Head of Finance and Compliance

Purpose of the role

This is an exciting opportunity at NEON, working across the whole organisation to ensure good financial practices that are compliant, make sense for how we work, and are values-led.

Some days you’ll be working closely with colleagues in the People & Ops Hub, where this role is situated, to figure out better practices and processes, leading a budget kick-off meeting with the whole team, or working with external partners to enhance our data protection work. Other days you’ll be having brainstorming sessions with our Head of Fundraising or programme leads, helping to strengthen their work or contributing to whole team discussions around our mission, analysing the external political moment or pontificating on what finance means for a progressive organisation.

This role will suit someone who loves having their head stuck in a spreadsheet as much as working with people: problem-solving, supporting others and generating ideas together.

The purpose of this role is two-fold: to lead NEON’s financial strategy, systems and compliance, and to empower people across NEON to understand, engage with and take ownership of finance. This means:

• Leading finance processes, including budgeting and managing finance support.

• Providing clear financial information, analysis and recommendations to support good decision-making.

• Ensuring we have effective tools and systems to manage our finances.

• Building financial literacy and making finance accessible across the team.

• Overseeing key compliance and governance responsibilities, including Board governance and data protection.

• Embedding NEON’s values and anti-oppression principles in how finance and compliance operates.

What you will be doing

Here are the key responsibilities of this role:

1. Overseeing NEON’s financial systems (including accounting and payment software) to effectively manage NEON’s financial transactions and improve efficiency, ensuring timely reviews and improvements. 

2. Leading on financial strategy alongside others in the senior team - working collaboratively with NEON’s senior leadership team to set the direction of travel for NEON and planning our finances over the short, medium and long term.

3. Overseeing regular finance and accounting processes, ensuring they are accurate, timely and well controlled as well as clear, accessible and proportionate, and line managing or coordinating the people responsible for delivering them. This includes:

• Supplier invoices and payments

• Payroll

• Payment card transactions

• Customer billing and credit control

• Grant budgets, tracking and reporting

• Bank reconciliations

• Supporting fundraising bids

4. Overseeing NEON’s taxation affairs, liaising with our external tax firm advisors and ensuring relevant requirements are met.

5. Leading the annual accounts and audit process, ensuring accurate and timely statutory reporting, compliance with relevant requirements, effective liaison with external auditors, and effective coordination of internal people and processes.

6. Leading cash flow analysis, forecasting and treasury management, to aid management decision-making,ensuring NEON has sufficient liquidity, appropriate financial controls and a sustainable reserves position.

7. Producing management accounts and financial reports, providing clear narrative, analysis and recommendations to support decision-making across NEON. This includes income and expenditure reports, balance sheets and cash flow forecasts.

8. Leading and holding the annual budgeting process from kick-off through to completion, working with Directors and budget holders to develop the budget, facilitate discussions and decision-making, produce clear narrative and practical guidance, and build people’s confidence and skills in managing their budgets.

9. Overseeing key organisational compliance and governance processes, ensuring NEON meets its legal, regulatory and governance obligations, while taking an accessible, proportionate and values-led approach. This includes data protection, Board governance (including Board recruitment and coordinating Board meetings and papers), statutory requirements and compliance deadlines, and identifying and escalating significant compliance risks.

10. Operationalising and democratising finance across NEON, making finance accessible and less intimidating, improving financial literacy and confidence, and empowering colleagues to take ownership of their budgets and financial responsibilities. Building relationships across the organisation and embedding NEON’s values and anti-oppression principles in how the finance function operates.

11. Playing an active part in the whole NEON team, contributing to organisation-wide plans.

Who you are

• Skilled and experienced in leading the many parts of the finance function - from accounting, budgeting and bookkeeping to management accounts, cash flow, audit and financial strategy, managing or coordinating others, as well as:

  • a minimum of five years work experience in a finance role, either within the charity/non profit sector or with a strong understanding of this sector. This means you have a good understanding of non-profit finance, including VAT and managing restricted and unrestricted funds

  • Qualified accountant or qualified by experience 

• Strong knowledge of financial compliance and organisational governance – including statutory accounts and reporting, taxation, financial controls and regulatory requirements. As well as data protection, and all aspects of Board governance (or willing to learn these aspects). You are confident keeping track of obligations, spotting risks and making sure things get done.

• Able to think strategically while staying close to the detail – you can understand the bigger financial picture, identify risks and opportunities, and turn this into clear analysis, recommendations and practical advice for the senior leadership team and wider organisation.

• Excellent at turning complex spreadsheets and complicated financial data into simple and clear analysis for others to understand. That might be through data visualisation tools, great written narrative or finding more accessible and creative ways of reporting financial information.

• Excited about thinking creatively about how finance can work in a progressive, values-led organisation, making finance accessible and empowering colleagues to take ownership. You bring good judgement to risk and controls and are willing to experiment with systems, automation and new technologies to make finance more efficient and user-friendly.

• Line management experience. You’re a skilled and confident line manager, and able to support with feedback, development and performance. You know how to balance care with clarity and accountability.

• Experienced in managing grant and funder finance – including grant budgets, restricted funding, financial tracking and reporting, and meeting funder requirements.

• Able to flex between longer-term projects, regular cycle work and responsive requests – you are self-motivated, can shift priorities when needed, and are comfortable setting boundaries and managing your time, energy and workload sustainably, with support from your manager.

• Willing to continuously learn and grow - with good emotional intelligence and self awareness including around your own power, and an ability to give and receive feedback well, and sit in (and encourage) healthy conflict and disagreement

• Committed to NEON’s purpose of building the strength of movements for social, economic and environmental justice, and to learning how to align your actions with the values of NEON: solidarity; generosity and respect

How to apply

Please find details for how to apply on our website.

Dates

Application deadline: 25th October, 11.59pm

First interviews online: Tuesday 3rd November and Wednesday 4th November 2026.
Second interviews in-person at our Bethnal Green office: Tuesday 10th November 2026.

If you fancy a chat about the role or have any questions about NEON in general, you can reach out to Janine via our email on our website. You can request a call back via this email if you prefer.

We will treat the data you provide in your application in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
 

We know that people from certain backgrounds and identities are often excluded in progressive movements and we’re committed to doing what we can to correct this. 

So:

• we particularly welcome applications from marginalised groups, especially people of colour and other ethnic minorities, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Disabled people and those who identify as working class or have done so in the past.

• we know the work goes way beyond "diversity", it's about making the space inclusive too. So we are continuously working on that at NEON. So far this includes tangible things like a flexible work policy so people have genuine flexibility around where and when they work and a 28 hour week as standard; a gender-neutral parenting/leave policy, an anti-oppression strategy which is held at senior level given how important it is to the organisation. It also includes the day-to-day work of creating psychological safety for everyone at NEON and celebrating the wisdom of black, indigenous, queer, Disabled and other cultures in the way we work and behave

There are no formal education requirements for this role. As long as you can show us you have the skills we don’t mind where you got them from! Also important to us is your potential to learn and grow in the role so even if you don’t have 100% of the skills listed we want to hear from you.

About us: 

NEON is a capacity and infrastructure building organisation that seeks to accelerate the transition to a new economy by building the power of social movements - because without strong social movements we lack the power we need to win. We deliver trainings, develop resources, facilitate collaboration and work in partnership with key movement allies, especially in the climate, housing and migration movements. Our focus is on strengthening the organising, communications and strategy skills of social movement organisations, as well as deepening movement alignment, as we believe these are key to building collective power. As part of our work, we are looking to change the starting point in social movements from “what do we agree on” to “what can we win together?” 

We also aim to mirror the change we want to see in social movements in the way we run the organisation internally. To that end, we are committed to building a workplace centred on joy, care and justice, whilst maintaining healthy boundaries of what a workplace is. We do this because it is important to live our values and principles, and because strategically an organisation with a healthy culture and strong foundations ensures we are always one step ahead in the fight for a just and sustainable future.

To build a culture and community that lasts, we organise around three values: 

● Solidarity - we’re here to change the system and that requires working together across issues and sectors that aren’t normally in the same room. This means placing anti-oppression at the heart of our work and building the power of people most often affected by injustice to change the leadership of our movements 

● Generosity is about sharing our time, resources and learning with one another as we support each other’s work. It means being open and honest with one another, especially when we hit problems, and thinking creatively about how we positively build from there

● Respect is the bottom line for all relationships in NEON. It means being respectful of different backgrounds and life experiences and giving space for all voices to be heard. This often means listening more than we talk and being open to changing ourselves as a result of what we hear. 

You can also check out our website for more info on NEON.