INTERNATIONAL FINANCE MANAGER
Quick info
Salary: £39,705 p/a (Competitive, dependent on experience)
Hours: Full-time, 9 months (with possibility of extension)
Location: Remote/Hybrid (London)
Application deadline: 21 Sept 2025
Ready to apply? Please sign in with a Google account in order to attach a CV to your form submission.
About The Social Change Nest
At the Social Change Nest (SCN), we’re radically transforming the funding landscape and strengthening civil society. We remove the financial and administrative barriers – like bank accounts and legal structures – that often prevent communities, grassroots groups and informal movements from accessing funding and focusing on their core mission. We also work closely with funders, providing Grant Distribution and Fund Management services, enabling them to support social action with confidence and transparency.
We currently support over 600 groups across the UK and abroad addressing issues such as social injustice, climate, housing, wellbeing and animal rights. We are at the forefront of Fiscal Hosting in the UK and, since our inception in 2020, we have supported groups in securing over £37m in funding, helping them take advantage of opportunities that may have otherwise been unavailable.
The Social Change Nest is part of The Social Change Group. We are a Disability Confident Employer, and an accredited Living Wage Employer. In addition, we were listed as one of the top social enterprises in the UK in the SE100 for the last three years.
We work with all types of social movements and community groups, from climate to housing, wellbeing and animal rights. Read more about this here.
Our Culture
We are proud of our culture. Underpinned by our values of collaboration, curiosity, compassion and courage we believe relationships are the glue that holds us all together. It helps us create the most innovative work with our clients and gets us through the most difficult times together – we know that transformational social change is generational work and we must look after ourselves and each other for the long haul. We understand that most of us will spend the majority of our time at work, and we want to ensure that time is productive, enriching, and joyful.
You’ll be joining a close-knit team – supported and developed to be the best you can be. We believe that every team member brings a unique perspective from their experiences and abilities and encourages everyone to be a curious soul about how we can improve everything we do, from how we interact as a team to how we deliver for our clients and communities.
About the role
As our international grantmaking and emergency relief support expands, we are seeking an experienced International Finance Manager to oversee high-risk and complex financial operations in humanitarian and activist contexts globally.
The International Finance Manager will provide financial leadership and oversight across our growing global grantmaking portfolio. This new role which we are testing out requires balancing robust financial stewardship with flexibility to meet the urgent needs of grassroots movements and funders working in complex, high-risk contexts.
Working closely with colleagues in Compliance, Risk & Innovation and the Grant Distribution team, you will ensure secure, transparent, and compliant management of international funds/grant disbursements, while modelling the collaborative, trauma-informed, and values-driven approach that sits at the heart of SCN’s work.
Key responsibilities
Client & Stakeholder Management – 10%
- Act as the finance lead for philanthropic clients raising funds for overseas emergency relief and grassroots movements.
- Provide clear, practical advice on financial risk, compliance, and best practice to clients.
- Build trusted relationships with grassroots partners, ensuring funds are transferred responsibly and reporting is accessible and transparent.
- Apply a trauma-informed approach, recognising the pressures and lived realities of partners in conflict or activist environments.
- Represent SCN’s values of equity, transparency, and care in all external and internal relationships.
Grant Finance Oversight – 60%
- Lead end-to-end financial processes for international grantmaking, including budgeting, transfers, reconciliations, and reporting.
- Handle subscription based and/or recurring donation management
- Oversee multi-currency payments into high-risk regions, ensuring compliance and mitigating fraud or diversion risks.
- Strengthen internal controls and systems, aligning them with SCN’s expanding global reach.
- Collaborate with the Compliance, Risk & Innovation team to continuously improve financial policies and processes.
- Demonstrate accountability and accuracy while remaining agile to meet urgent humanitarian needs.
Risk & Compliance – 20%
- Ensure financial due diligence, KYC/AML checks, and enhanced vetting for overseas partners and unincorporated networks.
- Ensure compliance with HMRC, banking regulations, and counter-terrorism financing rules.
- Contribute to risk frameworks that safeguard SCN and our partners, balancing compliance with accessibility for grassroots groups.
Support SCN with Humanitarian & Global Grantmaking Expertise – 10%
- Apply practical knowledge of humanitarian and international finance, particularly in funding unincorporated groups and movements.
- Co-design grantmaking processes with colleagues and partners that meet donor requirements while centering grassroots needs.
- Navigate sanctions regimes and humanitarian exemptions, especially in conflict-affected regions.
- Monitor emerging risks and restrictions globally, sharing insights and solutions across SCN teams and with funders.
Skills and experience
Essential Experience and Knowledge
- Strong experience in finance, grantmaking, or compliance within humanitarian or philanthropic contexts.
- Proven expertise in managing overseas financial transactions, including multi-currency payments and reconciliations
- Experience in managing volatile exchange rates and currency fluctuations risks
- Experience with international payments into high-risk jurisdictions, including unincorporated or grassroots networks.
- Familiarity with digital exchange payment platforms and cross-border banking restrictions (e.g. SWIFT, XE Wise, Payoneer).
- Experience applying due diligence and financial risk management frameworks.
Knowledge of:
- KYC/AML regulations
- Counter-Terrorism
- Financing rules
- UK charity and banking regulations
- Digital exchange transfer tools such as XE, WISE
Desirable
- Arabic language skills (spoken and written).
- Previous experience in NGOs, fiscal hosts, or international grantmaking
- Operating with crypto currencies
Ways of Working
- Strong interpersonal skills and cultural competence, with the ability to work in a trauma-informed way.
- Excellent stakeholder management, from grassroots partners to funders and banks.
- Ability to balance compliance with flexibility, navigating political sensitivities with discretion and integrity.
- Collaborative mindset, with self-awareness to seek support where needed.
- Alignment with SCN’s values of curiosity, courage, creativity, and collaboration
Terms and benefits
Terms: The role will be full-time (37.5 hours/week) temporary contract. As we often work with volunteers occasional evening and weekend work will be required and compensated through TOIL. Occasional but limited UK or European travel will be required (by arrangement).
We are open to exploring flexible working arrangements and supporting you to meet commitments you may have. All pay and benefits, holiday etc will be pro-rated with the length of your contract.
Salary: £39,705 p/a
Location: You must be based in the UK. We have an office in Farringdon, London, where London-based staff typically work at least two days a week. If you are based outside of London, the role will be home-based.
We hold quarterly all-staff strategy meetings and annual away days which you will be required to attend in person: we will cover the cost of your travel. You will be required to come together with the team occasionally and these travel costs will not be covered, we try our best to keep these to when only necessary.
Language skills & visa status: Candidates must be fluent in English. You must have the right to work in the UK independently, as we are unable to provide visa sponsorship.
Holiday: 22* days plus bank holidays. We close the office on the days between Christmas and New Years – this time is paid for all staff and is in addition to your annual leave entitlement.
(*increasing to 25 days next year)
Employer pension contribution: We offer a 3% employer contribution on a salary sacrifice pension, that you will auto enrol for after 3 months of employment with SCN.
Additional Paid Time Off: We offer 2 days of paid voluntary time off, encouraging all staff to serve as trustees or any equivalent voluntary positions to contribute to their communities
Financial Wellbeing: The financial wellbeing of our staff means a lot to us. We offer the following to our staff to help them reach their financial goals:
- Salary sacrifice/exchange schemes for groceries and pensions. Staff members can choose a set amount to be taken out of their gross pay (before being taxed) each month, to be put towards purchasing groceries from all major grocery retailers. Their full pension is also taken out of their pay before tax.
- Financial wellbeing platform allows staff to check their pension dashboard, plan for retirement and search for forgotten/lost pensions. There is also a smart saver plan and we provide access to financial advisers for free.
- Benefits app – retail discounts. Select from over 80 brands.
Start Date: October 2025
How to apply
To apply please fill out this application form, following the instructions on the first page.
IMPORTANT: You will need to sign in with a Google account in order to attach a CV to your form submission.
Hiring process
We strongly encourage applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds. We are committed to our staff representing the wide variety of backgrounds represented in the communities we work with. If you are concerned that you may not fit 100% of the job specification – please throw your hat in the ring. We never put formal education requirements on any role as we value lived experiences as highly as formal education and training qualifications.
We follow a blind recruitment process, which means that hiring managers for the role can only see your work history and cover note when deciding to progress to the interview stage.
If you need any accessibility accommodations for this application please do not hesitate to contact us at people@thesocialchangenest.org and we will be happy to provide you with those accommodations.
Please visit our main vacancies page for our equal opportunities statement.