Head of Finance and Operations at IT/Energy non-profit (Remote | English+German)
🌍 Head of Finance & Operations at IT & Energy Non-Profit (Remote | English+German)
Location : Fully remote. We welcome applications from a range of countries, provided there is sufficient working-hours overlap with our European team. Our ability to hire in a particular country depends on local employment arrangements and compensation levels.
Employment : Full-time preferred; 80-100% arrangements can be considered.
Languages : Fluent English required; German strongly preferred
Experience Required : Significant relevant experience in Finance & Operations, typically 8+ years.
Salary Range : Market-related by region and based on experience
Work Travel Requirements : Up to once per quarter
Start Date Goal : Flexible
🧭 About Us:
Open Energy Transition (OET), is a German non-profit making energy planning faster, more equitable and more trusted. We do this by developing and applying open-source software and data.
Our fully remote team of around 50 people works with grid operators, regulators, funders and other energy institutions around the world. Our operating model combines philanthropic funding, complex B2B and B2G projects, and software products and services.
As OET grows, we are bringing Finance, People Operations and other operational functions under one senior leader.
To learn more about OET and our team, visit our website and browse around our public Handbook.
🎯 The role
We are looking for a Head of Finance & Operations to lead the organizational backbone that enables OET to scale effectively and sustainably.
Reporting directly to the CEO, you will lead financial management, project and grant finance, business administration and internal business systems. You will also oversee People Operations and ensure that areas such as IT support, information security, data protection and corporate compliance have clear ownership and appropriate specialist support. A major priority will be building strong financial management across a project-heavy organization. This includes restricted funds, project budgets, cost allocation, forecasting, financial reporting and donor or client requirements.
This is a role with broad accountability, not an expectation that one person does everything . While we expect a hands-on leader, you will lead a lean internal team and coordinate project leads, technical colleagues and external specialists across areas such as accounting, tax, legal, IT, information security and data protection.
You will have significant freedom to shape the team, systems and external-support model as OET grows. Important is that you enjoy building better organizations: creating clarity, improving systems, solving problems and helping colleagues make good decisions.
🛠️ What you will own
Finance & project control
- Lead organizational budgeting, forecasting, cash management, controlling and management reporting.
- Own the financial framework for projects and restricted funds, including budgeting, cost allocation, expenditure tracking and forecasting.
- Ensure reliable accounting, payroll, banking, tax, statutory reporting and audits together with internal colleagues and external advisors.
- Partner with the CEO and project leads on proposal budgets, contracts, pricing, indirect-cost recovery and major financial decisions.
- Provide clear financial analysis that helps leadership and project teams make sound decisions.
Business operations & systems
- Own core business administration, including contracts, procurement, vendors, insurance, policies and recurring corporate obligations.
- Develop and improve OET's finance and business systems, including ERP, project accounting, reporting, workflows and automation.
- Establish a scalable internal IT support function covering employee support, access and account management, onboarding and offboarding, business software and vendor coordination.
- Ensure information security, data protection, organizational risk and business-continuity activities are appropriat