Director of Finance & Operations

Humanity AI; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 175,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Retirement benefits

Paid sick leave

Vacation and holidays

Tuition reimbursement

Professional development resources

Job summary

Humanity AI is seeking a senior finance and operations leader in hybrid NYC to drive financial strategy, operations, and reporting for the collaborative. You will own the data layer, portfolio map across funds, and grant-tracking systems, partnering with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

You will translate complex financial data into strategic guidance for the Executive Director while building scalable processes and managing vendor relationships to support growth and impact.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive nonprofit/foundation finance experience including multi-funder reporting

Responsibilities

• Lead financial planning, budgeting, multi-year forecasting, cash flow management and modeling.
• Manage pooled fund allocations and correct coding of transfers.
• Liaise with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors for compliance, payroll, payables, and HR policies.
• Oversee internal expense approvals, invoices, and payment processes.
• Coordinate charitable-status vetting on grantees with RPA before payments.
• Provide board-quality financial reporting for Steering Committee meetings.
• Prepare funder-facing proposals and grant reports with RPA and ED.
• Own the reporting calendar across member institutions.
• Build and maintain the portfolio map of funded activities across funds.
• Own grant tracking systems, dashboards, and grantee data collection.
• Provide data underpinning learning agenda to Director of Grantmaking & Strategy.
• Identify gaps and overlaps across portfolios to inform deployment.

Skills

Financial expertise

Technical depth

Builder

Data and systems fluency

Operational acumen

Strategic thinking

Financial communication

Job description

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

• 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
• 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

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.

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.