ABOUT LUMINATE

Luminate is a global foundation working to ensure that technology serves our needs and wellbeing. Founded by The Omidyar Group in 2018 and funded by Pierre and Pam Omidyar, we are a US foundation with an independent board of directors, operating through entities in the US, the UK, and Kenya. We ask who benefits from a technology, and who is harmed by it.

Digital technology must serve our needs and wellbeing. We know it has the potential to create connection, spark creativity, and provide a space of freedom and choice, because that was the promise of the early internet. But as state and corporate control tightened their grip on digital tools, that promise has narrowed.  We want to change that trajectory, motivated by a radical vision: to restore the liberating potential of technology so that it serves the public good, planet, and people – particularly those historically marginalised.

In the end our pursuit isn’t really about technology at all. It’s about the world we want to live in.

We work in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, with staff in those regions, including in Nigeria and Kenya, and locations in London, Washington, DC, and Nairobi. A global ecosystems programme strengthens the field as a whole. Since 2018 we have supported more than 500 partners and moved around $370 million to the field, with 252 partnerships live today.

We do not bet on a single route to change. We fund policy engagement, strategic litigation, campaigning, and narrative work at once, and support organisations at every stage, from an idea that needs incubating to an institution that needs sustaining. We fund shared infrastructure that no single grantee would build alone, run our own advocacy where we can add something to it, and convene other funders to bring new resources into the field.

ROLE

As Director, Finance & Operations you are a senior leader in the organisation. Finance is the core of the role: you lead the finance function hands-on, including audit and treasury, while providing direction and support to small, capable People and IT teams.

The role exists at a point of change. Our funding model is moving from a single funder providing unrestricted, flexible support towards a multi-revenue model, and we need leadership equal to that shift. The functions you inherit are stable, and much of how they work has been in place for some years.

You provide leadership and mission-aligned advice across the three functions. You ensure that internal operations are high-performing, resilient, values driven, and scalable. In addition, you build and maintain strong systems, manage operational risk, allocate resources effectively and help the organisation adapt to a changing external environment.

You are a trusted advisor who balances expertise, innovation, and risk, helping the organisation connect operational excellence with mission impact.

Primary Systems Focus

•       Operational systems (Finance, IT, People): ensuring efficiency and regulatory compliance is embedded in organisational workflows, with particular depth in financial systems, controls, and reporting.

•       External stakeholder experience: ensuring vendors, partners, consultants, and employees engage with Luminate through clear and well-structured processes and workflows.

•       Funder and related-entity relationships: managing reporting, security requirements, and working relationships with our funder’s associated entities, where requirements can be complex and communication styles differ from Luminate’s own.

Employment type: Full Time

Team: Operations

Location: District of Colombia, USA, London, United Kingdom or Nairobi, Kenya

Reports to: Chief Operations Officer

Manages: A team of approximately seven across Finance, People, and IT.

Works closely with: COO; Legal (Contracts, Grants Management, Risk); Strategy; Programme Delivery; Executive Team; Board (audit findings and budget materials); our funder’s associated entities

Salary Range:  The recruiting range for this role represents the entry point into the salary band (not the full range).  Actual salary will be determined based on skills and experience. 

• US: US$ 180,000 – US$ 240,000

• UK: GB£ 120,000 – GB£ 160,000

• Kenya: KES 15,000,000 – KES 20,000,000

Benefits: Visit out Careers page for more information. 

HOW YOU CREATE CHANGE: LEVERAGE POINTS

Your role shifts systems through:

•       Embedding operational clarity into operations: Designing policies, systems, and governance frameworks that are interconnected and enable teams to move with confidence.

•       Promoting informed decision-making: Support informed decision-making through the compilation and analysis of organisation-wide data, using dashboards and other transparent reporting tools.

•       Strengthening accountability discipline: Ensure transparency and accessible systems that enable the organisation to be held accountable for delivery.

•       Translating complexity into practical action: Turning complex cross-border operations requirements into clear, actionable guidance.

MENTAL MODELS WE VALUE

The following mental models will enable high performance in this role:

•       Systems-level thinking: You look beyond individual functional areas to assess how they intersect to create higher impact.

•       First Principles thinking: You are able to redesign outdated processes by focusing on the problem to be solved rather than the process as inherited.

•       Clarity over control: You prioritise transparency and shared understanding over defensive positioning.

•       Learning over defence: You treat process gaps or incidents as opportunities to strengthen systems and understanding.

•       Service orientation: You recognise that internal functions exist to enable mission delivery, not to create bureaucracy.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Individual

You are responsible for:

Strategic Leadership & Integration

•       Lead and align Finance, HR, and IT into a cohesive operating model, with direct line management of the teams in all three functions.

•       Shape the financial strategy for a changing business model: overheads, fee structures, cost recovery, and the financial case put to prospective funders.

•       Sit on the Leadership Team and support the Board: presenting audit findings, and preparing Board materials including the budget.

•       Translate organisational strategy into operational priorities and annual plans.

•       Ensure support functions enable programme teams to deliver impact globally.

•       Drive continuous improvement, simplification, and cross-functional collaboration.

•       Serve as a trusted advisor to the COO on organisational effectiveness.

Finance Oversight (core of the role)

•       Lead financial operations, ensuring strong financial management, accurate reporting, effective controls, and alignment with organisational strategy.

•       Lead the annual audit processes across our legal entities (currently a US foundation audit, a US LLC audit, a UK Services Limited audit, a UK charity audit, and a Kenyan branch audit), serving as the primary liaison with external auditors and ensuring timely completion of financial statements and filings.

•       Manage cash flow and lead the treasury function, including banking relationships, financial systems, and operational processes.

•       Ensure strong internal controls, segregation of duties, financial policies, and risk management practices that safeguard organisational resources, owning the controls and policy environment across finance, IT, and people.

•       Oversee accounting operations, including month-end and year-end close processes, reconciliations, financial reporting, and compliance with US GAAP.

•       Ensure compliance with applicable requirements, tax filings, regulatory obligations, and donor/funder requirements.

•       Oversee budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning processes (a strong team member leads FP&A day to day; your role is direction and quality assurance rather than execution).

•       Translate complex financial information into actionable insights for non-finance leaders.

•       Partner with leadership to continuously improve financial systems, automation, reporting tools, and processes that reduce administrative burden and increase transparency.

People/HR Leadership

Deep HR technical expertise is not required: the function is supported by a team. Your role is to set priorities, guide the team through its projects, act as a sounding board and source of steady support in the most sensitive and personal part of the organisation’s work, and ensure the vision set at the top flows through to practice.

•       Serve as People/HR lead on the Risk Management Team.

•       Oversee talent strategy, workforce planning, performance management, compensation, and employee relations.

•       Ensure people policies reflect organisational values and global legal requirements, with particular sensitivity to UK and European employment contexts.

•       Lead organisational design, change management, and leadership development.

•       Foster an inclusive, high-performing, mission-driven culture.

•       Support distributed teams across multiple countries and employment models.

IT

Deep technical expertise is not required: the function is supported by a team and external provider. The emphasis is on IT as a strategic partner (automation, responsible AI adoption, and right-sizing systems as our operating context evolves), and on leading the team through the security and information governance requirements set by our funder’s technical advisers.

•       Oversee internal IT systems, cybersecurity, data governance, and digital productivity tools.

•       Ensure technology enables collaboration across a global workforce.

•       Lead responsible adoption of AI and automation tools.

•       Improve systems integration across Finance, HR, and major (org. wide) systems workflows.

•       Manage vendors and outsourced IT support.

Risk, Governance & Compliance

•       Maintain enterprise risk awareness across finance, people, data, and operations, working in close partnership with the General Counsel, who owns legal and regulatory risk.

•       Ensure financial and operational compliance across multiple jurisdictions and entities.

•       Support business continuity and crisis readiness planning.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE

Core

•       Strong working knowledge of US GAAP (UK accounting knowledge helpful but not required).

•       Demonstrable experience leading statutory audit processes, ideally across multiple entities and jurisdictions, together with internal controls, compliance, and risk management.

•       Experience of cash management and leading a treasury function.

•       Experience leading multiple corporate functions like Finance, People/HR, and IT.

•       Strong leadership skills with the ability to build and develop high-performing teams, leading by influence and consultation as much as by authority.

•       Strategic thinker able to translate organisational priorities into operational plans.

•       Experience operating across multiple countries and complex regulatory environments.

•       Excellent communication skills and ability to translate financial and regulatory complexity.

•       Strong judgement and independence.

•       Familiarity with UK Charity and US private foundation rules.

Strong preference

•       Professionally qualified accountant (or equivalent), able both to guide the team and to do the work personally. A dual US and UK qualification would be exceptional.

•       Experience of managing or supporting a UK charity, and familiarity with UK charity reporting and governance obligations, as we establish our UK entity.

•       Experience of multi-donor, multi-revenue funding models.

Desirable

•       Experience in international nonprofit/philanthropic organisations.

•       Experience working with, or in, a family office or similar funder-associated entity.

•       Experience working in politically sensitive environments.

•       A US Social Security number

TRAVEL & WORKING CONDITIONS

Occasional international travel may be required (1-3 trips per year). Availability outside core hours may be required in the event of system incidents.