision-making is rooted in those purpose and principles. S/he will contribute to foster a learning environment in which personal and team growth is supported, with a shared understanding that the “team” always comes before the “individual.”

Responsibilities

The Accountant/Finance Specialist will be responsible for the following:

Day to day financial management:

• Ensure timely and proper accounting of all project transactions in Dynacom/Financial Accounting System (FAS), using the correct codes and expenditure types.
  • Transactions may include but not be limited to staff advances, goods/service provider invoice payments, payroll, and statutory remittances.
  • Ensure vouchers for each payment are prepared and approved before the payment.
• Ensure the project finance filing system including invoices, correspondence, backup procurement documentation, and client files are scanned on a monthly basis and organized according to DAI policies for easy reference during internal and external audits.
• Ensure that financial activities (i.e. payments for goods and services received) are carried out in compliance with DAI policies as well as local laws; and
• Proactively monitor all financial activities, as well as any technical issues with DAI financial reporting tools/systems, and flag challenges to the LINK team for action.

Regular financial reporting:

• Weekly wire requests for funds transferred from DAI/Washington to the LINK/Ethiopia bank account.
• Bi-weekly field finance expenditure reports generated from Dynacom/FAS and uploaded to Oracle.
• Monthly bank reconciliations.
• Monthly accruals and commitments report submitted to the LINK/Ethiopia Finance & Operations Director.
• Monthly scanning and storage of verified finance vouchers in project SharePoint folder; and
• Statutory remittance reports submitted by designated deadlines.

Bank relationship management:

• Serve as the primary point of contact with the designated bank, ensuring regular updates are received, exchange rates are favorable, and working relations are strong.

Coordination with other LINK staff:

• Support Ethiopia team members to track actual activity expenses compared to projections.
• Participate in relevant cross-cutting project meetings such as those focused on office startup and closedown, sharing financial updates.
• Communicate regularly with DAI/Washington and remotely based LINK staff with finance and operations responsibilities to exchange information relevant to day-to-day management as well as periodic internal/external audits as needed.

Reporting

The Accountant/Finance Specialist will directly report to the Ethiopia Finance and Operations Director.

Supervisory Responsibilities

The Accountant will not have any supervisory responsibilities.

Qualifications

Education:

• A university degree in accounting, finance, business management, or another relevant field of business studies.

Work Experience:

• 5+ years of work experience on donor-funded programs (USAID preferred), with progressive responsibility in financial management for Accountant; 7+ years for Finance Specialist
• Preference for experience supporting fast-paced donor-funded programs focused on food security, agriculture, value chains, digital tools, or similar technical areas.

Skills:

• Attention to detail, well planned in managing time, and highly organized in meeting deadlines.
• Effective communication with colleagues and stakeholders located within Ethiopia as well as in other LINK offices – a strong capacity for remote collaboration is required.
• Ability to balance competing priorities and information shared by colleagues, policy and procedure manuals, stakeholders, etc. and carry out well-informed financial management decisions.
• Computer literate with practical experience of web based, in-house or any accounting software.
• Professional fluency in English and Amharic.