Payment and Accounting Officer

About The Pooled-Fund On International Energy (PIE)

The Pooled Fund on International Energy (PIE) is a multi-regional philanthropic platform working to accelerate the transition to clean energy, electrification, and low-carbon industry. Our mission is to support a just and prosperous energy transition by strengthening the policies, institutions, partnerships, and coalitions needed to drive change across power and industrial systems.

Working across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, PIE brings together philanthropic funders, regional climate foundations, research institutions, think tanks, civil society organisations, businesses, and governments to help remove barriers to clean energy deployment and electrification. While grantmaking remains an important part of our work, PIE increasingly plays a broader role as an alliance-builder, convenor, and connector, supporting collaboration across regions and sectors to accelerate impact.

Founded in 2013 and currently hosted by the European Climate Foundation (ECF), PIE is supported by a diverse international team based across multiple countries. As our work and global footprint continue to grow, PIE is in the process of becoming an independent organisation, strengthening its ability to serve a truly multi-regional ecosystem and support partners across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. We seek to operate in accordance with a core set of values: Empowering and Caring Team, Bold Action with Urgency, Collaboration for Real-World Impact, Resilient Partnership with the Climate Ecosystem, and Evidence-Based Decision-Making. More information about PIE can be found at www.pieclimate.org

Context of the role

PIE works with partners around the world to foster the acceleration of clean forms of electricity and industry to displace polluting coal. As a lean but growing organisation scaling to around 60 global team members by the end of 2027, the postholder for this role will care passionately about enabling impactful global climate action by ensuring seamless, transparent, and highly efficient financial operations. Operating initially within our hosting platform, the postholder will have the opportunity to support PIE's ongoing exploration and planning towards a potential transition into an independent foundation, making this an exciting opportunity for a detail-oriented finance professional who thrives during organisational growth and systems evolution.

Key responsibilities

The Payment and Accounting Officer will work under the PIE's new Finance Team and will be directly supervised by the Head of Finance. This person will manage day-to-day payment processing, accounts payable administration, reconciliations, and routine accounting tasks to ensure timely, accurate, and compliant financial operations. This role serves as a key operational anchor for organisational compliance, procurement, and ensuring team members are up-to-speed on finance and payment procedures:

Payments & Invoicing

• Check invoices for accuracy, including tax information and contractual requirements.
• Process invoices in the accounting system.
• Prepare payment batches (including approved grant payments) for review and approval.
• Process approved bank payments.
• Monitor payment status and follow up on outstanding, rejected or returned payments.
• Respond to routine invoice and payment queries.
• Maintain accurate payment and invoice records and supporting documentation.
  
  

Expenses

• Review expense claim reports for completeness and compliance with finance policies.
• Process expense claims in line with established procedures.
• Support the implementation and ongoing use of the expense management system.
• Assist team members with using the expense management system and provide basic guidance as needed in collaboration with the finance and accounting officer.
• Support the maintenance of expense-related procedures and documentation.
  
  

Accounting & Finance Support

• Record routine financial transactions and maintain finance records.
• Assist with bank, supplier and advance reconciliations.
• Follow up on missing or incomplete supporting documentation.
• Flag discrepancies or issues for review by the Head of Finance.
• Provide basic administrative support to procurement and supplier documentation processes.
• Assist with onboarding new team members on payment, invoicing and expense procedures.
• Support month-end activities, audits and other routine finance tasks as required.
  
  

General

• Follow established finance policies, procedures and approval processes and recommend areas of improvement.
• Maintain accurate and well-organised financial documentation.
• Perform other finance-related tasks as assigned by the Head of Finance or as agreed as part of changes to the team structure.
  
  

Experience and competencies

• A degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration
• A recognised professional accounting qualification (e.g. ACCA, CPA or equivalent)
• 3+ years of relevant professional experience in Accounts Payable and/or Payment management
• Proven experience working with accounting software and expense management tools, including MS Office suite.
• An extremely high attention to detail and ability to quickly spot errors or gaps.
• Strong problem-solving skills with a positive, can-do attitude
• Ability to take ownership of tasks and work independently, managing deadlines and prioritising between multiple tasks
• Strong communicator and collaborator in remote, multicultural environments, with a proven ability to deliver work plans professionally and diligently while effectively coordinating, engaging and building productive partnerships across diverse cultures, time zones and working contexts.
• Excellent written and verbal communications in English (other languages is a plus).
• Must be able to work in +/-2 hours of GMT+1 time zone.
• Interest in or alignment with our mission.
  
  

What we offer

• A unique opportunity to work with a highly dynamic, international team who combine their passion to make a difference with a rigorous approach to work.
• An extended network of close partners with technical understanding of the issues, strong international and local change-making experience, and a deep knowledge of philanthropic grant-making and strategy development.
• Competitive compensation, commensurate with experience and country benchmarks.
• A highly flexible self-managed approach in terms of daily arrangements.
• An initial 12-month contract, with a high possibility of extension if conditions allow.
  
  

Location

South Africa preferred; other locations within +/-2hrs of GMT+1 will be considered. The candidate will need to hold a valid work visa and be eligible to work from the preferred location.

How to apply

The deadline for applications is 14 th October 2026 at 17:00 CEST.

Applicants are encouraged to upload their CV and motivation letter as one combined document.

All applications will be treated confidentially. We will store your information in our internal database unless you specifically request otherwise.