Business Controller

Job Description

Tara Climate Foundation is an Asia-based philanthropic organisation committed to building a more sustainable and prosperous future for the region. At the heart of our mission lies Asia's just energy transition - recognising that with half the world's population and the fastest-growing energy demand, the region's progress will shape the world's collective future.

Established in 2021 and headquartered in Singapore, Tara Climate Foundation works with over 400 partners across 12 Asian geographies, including think tanks, research institutes, advisory groups, and associations. Tara provides grants, convenes stakeholders, and facilitates knowledge-sharing to accelerate clean energy development, drive a just transition, and enable clean industrialisation. Underpinning these efforts is a strong commitment to unlocking sustainable finance, supporting climate goals, and aligning business action with a people-centred energy transition. Our team of over 50 experts is spread across the Asia-Pacific region, working to accelerate climate action in this decisive decade.

For more on Tara Climate Foundation, visit https://taraclimate.org/.

About the Role

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and working closely with the Head of Finance, the Business Controller partners with program and functional leaders to ensure financial performance, discipline, and strategic alignment across the organisation. As a finance leader within Tara, the role leads budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis, and provides forward-looking insight and decision support to help stakeholders understand the financial implications of their choices and ensure resources are deployed effectively to deliver impact.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Financial Leadership, Management, and Reporting

• Partner with the Chief Operating Officer and senior leadership team to provide high-quality financial analysis, forecasting, and scenario planning to support strategic decision-making.
• Support/lead the annual budgeting and periodic reforecasting processes in close collaboration with the COO, Head of Finance, Operations, and Program teams.
• Develop forward-looking financial models and income projections to support organizational sustainability and programmatic planning.
• Provide financial insights and risk analysis to support leadership discussions and Board reporting, in collaboration with the COO and Head of Finance.
• Provide management reporting, including actual-to-budget variance analysis, cash flow forecasting, and financial performance dashboards.

Grant & Donor Financial Oversight

• Partner and support Strategic Partnership with fundraising, income projection, financial analysis, and funding source allocation mapping to downstream grants.
• Work in partnerships with the Grant Management team and provide advice and support on the financial management of all regranting activities, ensuring accurate tracking of grant commitments, disbursements, and funding allocations across multiple donors and programmes.
• Review grant budgets and provide financial due diligence support during grant assessments where requested.
• Advise on strong financial controls around grant disbursement processes, including segregation of duties and documentation standards.
• Support preparation and review of donor financial proposals and reporting.

Governance, Compliance & Risk Management

• Support the continuous strengthening of the organisation's internal control financial framework, financial policies, and procedures.
• Identify and manage financial risks, including liquidity, currency exposure (if applicable), grant commitments, and regulatory risks.
• Support risk management and proactively report risk mitigation strategies.

Treasury Management & Financial Operations

• Support the Head of Finance on cashflow planning to ensure timely operational expenditures and grant disbursements and monitoring of liquidity against grant commitments and funding restrictions.
• Manage banking relationships.
• Work in collaboration with the Head of Finance to provide support of day-to-day finance operations, where needed.
• Strengthen data integrity, documentation standards, and financial transparency across the organisation.

Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with all teams to embed strong financial management practices.
• Promote financial literacy across the organisation to support informed decision-making.
• Promote a culture of excellence, service orientation, high performance, and continuous improvement
• Demonstrate Tara Values in every action
• Actively participate in Program Team activities
• Abide by Tara's policies, procedures and practices

As and when required other responsibilities and projects will be allocated by line management in consultation with the post holder.

Person Specification

Excited by the prospect of working for a dynamic and fast-growing international organisation with a mission to solve the climate crisis, the ideal candidate will have:

Skills & Experience

• At least 20 years' relevant hands-on experience with 10 plus years of management experience
• Prior experience in an international environment and non-profit organisation is a plus
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to deal with senior stakeholders, internal and external parties
• Strong ability to multitask and able to work in an entrepreneurial environment
• Improvements and solutions-driven, detailed-oriented, and collaborative
• Strong critical and strategic thinking skills.
• Used to working flexibly at a fast pace in remote settings with multi-cultural teams across time-zones.
• A drive to achieve results; a high level of personal energy and pro-activity, demonstrated by concrete examples of achievement and initiative taken in previous roles.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and an Asian language would be an asset.
• Reliable computer skills with standard applications (e.g., Microsoft Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
• Embraces Tara's mission and identifies with and is committed to living the Tara Values

Education

• Minimum of a degree in accountancy or CPA/ACCA equivalent

Location requirements

• The candidate must have residency status with legal permit to reside and work in an Asian country, ideally Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan or Indonesia.

To apply

Please submit a covering letter outlining your skills and achievements against the responsibilities, why you would like to join us and your salary expectations, along with your up-to-date CV at [email protected].

Please use the job title: Business Controller as the subject in your email. Applications without a cover letter will not be assessed.

Tara is committed to building leadership capacity within Asia. This position is based in any of the countries specified in the location requirement. Applicants must have the right to work in the country.

We appreciate everyone's application, but only have the resources to respond to shortlisted applicants. If you have not heard from us within 3 weeks of the closing date, please assume you are unsuccessful for this role. If this is you, we appreciate your support and consideration and hope you will continue to consider roles with Tara in the future!