Director of Finance

Ameelio has quickly established itself as the future of prison communication and virtual learning. We were recently chosen as one of Fast Company’s 2021 World-Changing Ideas and received a New York Times Good Tech Award.

In brief

The Director of Finance will oversee all matters related to accounting, auditing, management of government contracts, modeling & financial planning, analysis, and reporting. The Director of Finance will report directly to the CEO, and will play a key role in keeping our financial health. 

Title: Director of Finance

Compensation: $80-100K

Start Date: As soon as possible

Location: Remote-first. We also have an office in NYC that you could use. 

Core Responsibilities

Budget, Planning, and Oversight:

• Serve as a strategic partner to the CEO and CTO on all matters pertaining to organizational finance. 
• Work with the CEO and CTO to articulate strategic priorities in annual budget requests, and represent the department throughout the budget process.
• Supporting both short-term (sales & KPIs) and long-term (optimization & growth) planning efforts and annual forecasting in collaboration with Ameelio leadership.
• Oversee the annual auditing process. Coordinate with external auditors and provide documentation, correspondence and evidence needed. 
• Maximizing return on financial assets by establishing financial policies, procedures, and reporting systems across the organization
• Provide financial analysis, process support, and oversight for Ameelio’s funding. 
• Carry out special projects and initiatives, as directed.

Finance and Procurement

• Lead the development and implementation of procedures that enhance the effectiveness of the organizational functions, including payroll, grants management, contract management. 
• Set up a risk compliance function and government contract management.
• Manage relationships, contracting, and payments for our government clients as well as grants we receive from foundations. 
• Planning, directing, and coordinating all day-to-day accounting operational functions including reviewing consolidated balance sheet, P&L and cash flow, operational reports, and input on actual vs. budget income statements.
• Managing all general accounting functions, including month-end close, preparing and booking journal entries, account reconciliation, and variance analysis.
• Oversee activities related to payables and receivables, ensuring that accounts are paid, and accounts receivables are collected in a timely manner; Ensure that periodic bank reconciliations are completed.
• Implement and maintain the general ledger, sub-ledger, chart of accounts, and all accounting processes.
• Act as Ameelio’s finance liaison to the Board of Directors.

Personnel and Team Function Allocation

• Oversee team time allocation for program and non-program functions. 
• Process bi-monthly payroll alongside overseeing other HR duties and responsibilities.

Core Competencies

• Four (4) years professional experience in administration and finance management and/or analysis required. CPA Licence highly preferred. 
• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant field is required. 
• Excellent writing and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to set and manage priorities in a changing work environment. 
• Knowledge of budget preparations and procedures.
• Knowledge and experience of auditing procedures. 
• Financials, Microsoft, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access preferred.
• Ability to exercise good judgment and focus on detail as required by the job.

Ideal Candidate

• You have a keen ability to identify opportunities for process improvements and will bring a deep understanding of building controls and processes from the ground up.
• You excel in a startup environment. You are a self-starter, organized, adaptable, and embrace continuous improvement and learning.

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About Ameelio

Ameelio is a nonprofit technology company that builds free technology to accelerate the creation of a more humane and rehabilitative justice system. We were recently chosen as one of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas. Our tools will enable 27 million Americans to communicate with their incarcerated loved ones for free, organizations to scale their social services, and educators to empower incarcerated people through virtual learning. We are a technological bridge that reconnects incarcerated people with their families and vital resources — for free. Our tools will help improve post-release outcomes, lower recidivism rates, and help America safely reduce the size of its prison populations.

We’re backed by Schmidt Futures, Mozilla Foundation, the Robin Hood Foundation, Google.org, and Fast Forward accelerator. Our funders also include Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square, and Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and the founder of Khosla Ventures. Our work has been covered by Forbes, TechCrunch, Fast Company, The Washington Post, Business Insider, and others.

• Website: www.ameelio.org
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/teamameelio

Media Highlight:

• Bloomberg: Nonprofit aims to disrupt pricey prison telecom industry
• Fast Company: This app is making it free for incarcerated people to make video calls
• Forbes: The Prison Communications Nonprofit Backed By Twitter’s Jack Dorsey And Former Google Chief Eric Schmidt
• Washington Post: Let inmates talk to their families for free
• Tech Crunch: Ameelio wants to take on for-profit, prison-calling rackets after starting with free letters to inmates
• Fast Company: This app bypasses the absurdly high cost of making phone calls to prison by converting texts to snail mail

Problem We're Solving

The $1.4 billion prison communications industry generates obscene profits by charging extortionate prices to the incarcerated and their loved ones. Families spend up to $500 a month to stay connected to their loved ones inside. A 15-minute phone call runs as steep as $25. Our work has never been more important. Because of COVID, prisons have shut down all in-person visitation. Low-income families have few options to communicate with loved ones.

Exclusive contracts leave prison telecommunications companies unchecked by competition: former FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn called the industry “the clearest, most glaring type of market failure I’ve ever seen as a regulator”.

Poverty and incarceration are viciously tied: over 50% of incarcerated people had no income eight years preceding their arrest. For-profit prison companies entrench this cycle. One in three families with incarcerated loved ones is forced into debt ( $13,000, on average) by the cost of maintaining contact.

This is a social and moral disaster.

The Solution

A suite of free prison communications and virtual learning tools that connect the incarcerated with their loved ones, service networks, and colleges, which will improve post-release outcomes.

Connect: Video Conferencing, eMessaging, Voice Calls

Reconnecting the incarcerated with their loved ones and supporting the next generation of remote prison programming.

Learn: Virtual Learning

Enabling the incarcerated to access a wealth of digital educational resources, earn college degrees, trade certifications, and chart their own path to successful reentry.

Letters for Families

App that bypasses the absurdly high cost of making phone calls to prison by converting texts, photos, games & news to snail mail. We currently have over 3500,000 users in all 50 U.S. states, and in 42 countries.