Background to the role

Use your finance and operations skills to support people, animals and the planet.

The Good Food Institute Europe (GFI Europe) is at the forefront of the movement to transform meat production in order to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, from climate change and global hunger, to antibiotic resistance and animal suffering.

We work with scientists, businesses and policymakers to make plant-based and cultivated meat (grown directly from cells) delicious, affordable and accessible. Please check out the rest of our website, our 2023 Year in Review and our 2024 Europe Highlights blog post to find out more about who we are and what we do.

We are at an exciting stage in our growth and are looking for a Finance & Operations Assistant to support our growing financial and operational workflows.

How you will make a difference

Your role will support smooth, efficient and well-coordinated financial and operational workflows at GFI Europe. Reporting to the Finance & Operations Coordinator, your work will fall under the following categories:

Finance:

• Ensuring timely and accurate processing of financial information, including invoices, direct debits, expense reimbursements, etc.
• Processing monthly payroll payments in line with information received from the People Ops team.
• Reconciling bank accounts weekly.
• Preparing and reporting monthly budget variance analyses per team.
• Managing the finance email inbox and coordinating supplier communication.
• Gathering and recording the information for calculation and payment of reverse-charged cross-border VAT payments.
• Assisting with financial and internal audit requests for information.
• Maintaining an up-to-date team Finance Calendar in Asana.

Operations / Admin:

• Supporting the development and updates to GFI Europe policies (e.g. Travel & Expenses) and internal manuals by gathering relevant information as well as continuously keeping an eye out for areas of improvement.
• Processing existing and future memberships and subscriptions.
• Assisting with sourcing and onboarding new Finance and Operations systems (e.g. Expense Reimbursement).
• Providing information required by donors in collaboration with the development team.
• Preparing forms containing financial and entity information as per stakeholder requests or for procurement purposes.
• Researching, collecting and processing database information to support other GFI Europe departments, ensuring data is accurate, well-structured, and presented clearly.
• Analysing data and performing fundamental Excel tasks to support various departments in their operations.
• Providing other support where needed.

Who we’re looking for

We primarily hire for skills and potential rather than experience; you do not need to have worked in an Operations or administrative role before. The core skills and attributes needed to excel in the role are:

You must have:

• A passion for GFI’s philosophy and mission.

• Attention to detail and commitment to deadlines: ensuring accurate and timely work, particularly with respect to numbers and entity-related information.
• Good level of financial knowledge: good understanding of payment workflows and bookkeeping principles, with the ability to apply these skills effectively in day-to-day operations. Familiarity with Belgium GAAP would be a strong advantage.
• High degree of organisation and efficiency: supporting financial and administrative processes to ensure they run smoothly, addressing challenges as they come up, and ensuring accurate and efficient organisation of documents and information.
• Ability to communicate information clearly and simply: effective communicator ensuring the appropriate format for sharing or requesting financial details within the team and escalating where necessary.
• Creative problem-solving: ability to identify financial and operational opportunities for improvement and to creatively propose solutions.
• Tech savviness: the ability to leverage Excel and/or Google Sheets for data analysis and reporting. Comfort using various software tools and platforms in a remote workplace, and a willingness to learn new systems. Training and support in Google Workspace, Quickbooks and Asana will be provided.
• Adaptability: openness to execute diverse financial and operational tasks as they occur whilst maintaining the quality of recurring responsibilities; openness and a positive response to varying cultural norms and perspectives.
• Strong people skills: building collaborative and positive relationships, and working well with colleagues and stakeholders across multiple cultures.
• Openness to DEI principles: an affinity with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, and with maintaining our welcoming and supportive culture.
• Integrity: A high degree of professionalism, and discretion when handling confidential information.
• Fluent in English and either French or Dutch, both written and spoken.

It would be an advantage to have some or all of the following attributes, but none of them are prerequisites, and we welcome applications from candidates without any or all of them:

• Having experience in an administrative or finance-related role.
• Knowledge of finance software(s).
• Experience working with a non-profit association registered in Belgium.

We want the best people and we know that building a diverse, inclusive workplace leads to stronger, happier, more productive and resilient teams. We strongly encourage people of every ethnicity, orientation, age, gender, origin, socio-economic background, and ability to apply. As a pan-European organisation, we welcome applications from across the whole continent. Because we value a diverse workplace, we prioritise an inclusive culture absent of discrimination and harassment during the application process and after you join the team.

Benefits and the fine print

• Terms of employment: Full-time (flexible hours), permanent. Requests for part-time arrangements can be considered (minimum 32 hours/week).
• Start date: Before 17th March, 2025
• Location: We can consider applicants based in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. This is a remote role, and you will be able to work from home, or we are happy to consider supporting costs for co-working to enable you to work from an office if you wish. The whole GFI Europe team aims to get together in person at least once per year for around 3-5 days at a time. Travel costs will be covered by GFI Europe within our travel policy.
• Salary and benefits: The salary and benefits package for all of our roles are researched and benchmarked based on similar nonprofit roles in the country/location of hire. Due to capacity, we cannot complete that research for every European country in advance, but approximate indicative ranges (total annual amounts received in gross salary plus benefits including home-working allowance) are likely to be:
  • €2,485 (EUR) per month if based in Brussels, Belgium, plus benefits such a 13th month, holiday pay, representation allowance, eco vouchers and meal vouchers.
• Right to work requirements: The successful candidate must, by the start of the employment, have permission to work in the country where they are based, and to be able to travel within the EU.
• Application Deadline: 20th January 2025, 11.59 pm CET. We will get back to all candidates after that date, no matter the outcome of their application. You should expect to hear back from us within about a week of the deadline.

Application process

Please note that we are not requesting a CV or a cover letter at this stage. The full process is listed below:

Round	Timeline	Description	Expected Time Commitment
Application	Deadline: 20th January 2025, 11.59 pm CET	First, fill in the application form, and then answer the written question. You will then have 17 minutes to answer a series of multiple choice questions. You will need to complete your application, including the multiple choice questions, before the application deadline in order for us to consider your application.	30 – 45 minutes
Timed assignment	27th January – 2nd February	Two to three exercises simulating the type of work you’d be doing in the role.	1.5 hours
Interview (we’ll aim to conduct one round of interviews, but might decide to conduct a second round if needed)	11th – 14th February	Interviews will be conducted remotely on Zoom. We know that interviews can be especially stressful for candidates. We’ve put together this guide so that you know exactly what to expect from our process and, hopefully, have a more relaxed experience.	1.5 hours
Reference checks	After the final interview, before making a formal offer	We will contact two professional references (at least one of whom has managed you previously) to hear about their experience of working with you. We won’t contact any references without your prior consent.

Dates and times of assignments and video calls can be arranged to fit around your commitments.

We want you to have every opportunity to shine and show us your talents – we are happy to make all the reasonable adjustments that we possibly can to make sure the assessment process works for you. Email us at europe-hiring@gfi.org.

Any questions?

Please see this webinar where our colleagues Ethan Dean and Alex Mayers answer questions about the role. Please note, since filming the video we have widened the geographical location for this role, and applicants can now be based anywhere in Belgium, France, or the Netherlands.

If you have any further questions, please do reach out to us at europe-hiring@gfi.org. If you’ve read this far but decided not to apply, please share this job description with someone else in your network who you think might be a good fit for the role! Thank you.