Senior Programme Finance Manager Job in Kenya

About the Programme

Africa’s population is growing rapidly, with young people forming an increasing share of the workforce. Yet job creation has not kept pace, leaving millions – particularly young women – without access to stable, dignified livelihoods due to barriers such as limited education, social norms, and unpaid care responsibilities.

At the same time, Africa’s health sector is expanding and presents a powerful opportunity to create sustainable livelihood pathways. This programme focuses on transforming community-based health work into respected, viable career pathways for young people, especially women. Starting in Kenya, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, and Malawi, the programme aims to professionalise community health workers, create dignified employment, and strengthen systems – contributing to both youth livelihoods and healthier communities.

Position Summary

The Senior Programme Finance Manager is responsible for translating the programme’s strategic priorities into disciplined, practical financial execution under the guidance of the Programme Director. This role ensures that financial planning, controls, and decisions enable programme delivery and innovation, support execution and realization of impact at scale.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic financial enablement: Translate the Programme strategy and priorities into clear regional financial plans, budgets, and forecasts; provide timely financial insight to support programme-level decisions on scale, trade-offs, and investment choices; ensure financial considerations are integrated early into programme planning and adaptation; and flag risks and constraints proactively, with options and recommendations with clear and practical solutions in mind.
Financial planning and performance: Lead regional budgeting, forecasting, and financial performance tracking across programme countries; monitor burn rates, variances, and cost drivers, and support corrective action in line with programme priorities; ensure programmatic financial reporting is accurate, timely, and decision-useful for the Programme Director and wider leadership team.
Donor Compliance, Grants and Risk Management: Ensure consistent application of donor financial requirements across the regional portfolio; work closely with Grants and Programme teams to embed financial compliance into delivery workflows; maintain audit readiness and support audits with confidence and professionalism; and balance compliance with pragmatism, avoiding unnecessary financial bottlenecks.
Entrepreneurial financial leadership and delivery enablement: Apply an entrepreneurial and agile approach to financial leadership, enabling timely decision-making that supports programme delivery while maintaining strong governance, accountability, and compliance; anticipate and respond rapidly to emerging financial risks, constraints, or opportunities, providing practical options and solutions that allow programme teams to maintain momentum; ensure financial controls protect the programme without creating unnecessary bottlenecks that delay delivery or innovation.
Country finance support & capacity Building: Support effective financial coordination across countries, recognising differences in regulatory, fiscal, and operating contexts, while maintaining consistent regional standards and accountability; strengthen financial management capability across country teams in line with regional standards; provide coaching and guidance to country finance staff to support sound judgment and accountability; ensure consistency of controls while respecting local operating contexts.
Stakeholder engagement and management: Coordinate with key government and relevant regional bodies, donors, consortium and implementing partners to facilitate programme delivery; exercise judgment and diplomacy to manage competing expectations while safeguarding programme integrity and delivery outcomes; and build financial understanding and trust among non-finance stakeholders, translating financial requirements into practical guidance that enables effective collaboration and problem-solving.
Strategic cost insight & value for money: Provide strategic leadership on function-level costing across the regional programme by designing robust cost models and interrogating key cost drivers; generate high-value cost insights that strengthen understanding of unit costs, efficiency, and value for money; and support executive decision-making on programme design, delivery models, and resource allocation.
Key Performance Indicators (Success Measures) – Building the right platform and creating lasting impact
Financial enablement of programme delivery: Actively partner with Programme leaders to ensure finance is not a checkpoint after programmatic decision-making, and focus on enabling timely delivery of key programme priorities.
Financial discipline that supports impact: Ensure resources are allocated, monitored, and adjusted to maximize impact and value for money and not just the accuracy of “spending”; use robust function- and unit-cost insight to understand key cost drivers and efficiency trends; and financial planning, controls, and reporting to enable timely programme delivery actively.
Adaptive financial decision-making: Enable programme adaptation through sound and practical financial advice, in response to changing delivery, regulatory, or funding conditions; proactively use budget reallocations, re-forecasting, and scenario analyses to support decision-making; programme leadership views finance as a trusted delivery partner that enables informed choices; maintain agreed upon turnaround times, even in ambiguous or fast-changing situations.
Donor confidence and risk stewardship: Ensure donors experience the programme as financially credible, predictable, and well-governed; ensure on-time quality financial reports, clean audits and proactive issue management; ensure no financial surprises arise late or without options arising from the risk register.
Financial support for innovation and adoption: Own innovation, adoption, and scale that is practical, enable responsible experimentation by working with the Programme Director, Grants Manager and consortium and implementing partners to understand where flexibility exists and where controls are non-negotiable.
Building country programme capability: Build finance country capability where finance teams operate with consistent standards, sound judgement, and confidence; reducing dependency at the HQ level.

Qualifications

Seven (7) to Nine (9) years of relevant experience, with at least three (3) years of senior leadership experience in social enterprise, international development, or mission-driven organisations;
Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Economics, Business Administration, or a related field. A postgraduate qualification in a related field is an added advantage;
CPA, ACCA, CFA, CMI, CA or other internationally recognized professional qualification(s) required, with proven experience applying professional accounting standards in multi-partner, multi-country, donor-funded programme environments, including practical understanding of country-level financial operations and regulatory contexts;
Membership and good standing with professional accounting body;
Demonstrable project management skills, including budgeting, costing, planning, and attention to operational detail. PMP® or PRINCE® is an added advantage;
Demonstrable experience in managing financial operations across different regulatory tax, and banking environments, demonstrating practical understanding of how country-level finance realities affect programme delivery; has worked with multiple currencies and fiscal calendars, and managed the associated risks and reconciliations;
Demonstrable experience managing finances for donor-funded programmes, including restricted funding, donor-specific cost rules, and financial reporting requirements; and
Practical experience or leading donor financial audits, responding to audit queries and implementing corrective actions where required; and a footprint in supporting, supervising, and strengtheningcountry-level finance teams, providing hands-on guidance, coaching, and oversight.