About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) WCS stands for wildlife and wild places. As the world’s premier wildlife conservation organization, WCS has a long track record of achieving innovative, impactful results at scale. We run field programs spanning 60 countries and the entire ocean. We build on a unique foundation: Our reach is global; we discover through best-in-class science; we protect through work on the ground with local and indigenous people; we inspire through our world-class zoos, aquarium, and education programs; and we leverage our resources through partnerships and powerful policy influence. Our more than 4,000 diverse, passionately committed team members in New York City and around the world work collectively to achieve our conservation mission. JOB DESCRIPTION Position: Executive Director, Global Finance Operations and Controls Reports to: Vice President & Comptroller, Vice President of Global Finance Position Managed: Regional Controllers Location: United States (Flexible) Program/Sector: GCP/Global Finance\S Scope: Global Position Type: Full-Time Job Summary: The WCS Global Finance team is responsible for ensuring that key financial management accountabilities are in place across WCS’s 11 regions, in over 50 country programs and Global Conservations Program Headquarters (HQ) thematic based programs with a combined operating budget of nearly USD $250 million. Executive Director, Global Finance Operations and Controls ensures the integrity of Global Conservation Program financial accounts and financial management processes, oversee compliance with WCS policies/procedures, and lead the audit and financial compliance function across the global regions of WCS. This position also has responsibility for assessing and building capacity of the regional and country finance teams by providing appropriate financial management training where necessary. Major Responsibilities: • Provide operational leadership for global finance policies by translating approved standards into country and regional implementation across core accounting, cash management, grants, and cost allocation processes. • Directly manage Regional Controllers, providing technical leadership, performance oversight, and ensuring consistent financial management quality across regions. Maintain a functional reporting relationship with country finance leads, ensuring alignment on financial management standards, technical guidance, and execution support. • Serve as the primary field finance authority for donor compliance, reviewing budgets, grant submissions, cost allocations, and compliance risks, with escalation of institutional issues to the VP Comptroller. • Coordinate and monitor execution of WCS internal audit activity in the field, including audit readiness, documentation, management responses, avpnd corrective action tracking. • Develop and maintain country and regional financial risk profiles, identifying control weaknesses, compliance risks, and operational gaps to inform management prioritization. • Design and deliver finance capacity-building programs, including training, onboarding of senior finance staff, regional workshops, and ongoing professional development initiatives. • Oversee the quality and timeliness of financial reporting from country offices, including review of reconciliations, reports, and donor submissions prior to escalation. • Support ERP and systems implementation by gathering field requirements, coordinating testing, and driving change management across global finance operations. • Maintain escalation oversight for high-risk or institutional issues, including fraud risk, material control weaknesses, regulatory matters, donor audit proceedings, and policy exceptions requiring VP-level review. • Conduct periodic visits to WCS regional and country programs to support financial oversight, strengthen internal controls, build finance capacity, and foster strong partnerships with field leadership.