LION is hiring a Finance & Operations Manager

Status: Full-time exempt (not eligible for overtime), with 90-day introductory period (see details below)

Reports to: Lisa Hunter, Director of Finance & Operations

Location: Remote within USA

Compensation: $65K-$70K, eligible for benefits (see details below)

Job Summary

We are looking for our next mission support team member! Are you a nerd for rules and process? Do you delight in numbers and the stories they can tell? Do you get a deep sense of satisfaction from finding the best way to organize documents or information? If so, you could be LION Publishers’ Finance & Operations Manager. 

The Finance & Operations Manager will support LION’s financial management, people operations, and administration with a particular focus on ensuring compliance with internal LION policies and state and federal regulations. This can be a growth position for someone new to finance but excited to learn. The ideal candidate has prior experience working in nonprofits/mission-driven organizations and is passionate about ensuring that policies and procedures are natural extensions of organizational values. We are looking for someone who is organized, accountable, and who appreciates how attention to detail supports the big picture. This role will report to the Director of Finance & Operations, and will work with all members of the LION team as well as external accountants and HR advisor. 

Key Responsibilities

• Financial Operations (50%)
  • Ensures a smooth and timely month close, in collaboration with accountants
  • Manages accounts payable process
  • Updates Salesforce database with funder awards/contracts and payments received and disbursed; generates donation acknowledgements
  • Creates and manages budgets for Divvy credit cards
  • Creates and manages budgets for staff retreats; contributes to retreat design and planning
  • Supports annual budgeting and mid-year forecasting processes; provides thought partnership on key assumptions and financial planning and analysis
  • Performs salary benchmarking analysis
  • Supports annual financial audit 
  • Attends and takes minutes for monthly Board Finance Committee meetings
  • Creates and updates documentation on financial processes (e.g. coding guide)
• People and Organizational Operations (50%)
  • Manages employee onboarding and offboarding processes, including managing the filing of registration and compliance paperwork in new states
  • Ensures employee data is complete and up to date
  • Creates and organizes contracts for independent contractors
  • Manages request for proposals/qualifications process for compliance with LION’s procurement policy
  • Manages annual state charity and business renewal processes
  • Manages virtual mailbox, routing documents as appropriate
  • Advises on new tools/processes for efficient operations and leads their roll-out

Other duties as assigned.

LION is an Equal Opportunity Employer

LION believes that a team with diversity of backgrounds and experiences will generate the most innovative ideas and ultimately do the best work in support of our mission. This is why we welcome contractors, vendors, staff and board members who contribute to a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment. We understand diversity as multi-dimensional and intersectional, encompassing aspects of our identities including race and ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability, class, geography, lived experiences and more. We welcome and encourage all qualified candidates to apply to opportunities at LION so that we build a team that reflects the diversity of independent news entrepreneurs we wish to serve.

We know there are great candidates who might not check all the boxes listed below or who possess important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. 

Skills and Qualifications for The Role

• Integrity: The Finance & Operations Manager will have access to confidential information and will be trusted with access to financial systems. Any offer of employment for this role will be contingent on a background check. 
• Detail-oriented problem solver: Can manage many tasks and details and is good at quickly understanding a problem and jumping in to help wherever needed. Doesn’t necessarily know all the answers, but is good at discovering potential solutions for problems.  
• Strong written and verbal communicator: Clear, concise communicator. Can translate complex or vague concepts into easily understood language for others. Is adept at finding the balance between not enough and too much information.
• Tech-proficient: Has a strong grasp of digital tools, including Zoom, Google Sheets/Excel and Slack, and how to use them quickly and effectively. Experience building clean and pretty spreadsheets and data entry in Salesforce is a plus.
• Helpful but not required: Familiarity with nonprofit financial management (e.g. restricted revenue) and/or accounting

Skills and Expectations for Teamwork at LION

• Work in a way that upholds and reflects our organizational values: Being data-informed, equitable and inclusive, people-centered, systems thinkers, transparent and iterative
• Use digital tools and platforms to stay organized, communicate transparently, and collaborate with team members remotely 
• Collaborate strategically with others, clearly defining processes for decision making
• Give and receive constructive feedback to help the team produce its best work
• Celebrate our wins and learning moments
• Take on an experimental mindset and demonstrate flexibility to iterate on our work, systems, and processes 
• Be willing and able to ask for help when needed, and demonstrate an ability to learn and grow in the role

Physical Requirements and Environmental Conditions

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position, at a desk or similar, 90% of the time. Time spent in stationary location includes operating a computer and relevant peripherals and communicating via phone.

Travel Requirements

• Available to travel for staff retreats 1-2 times per year (approx. 2 days per retreat)
• Available to travel for annual LION member event annually (approx. 3 days)

About LION

Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit professional journalism association for independent news publishers. While most of our 400+ members across the U.S. and Canada run local news businesses, we also have members who serve larger regions and specific identity-based communities across geographies. LION provides teaching, resources and community to independent news entrepreneurs as they build and develop sustainable businesses. One of our core values is being people-centered, and here are some ways we build that culture for our staff. 

90 Day Introductory Period

The first 90 days of employment is an introductory period, during which the new hire has clear goals, criteria for successful work product, and regular feedback from their manager. As a result of the new hire’s 90 day self-reflection and manager’s assessment, the two will discuss whether the new hire will stay on with LION and whether it will be in the role as originally scoped.

Benefits

• Medical PPO, Vision & Dental fully paid by employer; 50% paid for dependents
• Short-term disability, long-term disability, life, and worker’s compensation insurance paid by employer
• Flexible Spending Account and Dependent Care HSA
• Paid Time Off (including sick days) is 20 days per year 
• Paid holidays (including week of July 4 and Christmas Eve through New Years Day) is 17 days in 2023

• Up to 12 weeks fully paid family/caregiver leave
• 401K with employer match up to 3.5%
• Flexible working hours
• No-meeting Fridays
• Annual professional development budget
• Monthly work-from-home stipend
• For new hires: Health insurance stipend until eligible for employer medical coverage to begin
• Eligible for year-end, surplus-dependent bonus

Application Materials

Submit your materials using this form by 11 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday, June 25. 

• Your resume
• Answers to the following questions:

• How would you expect LION’s organizational values to be reflected in the work of a Finance & Operations team? Please provide 2 examples.
• Tell us about a time when you had to solve a problem for a situation where you didn’t have a lot of existing knowledge. How did you approach finding and proposing a solution? What was the result?
• Tell us about a time when you had to “manage up/sideways,” making sure that colleagues who don’t report to you follow a process or get a deliverable in on time. What was your approach? What did you learn?
• Why are you interested in this role? How does it fit into your long-term career ambitions?

If you have questions about this role, reach out to [email protected] to learn more.