Senior Accountant

Overview

Since 1972, Covenant House has served and advocated for youth and young families experiencing homelessness, human trafficking, and exploitation. Our overarching goal is to end homelessness among youth and young families by helping them achieve housing stability, heal from trauma, tap into their innate resilience, and hone their interests and skills to forge new pathways to independence. This work is carried out across Covenant House sites in 34 cities in the US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

About the Role

The Senior Accountant plays a dual role supporting the scaling needs of the Finance Department. Approximately half of this role supports the Controller on general accounting close, grant accounting, and audit support, and approximately half supports the SVP of Finance on global close, consolidation reporting, and interim finance coverage for affiliate sites.

You will manage complex accounting areas including grant accounting, prepaid expenses, donor-restricted investment activity, and liability reconciliations, while serving as a key contributor to the organization’s global consolidation process in NetSuite. You will also support both the stand-alone entity audit and the consolidating/group audit, and serve as a resource to affiliate finance teams, including stepping into a hands-on, interim capacity when a site has a finance role vacancy.

In this role, you will report directly to the Controller and work in a matrixed capacity with the SVP of Finance. You will have the opportunity to support accurate financial reporting, audit readiness, and compliance across the parent organization and its affiliates.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Controller Support — General Accounting Close & Grant Accounting (≈ 50%)

• Lead assigned month-end and year-end close activities including journal entries, reconciliations, financial analyses, and supporting schedules

• Investigate and resolve variances and ensure assigned accounts are audit-ready

• Reconcile grant transactions and journal entries and apply invoice payments

• Reconcile grant activity between PyanGo and NetSuite to ensure compliance with grant terms

• Own prepaid expense accounting including analyses, amortization entries, and reconciliations

• Manage donor-restricted investment accounting including journal entries, analyses, releases, and reconciliations

• Own assigned liability and balance sheet account reconciliations

• Reconcile intercompany balances and transactions between parent and affiliates

• Build, maintain, and refine NetSuite saved searches, reports, and validation tools

• Manage corporate credit card reconciliation including matching activity to receipts and resolving exceptions

• Support the Controller on stand-alone and consolidating/group audits including PBC checklist management, schedule preparation, and auditor requests

• Provide occasional backup support for AP operations and the daily cash report (preparer-only)

SVP of Finance Support — Global Close, Consolidation & Site Coverage (≈ 50%)

• Support global monthly, quarterly, and annual close across affiliates

• Prepare and maintain consolidated financial reporting in NetSuite including eliminations, multi-currency translation, and consolidation adjustments

• Provide interim finance coverage to affiliate sites experiencing finance vacancies

• Support IRS Form 990 consolidated/group return schedules

• Support board and donor reporting packages, ad hoc financial analysis, and special projects

• Perform data validation and variance analysis across systems and schedules

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities

• Leverage advanced Excel functions (VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, IF formulas, pivot tables)

• Support annual audit processes for assigned areas

• Collaborate across departments and affiliate finance teams

• Assist in training affiliates on finance procedures, documentation, and NetSuite/AP automation tools

Segregation of Duties & Internal Controls

• Journal entries and reconciliations prepared by this role require independent review and approval

• No disbursement authority; AP support is preparer-only

• Site-vacancy coverage is recording-only; approvals remain with site leadership

• Grant setup is performed by AVP of Grant Management; this role performs reconciliation only

• Credit card reconciliation is independent; this role does not approve its own card activity

• Consolidation entries require SVP of Finance review

• Audit support is preparer-level; significant accounting judgments are escalated

• Interim site assignments are time-bound with defined start/end dates

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Advanced ERP experience, specifically NetSuite (OneWorld/multi‑entity consolidation)

• Strong Excel skills (VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, IF formulas, pivot tables)

• Ability to independently prepare complex reconciliations, analyses, audit schedules, and reporting packages

• Experience reconciling corporate credit card programs and expense management platforms

• Familiarity with nonprofit accounting concepts including net assets with and without donor restrictions

• Strong attention to detail, organizational skills, and time management

• Ability to manage multiple projects and competing priorities across two distinct responsibility areas

• Effective communication skills and ability to collaborate across departments and affiliates

• Ability to work independently, exercise judgment, take ownership, and escalate control-related boundaries appropriately

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field

• Seven or more years of progressively responsible accounting experience

• Experience with grant accounting including restricted net assets, draw-downs, and funder reporting

• Experience reconciling grant activity between grant management systems (e.g., PyanGo) and ERPs (e.g., NetSuite)

• Experience with intercompany reconciliations across multiple related entities

• Experience supporting audits and financial statement preparation

• Willingness and ability to provide short-term interim support to affiliate sites

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Qualifications

• Experience working in a nonprofit parent entity environment and supporting affiliates

• Experience with multi-entity or global consolidations including eliminations and multi-currency translation

• Experience assisting a Controller or Finance leader with external audit coordination

• Experience supporting IRS Form 990 processes

• Mission-driven and comfortable in a collaborative nonprofit environment

• Ability to balance recurring Controller-facing responsibilities with SVP-facing consolidation priorities

• Strong problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and professional judgment

• Ability to identify risks, present recommendations, and flag segregation-of-duties concerns

• Ability to build effective working relationships across departments and affiliates

Travel Requirements

• Ability to travel once per year to New York City in October for annual in-person traditions

• 1-2 additional team meetings per year in NYC

• Outside of the above travel, this position is 100% remote

Our Community

Our critical mission demands that we have all voices at the table. A team of diverse people, perspectives, and experiences is smarter, stronger, and more effective for our young people. At Covenant House, every team member is valued, respected, heard, and supported, and we welcome honest and courageous self-reflection on any aspects of our work that are based on biased or outdated viewpoints. We deliberately create opportunities for our staff to grow and thrive.

Covenant House International is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind: CHI is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at CHI are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, family or parental status, disability status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. CHI will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics and encourages all qualified applicants to apply.

If you have a disability or medical condition and need a reasonable accommodation, such as an ASL interpreter or a different interview format, or if you have physical accessibility needs, let us know. Contact us at 1-929-502-2521, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern Time or email us at [email protected].