Finance Operations Specialist

Protect Democracy seeks a Finance Operations Specialist to join our small, highly collaborative Finance team. In this role, you will manage the financial lifecycle of organizational spending, from budget and contract through purchase order, invoice, payment, and financial reporting. This is an excellent opportunity for a finance operations professional who enjoys owning complex cross-functional processes, understands how individual transactions connect to budgets and financial reporting, and is motivated by building systems that help an organization operate effectively. Protect Democracy was formed with an urgent and explicit mission: to prevent our democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government. We anchor all of our work in service of our mission: it is the foundation of our team, be it litigation, advocacy, or ensuring that our organization has the secure financial operations to continue to meet the urgency of the moment. This is a hands-on role with meaningful ownership. You will manage cross-functional financial workflows and participate in day-to-day transaction processing, partnering closely with Accounting, Legal/Compliance, People Operations, and teams across Protect Democracy. You should be interested in the full financial story behind a transaction—not simply whether an invoice can be paid, but what commitment it relates to, where it belongs in the budget, whether appropriate approvals and documentation are in place, and how it should ultimately appear in our financial reporting. You can work remotely from nearly any location in the United States.* We strongly encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds and from across the political and ideological spectrum to apply. A commitment to our mission and cross-ideological strategy for defending our democracy is essential. The priority deadline to apply for this role is October 15, 2026; we will review applications received after that date on a rolling basis. Please note that candidates who reach the final hiring stage will be required to satisfactorily complete a pre-offer background check.** The Finance Operations Specialist will: - Own significant portions of Protect Democracy's contract-to-payment lifecycle, coordinating cross-functional workflows from Finance review and contract execution through vendor setup, purchase orders, invoice review, payment, renewal, and closeout; - Develop strong working knowledge of organizational, team, and project budgets and spending commitments, using that context to review proposed spending, maintain accurate PO and commitment records, monitor contract utilization and upcoming actions, and identify issues requiring resolution; - Review and process invoices, reimbursements, and card transactions while protecting the integrity of financial data, ensuring appropriate documentation, approvals, coding, policy compliance, and connection to underlying contracts, POs, and budgets; - Project-manage Finance Operations initiatives, coordinating stakeholders, timelines, decisions, dependencies, and execution through completion; - Design and continuously improve Finance systems, workflows, and controls, including Ramp procurement/contract functionality, Finance Help Desk processes, integrations, automations, and procedures; - Serve as a knowledgeable Finance partner to staff and vendors, independently resolving routine and moderately complex issues and exercising judgment about when matters require escalation; - Support budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis by maintaining reliable committed-spend information, identifying potential variances, and helping connect operational spending activity to the broader financial picture; - Contribute to broader Finance priorities and projects, including year-end, audit, reporting, systems implementation, and other cross-functional work as needed.