Senior Staff Accountant & Systems Administrator

Position Title: Senior Staff Accountant & Systems Administrator

Position Location: Candidates are welcome to apply from across the U.S. Those who are near a Popular Democracy office in DC or Brooklyn may be asked to work from a Popular Democracy office one or two days/week if necessary. Applicants outside of those areas may be required to travel to a Popular Democracy office occasionally.

Popular Democracy is seeking a Senior Staff Accountant & Systems Administrator. This is a full-time, exempt position.

About Popular Democracy:

Popular Democracy works to promote equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. We work with over 50 affiliates in more than 30 states and Puerto Rico to build the strength and capacity of democratic organizations that envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda. We are a rapidly expanding, changing organization that partners with organizations across the country to build political power to win tangible victories that improve the lives of low-wage workers, immigrants, and communities of color.

About the Position:

We are seeking a Senior Staff Accountant & Systems Administrator to join our Finance team in our Infrastructure Department.

This position will work closely with the finance team to manage a range of accounting duties of CPD, CPDA, Popular Democracy PAC, and other related entities. The Senior Staff Accountant & Systems Administrator will be primarily focused on financial record keeping including maintenance of monthly, quarterly, annual, and semi-annual schedules and year-end audit and tax preparation, as well as support grant financial reporting to funders. The role will also lead all aspects of finance system management and maintenance, including troubleshooting any issues with systems or between systems. Additionally, this role will identify and drive improvements in finance processes and procedures to improve the efficiency of the finance team. It is expected that the Senior Staff Accountant & Systems Administrator will travel and attend in-person meetings and events, including staff and team retreats, when necessary.

We estimate that candidates will have about 10 years of relevant experience, but our review of candidates for this role will focus on whether they can fill the needs of the position, not years of experience.

The Senior Staff Accountant & Systems Administrator will report to the Director of Finance.

Primary Responsibilities:

The Senior Staff Accountant & Systems Administrator will:

• Lead daily management and troubleshooting of all finance systems, including: SAP Concur for Travel, Invoice, and Expense; Sage Intacct as our accounting system; Workday Adaptive Insights for budgeting, forecasting, and reporting; and APIs connecting our systems.
• Field daily banking and investment inquiries and resolve any issues.
• Lead management of the AP process, including working with staff and vendors to resolve any issues, reviewing and processing invoices, providing skip step or change of approver as requested, extracting items into the accounting system as needed, acting as backup for the preparation of the AP schedule (aka check run); facilitating the check run process and approvals, and executing payments via check, ACH, bank wire transfer, and Bill.com.
• Lead annual IRS Form 1099 preparation process.
• Perform monthly closing activities, including resolving any questions about banking or stock donation activity; act as backup for booking semi-monthly payroll and benefits, and other semi-monthly, monthly, quarterly, annual, and year-end transactions.
• Complete ad hoc reconciliations as needed; act as backup for other reconciliations and update schedules of accounts on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.
• Act as backup for staff billing between entities on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis, including entering journal entries, creating invoices, and submitting payment requests.
• Communicate with internal and external stakeholders (affiliates, vendors, funders, fellow staff members, etc.) to independently resolve any issues that arise with AP/AR.
• Support grant financial reporting to funders (foundations, organizations, government agencies, etc.), including the creation of schedules, tagging of expenses in the accounting system, and other related tasks.
• Update budgeted staff schedules in payroll system, as needed.Assist in the preparation of lobbying reports, political campaign expenditure reports, and preparation of the IRS Form 990 Schedule C lobbying and political campaign expenditure information.
• Perform ad hoc accounting projects and support staff with finance questions or issues on an as-needed basis.
• GIK and other special reports.
• Continuously drive improvements in finance processes and procedures to make work more efficient for the team and all stakeholders.

The Ideal Candidate Will Have:

• Previous accounting experience required; experience at a nonprofit preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in nonprofit financial systems administration and accounting.
• Ability to use Microsoft Excel and Word is required to fulfill reporting and data analysis duties.
• Advanced Excel skills (e.g. pivot tables, VLOOKUPs) which will be utilized on an almost daily basis, are preferred.
• High attention to detail, accuracy in work product, and the ability to simultaneously manage multiple projects.
• Experience with SAGE Intacct is a strong plus, but not required.
• Experience with Concur, Workday Adaptive Insights is a strong plus, experience with Salesforce a plus, but not required.
• Experience working in a multi-entity environment is a strong plus, but not required.
• A commitment to social, racial, and economic justice and a deep understanding of the challenges facing low-wage workers, immigrant communities, communities of color, disabled people, LGBTQ+ folks, and people at the intersections of the above communities.

Hiring Process:

In your cover letter you submit as part of your application, please outline what brings you to social justice work, why you want to work at Popular Democracy, and what about this position is appealing to you.

Candidates should expect to participate in two rounds of group interviews and a job simulation exercise. Final candidates will be asked to provide references.