Finance Manager

The Center for Open Science (COS) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to increase the openness, integrity, and trustworthiness of research. We are seeking a Finance Manager to be a core leader in developing COS’s project-based financial management systems, bridging day-to-day accounting data with forecasting, grants management, and organizational planning. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys building structure, partnering with non-finance colleagues, and translating complex financial data into tools and insights that support decision-making. This role will design and drive processes that connect:

• The general ledger and allocations,
• Project and grant financials, and
• Pipeline and multi-year planning.

The Finance Manager will report to the Senior Director of Finance (SDF) and partner closely with an outsourced accounting vendor, serving as process driver for FP&A, project financial management, and systems configuration. This role will help ensure COS’s financial infrastructure is decision-useful, compliant with funder and regulatory requirements, and aligned with COS's values of transparency, accountability, and respect.

Description of responsibilities:

• Financial Planning & Analysis: Own and continuously improve multi-year forecasting, budgeting, and reforecasting processes, integrating actuals with projections across projects, grants, staffing, and organizational planning. Develop dashboards and analyses tools that support decision-making at both the project and organizational level.
• Grants & Project Financial Management: Lead the development and maintenance of Project Financial Management Plans (PFMPs). Maintain the Project Database and Intacct Data Warehouse views for project-level analysis. Partner with project leads and Development to support proposal costing, ongoing project financial reporting, and funder compliance. Coach and support project leads in understanding budgets, forecasts, and financial reports.
• Systems & Data Integration: Help design, maintain, and optimize Intacct and related systems (e.g., Ramp), ensuring consistent coding, strong internal controls, and reliable project-level and portfolio-level reporting.
• Allocations, Net Assets & General Ledger Quality: Support allocation methodologies, payroll and cost distributions, net asset tracking, and month-end close reviews to maintain high-quality financial data aligned with nonprofit and funder requirements.
• Strategic & Cross-Functional Collaboration: Serve as a responsive, solutions-oriented finance partner to project leads, Development, and leadership, providing clear financial insights, visualizations, and scenario analyses to inform strategic decisions, resource planning, and long-term sustainability.

Required Skills:

• Strong understanding of nonprofit financial management, including:
  • Grant compliance and funder reporting,
  • Revenue recognition and deferred revenue, and
  • Project-based and portfolio-level budgeting.
• Demonstrated experience with FP&A and project financial analysis, including scenario modeling, multi-year planning, and variance analysis.
• Comfort working in environments where processes are still being built or refined, and where clarity emerges through collaboration.
• Advanced Excel/Google Sheets skills and comfort building structured financial models, templates, and dashboards.
• Proficiency with Sage Intacct, Ramp, and/or similar ERPs and expense platforms; experience partnering with outsourced accounting vendors is a plus.
• Ability to translate complex financial concepts into plain language for non-financial stakeholders and to coach others on interpreting financial reports.
• Strong systems-improvement mindset, with experience designing or refining processes across AP, AR, GL, allocations, or project finance.
• Excellent attention to detail, organizational skills, and follow-through in a multi-stakeholder, deadline-driven environment.
• Demonstrated alignment with COS’s values, especially Transparency, Accountability, and Respect, and a collaborative approach to resolving cross-functional issues.

Required Experience/Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field required. 
  • Master’s degree or a CPA/CFA is a plus but not required.
• 5–7+ years of progressively responsible experience in finance, FP&A, or related roles; experience in nonprofit, grants-based, or project-based environments strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to design and improve financial processes, not just operate them.
• Experience working with or overseeing outsourced accounting and/or complex financial systems (such as Intacct, Ramp) is highly desirable.
• Experience supporting audits, tax filings, and funder financial reporting is preferred.
• Strong analytical, communication, and collaboration skills; confidence in navigating ambiguity.

Salary

$85,000 - $90,000 annually

Benefits

• 401(k) with employer match. COS offers a matching contribution of 100% up to 3% of pay and another 50% up to 5% of pay (the full match will be 4% if participants elect to defer 5%).
• Health, dental, and vision insurance. COS covers 100% of employee premiums and 50% of all dependent coverage costs under the base plan.
• 15 days of paid time off and 5 days of sick leave in year one.
• COS offers paid leave for up to three (3) months to all full-time, regular employees to care for their child after birth, after or during the adoption process, or to care for their spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition, as well as for the employee’s own serious health condition.
• Remote work with a MacBook and Google Workspace environment.

Additional Information

• This is a fully remote position with a requirement to attend approximately two multi-day in-person meetings per year.

• COS supports flexibility in work scheduling. This role has flexibility in scheduling with core hours between 11am - 4pm ET with occasional extended hours during peak periods (e.g., audit, budget, and major reporting cycles). This role entails working across multiple time zones to provide support and coordination among COS staff and global stakeholders. Modifications for different time zones will be considered for team collaboration.
• This position is fully remote/home based. Applications will be accepted from candidates based in the following US states: CA, CT, DC, DE, FL, IL, IN, MD, MA, MO, NJ, NY, NC, SC, OR, PA, TN, TX, VA, WV. Please note, in order to be considered for this position you must be authorized to work in the United States and have a U.S. address and bank account.

Apply

This position will remain open until February 5, 2026. For information on the Center for Open Science, including more information on employee benefits and our company culture, visit our website at https://www.cos.io/careers.

COS is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also strongly encourage applications from members of groups underrepresented in science and technology industries.