Senior Lead, Grant - Lincoln, NE

The Senior Lead, Grant & Compliance Accountant provides leadership and advanced financial oversight for NCFF's outgoing grants and contracts, with primary responsibility for ensuring the accuracy, allowability, and compliance of all partner claims and expenditures. This role supe ...

Job description

The Senior Lead, Grant & Compliance Accountant provides leadership and advanced financial oversight for NCFF's outgoing grants and contracts, with primary responsibility for ensuring the accuracy, allowability, and compliance of all partner claims and expenditures. This role supervises the Community Investment Coordinator (CIC) team and maintains rigorous standards for claims review, internal controls, and adherence to public and private funding requirements, federal cost principles, and NCFF accounting procedures.

The Senior Lead partners closely with the 
Senior Lead of Contract Administration
 to ensure that contract terms and budget components provide clear expectations for allowable costs. The position also collaborates with the 
Lead Community Investment Coordinator
, who administers NCFF's contract management software (WebGrants), to ensure accurate setup, workflow routing, and data integrity across the full lifecycle—from contract execution to claims review and financial closeout. And this position works with the 
Director of Accounting
 to ensure alignment with accounting procedures. 

While supporting contract development and system alignment, the central responsibility of this role is fiduciary oversight: ensuring that every claim is reviewed, documented, approved, and processed in accordance with contract terms, funder requirements, and NCFF standards.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

Leadership & Supervision:

• Provide direct supervision, coaching, and continuous quality improvement for the Community Investment Coordinator team.
• Coordinate workflows, set priorities, and ensure timely processing of requests for reimbursement.
• Deliver advanced technical training on allowability, cost principles, and funding compliance.
• Work collaboratively with the Director of Accounting, Senior Lead of Contract Administration and Lead CIC to align processes, solve systemic issues, and ensure smooth handoffs between contract drafting, system setup, and claims review.

Claims Review & Compliance Oversight:

• Oversee and refine the claims review process ensuring expenditures align with budgets, contract terms, and funding requirements.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex or high-risk claims and provide final determinations on allowability questions.
• Ensure team compliance with GAAP, Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200), state/local requirements, and private funder requirements.
• Partner with the Lead CIC to ensure data integrity, correct workflow routing, and staff troubleshooting in WebGrants.
• Respond to audit requests from funding agencies.

Contract & Financial Administration:

• Coordinate closely with the Senior Lead of Contract Administration during contract drafting to ensure contract terms accurately reflect funder and compliance expectations, and budget validation to ensure downstream financial compliance.
• Oversee contract setup, amendments, budget revisions, obligation tracking, and closeout activities.
• Identify compliance risks across funding sources and recommend mitigation strategies.
• Support Accounting in reconciliations, financial reporting, and audit preparedness.

Quality Assurance & Recordkeeping:

• Conduct periodic file audits to ensure consistent documentation across all CIC team members.
• Ensure accurate recordkeeping in WebGrants, Blackbaud, Excel tracking systems, and hard-copy files when required.
• Collaborate with the Lead CIC to unify data standards and maintain system accuracy.

Cross-Department Collaboration:

• Serve as a liaison between Accounting, Contracting, Program, and Community Investment teams.
• Participate in internal planning committees, compliance discussions, process improvement workgroups, and cross-functional initiatives.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, business, finance, public administration, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in grants administration, contract compliance, auditing, accounts payable, or related work.
• 2+ years of supervisory or team-lead experience in a financial or compliance setting.
• Advanced knowledge of GAAP, cost principles, and public/private funding compliance.
• Experience collaborating directly with contracting/legal staff on compliance-related contract components.
• Experience working within grant management systems (WebGrants preferred).
• Strong analytical skills and advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint.

Preferred:

• Master's degree in accounting, business, public administration, or related field.
• Experience in nonprofit, philanthropic, or government program funding environments.
• Experience developing or implementing SOPs for compliance functions.
• Experience with system administration or collaboration with system administrators (e.g., WebGrants).

EQUIVALENCY:

Applicants who do not meet all qualifications are encouraged to describe how their education, experience, and training provide equivalent preparation.