Call for applications - Finance Officer (FO)

SPHERE Research and Advocacy is looking for a meticulous and dedicated individual to join our team as a Finance Officer (FO). In addition to core financial management and bookkeeping responsibilities, this role will play a critical part in ensuring strict adherence to donor compliance, audit readiness, and transparent administrative accounting.

If you have a background in finance, accounting, or business administration and are eager to support grassroots human rights and development work through robust financial stewardship, we want to hear from you!

📋 Position Overview

• Position: Finance Officer (FO)
• Reporting Structure: Reports directly to the Executive Director
• Commitment & Office Hours: Part-time (with occasional coordination for field activities and outstation audits.)
• Recruitment Status: Open Call (open to qualified external candidates)

🔍 Key Responsibilities

1. Financial Management & Bookkeeping

• Transaction Recording: Record daily financial transactions, manage petty cash, issue reimbursement payments, and systematically file physical receipts and scanned invoices.

• Ledger Upkeep: Maintain standard Expense and General Ledgers, ensuring all accounting entries are up-to-date and accurately categorized by project budget lines.

• Disbursement Oversight: Process approved payment requests and disbursements while ensuring a strict separation of duties (i.e., verifying that the person approving expenses and the person executing payments remain distinct).

• Grant Compliance: Ensure that all financial transactions comply with donor guidelines, including maintaining proper project stamps on all accounting supporting documents to prevent double funding.

2. Administrative Oversight & Audit Readiness

• Audit Preparation: Organize and maintain clean, audit-ready financial folders, contract files, and supporting documentation (including participant payment lists with signatures, names, IDs, dates, and amounts).

• Asset & Inventory Tracking: Maintain and update the project inventory for equipment and other assets purchased with grant funds, ensuring conditions, existence, and purposes can be easily verified.

• Payroll & Timesheet Support: Verify staff timesheets, track leave requests, and assist with statutory tax filings or payroll processing as required.Financial Reporting Support: Assist the Executive Director in compiling financial data, budget variances, and expenditure reports for institutional donors and project partners.

🎓 Qualifications & Experience

• Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Commerce, Economics, or a related field/Practical experience. (Professional qualifications like AAT, CA, or CIMA intermediate level will be a strong advantage).

• Professional Experience: Minimum of 1 years of active experience in bookkeeping, financial management, or grant accounting, preferably within the Sri Lankan non-profit, NGO, or development sector.

• Language Skills: High-level professional fluency in English, with Sinhala and Tamil trilingual skills considered a major, decisive advantage.

• Core Competencies: Proficiency in accounting software (e.g., QuickBooks, Zoho, or advanced Excel), strong attention to detail, and a solid understanding of local tax regulations and NGO compliance standards.

How to Apply

Eligible candidates are invited to submit their Curriculum Vitae (CV) along with a Brief Expression of Interest outlining their suitability for the role to contact@sphereresearch.org.

Application Deadline: 05 November 2026