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Head of Finance
Prevail Fund’s Education Fund ($1.2B target to improve learning outcomes for 27.5 million children) is early evidence that that focused, long-term capital behind a proven intervention can improve societal norms. By the end of the decade, we're building toward five to seven major funds across education, livelihoods, health, and beyond.
We're looking for a Head of Finance to build the function to make that scale possible. If you're excited by building financial structures and teams capable of deploying capital at that scale, we’d love to hear from you.
Note: This is a fully remote position. We’re able to hire between -6 UTC (US Central Time) and +3 UTC (East Africa Time). Candidates should be legally eligible to work in their country - we are only able to sponsor visas in exceptional circumstances.
About Prevail Fund
Prevail is a new foundation dedicated to catalyzing large-scale social change by supporting private philanthropists and field implementers to pursue more ambitious and impactful goals. We work with private philanthropists to fund specific initiatives for 10-12 years. Rather than diversifying across multiple causes, we prioritize deep, strategic investments in proven solutions with the potential to reshape global norms. For example, our first fund aims to improve foundational education for over 27.5 million children across 11 national governments in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Prevail provides patient capital to implementers – primarily in the form of grants that grow over time as our partner organizations scale. In addition to funding, Prevail also offers a suite of systems and talent development services designed to address common growth barriers and prepare partner organizations for accelerated scale.
To achieve our goals, we're assembling a team of results-oriented individuals with strong implementation experience and a passion for delivering impact at scale through strategic philanthropy.
In our first three years, we've:
Provided $50M+ in funding to date, to support 25+ partners across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, growing very quickly
Helped partners to strengthen foundational learning outcomes for over 3 million children
Hired 35+ mission-driven team members
Executed dozens of in-field projects to help support key functions for our implementing partners
You can find a bit more information about Prevail Fund and what to expect from our recruitment process here.
About the Role
We have successfully launched a $1.2bn education fund, and we will launch two further funds this year. In the next few years, we will be directly running multiple large funds across different sectors, and indirectly supporting other funds as well.
We’re looking for a Head of Finance to work directly with David Hylden (Co Founding Partner) to build a finance function to make that scale possible. With the right people, systems and technology, you will help to shape how billions of dollars are structured, allocated and ultimately translated into impact.
What You’ll Do
Build Prevail’s capital infrastructure: Design and operationalize the financial, legal, and giving structures that enable Prevail to receive, steward, and deploy philanthropic capital with trust, compliance, and speed across funds, entities, donors, and geographies. This includes owning Prevail's legal infrastructure - entity structuring, jurisdictional compliance, and external legal resourcing - without necessarily having a legal background yourself
Lead financial strategy and capital allocation: Help Prevail make ambitious but responsible decisions about how much capital it needs, how much it can responsibly commit, when it can deploy funds. This involves leading Prevail’s budgeting, reserve planning, scenario planning and capital allocation analysis that will lead to clear recommendations for leadership and the Board. The Head of Finance will translate those decisions into practical financial plans and operating guidance
Build a technology-enabled finance function: Build and lead a lean, technology-enabled finance function that enables Prevail to grow rapidly and deploy more capital for impact. You will identify the gaps, hire the right people, and develop them into a high-performing team. You will also prioritise and leverage tech/AI solutions that make the function faster, more efficient and scalable, rather than always defaulting to growing with additional headcount.
Lead partner financial diligence and shape cost-effectiveness approach: Surface financial risks and potential grantee issues early through clear, practical diligence. In collaboration with Partner Support and program teams, help Prevail and its partners understand current program costs, cost structures at scale, unit economics, financial health, and capacity to absorb additional funding.
About you: You’ll thrive in fast-paced environments and bring:
Work experience. You have 10+ years of relevant experience, ideally in a CFO, Head of Finance, or other senior finance role. You're interested in big-bet philanthropy and global development. Experience in the development space is an asset but not required.
Excellent financial modeling and analytical judgment. You are highly comfortable building and interrogating financial models, budgets, scenarios, and investment cases. You can identify the real decision at stake, and help leaders understand tradeoffs.
Strong finance fundamentals. You bring strong judgment across budgeting, accounting, controls, audit, compliance, treasury, restricted funding, and financial reporting. You do not need to have done everything yourself, but you know what good vs. great looks like and can build the right team, systems, and external support around the work.
Experience with complex financial structures. You are excited by the challenge of designing practical financial infrastructure for a growing organization. Experience with multi-entity, multi-country, restricted funding, grants, investments, donor-advised funds, fiscal sponsorships, or cross-border funding structures would be a strong plus.
Clear track record of using tech/tools to build efficiencies: You are genuinely excited about what AI and modern finance tools can do, and you have a consistent track-record of leveraging technology and developing lean and effective processes. You default to systems and automation over headcount, and you have the technical fluency to evaluate tools yourself rather than just delegate the question.
Strong people manager: You have a clear track record of building and supporting high performing teams.
Clear communicator and humility. You can explain complex financial issues clearly to leadership, program teams, donors, partners, and the Board, and bring humor, patience, and a service-oriented approach to the work.
What we offer
Full time, permanent contract.
Fully remote position with opportunity to travel 2-4 times per year.
Competitive salary based on experience, skills and location. We share salary bands with candidates before the first call; final offers are based on interview performance.
Meaningful benefits. Health insurance and wellness benefits, home workspace or co-working stipend, plus a learning and development budget.
Growth opportunities. We deeply care about investing in our team’s professional development. You’ll receive strong manager support, targeted feedback, performance support, clear pay progression, upwards or lateral mobility.
Flexible leave policy. Including 25 days PTO, plus public holidays.
Location & start date: This is a fully remote position. We’re able to hire between -6 UTC (US Central Time) and +3 UTC (East Africa Time). Candidates should be legally eligible to work in their country - we are only able to sponsor visas in exceptional circumstances. Periodic travel expected for donor meetings, board meetings, and partner site visits. Preferred start date: as soon as possible.
Application process: Our hiring process is thorough, because there are very specific skills required for this role. Successful candidates will go through:
A 45-minute initial conversation with our people team
Hiring Manager interview (60 minutes)
Paid take-home exercise (5 hours)
Panel interview (90 minutes) and 1:1 conversations with the rest of the team
An in-person chat (coffee!) with a Prevail team member.
Through the process, we’ll share feedback on the assessments and invite candidates to incorporate it. This mirrors how we work day to day: collaboratively, with openness to feedback and iteration.
Ready to join us? If you’re excited to help us scale, apply using the link below. We review every application and aim to invite successful candidates for an informational call within 3 weeks.
For more information, check out the job FAQ. We encourage you to read this in advance of the first informational call. For more information on Prevail in general, check out this deck. For info on how we hire at Prevail, check here.
*Note: If you currently work for one of Prevail’s partner organizations, we’d love to consider you for this role as long as you can provide their express permission. If this applies to you, please ask them to confirm this with us. Thank you!
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