Senior Accountant

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The Wilderness Society is a national conservation organization dedicated to protecting America’s wild places since 1935. Our mission is to unite people to protect America’s wild places. Through science, advocacy and partnerships with communities and policymakers, we champion the protection of wilderness, national parks, forests, and other public lands that provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat and the freedom to connect with nature.

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The Senior Accountant plays a critical role in ensuring efficient, accurate, and well‑controlled accounting operations for TWS. This position owns key accounting processes end‑to‑end, including general ledger maintenance, balance sheet reconciliations, bank reconciliations, revenue accounting, and month‑end close. The Senior Accountant exercises strong professional judgment, proactively identifies and resolves accounting issues, and ensures transactions are recorded in accordance with GAAP and nonprofit accounting standards.

This role serves as a financial steward for restricted and unrestricted funds, supporting fund accounting, grants, and multi‑year contributions while maintaining audit‑ready documentation and internal controls. It requires a high degree of independence, initiative, and accountability. The Senior Accountant diagnoses issues, proposes solutions, and implements corrective actions. The position regularly reviews financial statements, substantiates balance sheet accounts with well‑documented support, and understands the profit and loss statements for all business units.

The Senior Accountant partners cross‑functionally with program, development, and operations teams to provide accurate reporting, financial insight, and guidance. They coach and support junior accounting staff, contribute to process improvement and documentation, and act as a trusted resource to colleagues across TWS.

This position plays a critical role in fostering an organizational culture where people feel respected, included, and accountable to shared goals and outcomes. Across our team, we aspire to be campaign‑oriented, collaborative, innovative, transparent, and supportive of staff – our greatest asset.

General Accounting

• Partner with the Controller in overseeing the month‑end close process, ensuring timelines are met and all reconciliations are completed and properly substantiated.
• Prepare, review, and post routine and complex journal entries, exercising independent judgment.
• Maintain the general ledger and ensure accuracy, completeness, and consistency across accounts and dimensions.
• Support the Grants and Financial Analyst in reviewing monthly transactions for accuracy and appropriate classification.
• Partner with the Controller on accounting policies, internal controls, and risk mitigation.
• Contribute to the ongoing maintenance of the Accounting Policies & Procedures Manual to document and improve internal procedures and controls.

Budgeting, Forecasting & Financial Insights

• Participate in annual budgeting and periodic reforecasting processes.
• Analyze budget‑to‑actual results and investigate variances.
• Proactively communicate financial trends, risks, and insights to the Controller and relevant stakeholders.
• Translate financial data into clear, actionable information for non‑finance colleagues.

Banking & Cash Management

• Monitor cash balances and liquidity trends and flag risks or anomalies.
• Prepare and review monthly banking journal entries, ensuring accurate coding.
• Reconcile bank accounts monthly and investigate and resolve reconciling items.
• Recommend transfers as appropriate.
• Support internal controls related to cash handling, fraud prevention, and segregation of duties.
• Assist the Controller in maintaining relationships with banking partners, including account setup, security, and transitions when needed.

Revenue, Grants & Contributions

• Process monthly revenue journal entries, ensuring proper classification between GL accounts, business units, and restricted and unrestricted funds.
• Reconcile revenue accounts monthly and…