Director of Finance & Operations

Reports to: Executive Director
Location: Hybrid in NYC
Salary: $175,000-200,000

About Humanity AI

Humanity AI is a $500 million five-year initiative dedicated to making sure people have a stake in the future of artificial intelligence. As part of Humanity AI, eleven of the nation’s most dynamic foundations supporting the arts, labor and work, democracy, education, and security will drive new investments toward establishing a people-driven future where AI delivers for humanity, strengthens communities, and enhances human creativity. Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) will serve as the fiscal sponsor for Humanity AI and will manage a pooled fund of grants. Learn more at Humanity AI.

About the role

This person is Humanity AI’s senior finance leader and operational leader, stewarding the financial strategy, operations, and reporting for the collaborative. They enjoy building organizations from the ground up and can comfortably own both strategy and execution. They serve as the primary liaison to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Humanity AI’s fiscal sponsor. While ensuring no dropped balls on daily operations, this person excels as a strategic thought partner to the ED on long-term financial strategy and organizational design.

Beyond finance and operations, this role owns the data layer the rest of the organization runs on. This means designing and owning the portfolio map across pooled and aligned funds, the financial tracking systems for grant commitments, and the reporting cadence to Humanity AI’s funder partners.

Key Responsibilities

Finance & RPA liaison

• Financial planning: budget allocation, multi-year forecasting, cash flow management, and modeling to inform deployment and fundraising
• Pooled fund tracking: management of inbound grant allocations and correct coding of incoming transfers
• Serve as primary liaison to RPA for financial compliance, audit coordination, payroll, payables, and human resource policies and practices
• Oversee internal expense approvals, invoice verification, and payment requisitions submitted to RPA
• Coordinate charitable-status vetting on grantees with RPA ahead of payment

Reporting

• Board-quality financial reporting for Steering Committee meetings: budget vs. actuals and financial health narrative
• Assemble and submit funder-facing proposals and grant reports to member foundations, in coordination with RPA and the ED
• Own the reporting calendar across all member institutions

Portfolio mapping & data

• Build and maintain the portfolio map: what is funded, by whom, across both pooled and aligned funds
• Own grant tracking systems, dashboards, and grantee data collection
• Supply the Director of Grantmaking & Strategy with the portfolio data underpinning the learning agenda
• Surface gaps and overlaps across member portfolios to inform deployment decisions

Operations, vendors & team

• Establish internal guidelines, workflows, and team processes that complement RPA’s policies as needed 
• Own knowledge management platforms, operational tools, software subscriptions, and internal infrastructure including IT equipment
• Oversee end-to-end consultant and vendor management: scoping, contracting, deliverable tracking, reimbursements, and contract administration
• Partner with the ED on special operations projects as needed and add leadership capacity for major organizational milestones (e.g., Board meetings)

Required qualifications

• Financial expertise: 10+ years of progressive experience in nonprofit, foundation, or complex institutional finance, including multi-funder reporting and compliance
• Technical depth: Working command of nonprofit accounting standards (GAAP, including restricted funds and multi-year grant commitments), audit coordination, internal controls, and multi-year budgeting and forecasting
• Builder: Track record standing up finance and operations systems in an early-stage or small organization.
• Data and systems fluency: Genuinely comfortable building and maintaining trackers, dashboards, and portfolio data 
• Operational acumen: Track record designing operational systems and managing vendors and contracts
• Strategic thinking: Able to translate financial and portfolio data into forecasting and advice for leadership on the future directions of the organization
• Financial communication: Demonstrated ability to translate complex financial concepts for non-finance audiences, from program staff to a board of foundation leaders

Working with AI

• Fluency with AI for financial modeling, scenario analysis, contract review, and drafting board materials, with iteration on forecasts and scenarios
• Responsible use of AI across functions, modeling transparency with Humanity AI stakeholders and grantees about where and how AI is used
• Proactive experimentation with new tools and sharing of what works across the team

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in a fiscally sponsored project, funder collaborative, or philanthropic operations
• Comfort with ambiguity, experimentation and rapid iteration in an early-stage organization
• Creative problem solver who approaches challenges with curiosity and a “get to yes” mindset
• Data-driven decision maker who anticipates the insights needed for upcoming decisions and builds the measurement systems to get that data into decision-makers’ hands
• Experience hiring and building a team with strong performance and psychological safety

Compensation & benefits

We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package including health coverage, retirement benefits, paid sick leave, vacation and holidays, tuition reimbursement and access to professional development resources.

How to apply

Please submit a resume to careers@humanityai.ai with “Director of Finance & Operations” in the subject line. In lieu of a cover letter please share answers to the following questions:

1. Please describe your experience in multi-funder reporting and compliance. 
2. Please describe your experience working with a fiscal sponsorship structure. 
3. Please describe your experience standing up systems in an early-stage or small organization.
4. Are you able to work in-person in New York City three days per week or open to relocation to do so?
5. Are you currently authorized to work in the United States?
6. Do you now or will you in the future require visa sponsorship to work in the United States?
7. How did you learn about this opportunity?

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and Humanity AI celebrate the uniqueness of our staff, our partners, and the communities we serve. We are committed to inclusion with the goal of cultivating a culture of belonging and acceptance. We strive to embed this value in our philanthropic work to advance a more just, equitable and sustainable world. RPA is an equal opportunity employer.