Senior Finance Director, North America Region

About the Role

The Senior Director of Finance, North America Region (NAR) is a senior position responsible for financial strategy and management of the North America Region, including the Western US & Canada, Pacific, Great Plains, Midwest, Southern, Northeast, New York, and Caribbean divisions (and country and state business units within these divisions). This role is a member of the Finance Leadership team, reporting to the Head of Global Finance, with a dotted line to the Executive Vice President, North America, Caribbean and Micronesia.

The Senior Director develops and leads major enterprise finance initiatives and owns their execution in the region, demonstrating effective leadership through relationship-building, collaboration, change management, and communication. They support the development of quarterly forecasts, annual budgets, and multi-year plans, ensuring the overall financial management and fiscal sustainability of North America. The role involves managing a large team of finance staff across the region, fostering cross-divisional collaboration, and ensuring compliance with TNC's policies and industry standards.

This role is remote and can be based anywhere in the continental US or Canadian provinces of Ontario, Alberta, or Northwest Territories.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a strategic thought leader and partner for the EVP of North America, Caribbean, and Micronesia, focusing on long-range and annual planning, budgeting, business development, and financial sustainability.
• Collaborate with divisional and business unit leadership teams across the region in financial planning and strategic decision-making to enhance program quality and impact.
• Oversee the financial management of the North America Region, including developing and setting budgets, monitoring expenses, analyzing results, and taking corrective actions.
• Play a key role in strategic financial and organization-wide initiatives such as operating model implementation, resource allocation redesign, full cost budgeting, indirect cost recovery, and multi-year financial planning.
• Work across key regions and business units with the Chief Conservation Office, Development, and other areas to integrate strategic conservation and campaign priorities with annual and multi-year financial plans.
• Provide strategic financial planning and analysis support for major conservation projects and programs.
• Implement strategic, integrated, and collaborative approaches to quarterly forecasting, annual planning and budgeting, and multi-year planning for the North America Region and the entire organization.
• Introduce, improve, and implement best practices to ensure consistency and clarity of financial planning, reporting, and analysis across finance teams within regions and business units.
• Communicate effectively in both written and verbal form, synthesizing key takeaways, communicating analysis and recommendations, and preparing presentations and reports for senior leaders.
• Serve as a direct supervisor to ten team members and manage an overall team of over 100 staff, providing effective people management, development, and support.
• Report on North America to Finance leadership and the Board of Directors (BOD) Finance Committee, and represent the Finance Division on organization-wide committees.
• Ensure alignment with TNC priorities, governance standards, and long-term financial sustainability across all North America divisions and business units.
• Provide trusted, strategic support through timely and accurate financial reports, projections, models, and analysis to the CFO, Executive Leadership Team (ELT), and key leaders.
• Analyze trends, proactively communicate insights, and help prioritize capital allocation and resource investments to execute on strategy and goals.
• Ensure programmatic commitments, TNC policies and procedures, financial standards, and legal requirements are met and managed for ethical compliance.
• Provide oversight for comprehensive policies, procedures, and institutional guidelines related to the finance function.
• Contribute to clear communication of financial performance, goals, and metrics to senior leaders, the Board of Directors, and the broader organization.
• Continuously raise the bar on financial insight capabilities, tools, and models to meet current and future organizational needs.
• Work with programs to develop, review, and monitor budgets, forecasts, and multi-year financial plans for the region, divisions, and business units.
• Assist in negotiations for complex, high-profile, or sensitive agreements and provide financial expertise on special projects.
• Engage in recruitment and training of new finance staff reporting to this position or others.
• Willingness to travel domestically and/or internationally approximately 10-20% of the time.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Finance, Accounting, or Business Administration and 11 years of related work experience, including at the senior level, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Organization-wide oversight experience in several major finance areas, such as Accounting, Note Management, Cash Management, Cash/Investment planning, or similar.
• Experience conceiving and implementing major strategic initiatives (e.g., system integration, M&A, or equivalently large projects).
• Experience managing the finances of an organization-wide program, including setting financial goals, analyzing results, and taking corrective actions.
• Experience working at a senior level with a demonstrated partnership track record with C-suite and other senior leaders.
• Extensive experience supervising remote professional staff of teams of 25 or more and leading across management layers.
• Either a) knowledge of not-for-profit accounting principles, practices, and regulations OR b) for-profit finance experience in a global, matrixed management structure with experience navigating matrixed leaders and dedicated financial partners for regions/BUs. If the latter, must be willing to learn not-for-profit accounting and finance.
• Experience with complex accounting/financial issues and performing complex financial analysis and reporting.
• Experience leading long-range planning and forecasts.
• Experience using complex financial systems and analytical tools.
• Experience working with senior management and Board of Directors, or equivalent, on finance-related issues.
• Extensive experience with GAAP.

Desired Qualifications

• CPA or MBA.
• Experience working with not-for-profit financial and government grants accounting and reporting.
• Financial management of budgets $500M+.
• Expert knowledge of current and evolving trends in relevant disciplines.
• Experience with Workday.
• Extensive management experience, including the ability to motivate, lead, set objectives, and manage performance of a large multi-disciplinary team.
• Ability to foster an environment of creativity and professional growth.
• Experience using high levels of patience, perseverance, and political savvy for managing inclusive processes in a highly decentralized environment.
• Successful experience in developing, directing, and managing multiple projects.
• Superb communication and presentation skills.
• Successful track record recruiting, supervising, and developing high-performance staff.
• Multi-lingual skills and/or multi-cultural experience appreciated.

Pay

The starting pay range for a candidate selected for this position is generally within the range of $180,000 - $270,000 USD for candidates based in the USA. For candidates based in Canada, the starting pay range is 243,000 - 280,000 CAD. The actual pay will be based on factors such as the candidate’s location, qualifications, specific skills, and experience. Geographic location will be confirmed during the recruitment process.

About the Organization

The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) mission is to protect the lands and waters upon which all life depends. As a science-based organization, TNC creates innovative, on-the-ground solutions to the world’s toughest challenges to ensure a world where people and nature thrive. TNC values respect for all people, communities, and cultures and offers a competitive, comprehensive benefits package.

TNC cultivates an inclusive work environment to ensure colleagues globally feel a sense of belonging and that their unique contributions are valued. Since 1951, TNC has grown into one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world, impacting conservation globally through grassroots action, over 400 scientists, and a dedicated staff and partners.