Finance Associate / Senior Finance Associate

We’re hiring a Finance Associate or Senior Finance Associate to manage and build the financial systems that will let us triple our annual budget from $4M to $14M+ over the next two years.

Tarbell’s programs will only be successful if we can deploy our financial resources efficiently and responsibly. You’ll run the day-to-day payments and accounting while building transparent and accurate systems that can scale with the organization.

About the Tarbell Center

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism supports journalism that helps society navigate the development and deployment of advanced AI. We provide funding and training to strengthen AI reporting at major news outlets.

Since 2023, we’ve raised ~$20M in funding and supported 50+ journalists through fellowships, grants, and residencies. We’re now in a period of rapid expansion as we scale from a $4M budget in 2025 to $14M by 2027.

Across our programs, we’ve supported a wide range of impactful reporting:

• Accountability reporting: Our journalists have broken corporate accountability stories about OpenAI’s legal tactics against nonprofits and xAI violating its own safety policies. A recent investigation about Character.AI's failure to protect minors on its platform contributed to the company banning under-18s within a week of publication.
• AI policy coverage: Our reporters have produced expert policy analysis, revealed exclusive information about state-level AI policy developments, and investigated AI policy lobbying.
• Impacts from AI: Coverage of the impacts from current systems, ranging from the climate impacts to mass discrimination, and the emerging risks from frontier models, such as sabotaging shutdown mechanisms or helping engineer pandemics.
• Sensemaking: We’ve supported explanatory journalism that helps the public make sense of the circular funding deals, advancements in automating AI R&D, military integration, and developments in China.

We believe journalism will be essential to helping society understand and respond to AI advancements in the coming years. By 2030 we aim to grow Tarbell into the leading institution supporting AI journalism globally, providing the funding and training needed to make that possible.

About the role

You’ll own day-to-day finance operations at Tarbell, working closely with the Operations Director. Core responsibilities include:

• Bookkeeping and accounting. Managing day-to-day bookkeeping in coordination with our external bookkeeping partner, overseeing monthly close, reconciliations, and ensuring accurate financial records in Quickbooks.
• Payment administration. Using Ramp, Mercury, Wise, and other tools to make prompt payments to contractors, fellows, grantees, and vendors.
• Budgeting and reporting. Producing monthly financial reports for program directors and the board, supporting annual budgeting and forecasting, and tracking spending against budgets across programs.
• Audit and compliance. Managing our annual audit, government filings and regulatory reporting, and other compliance obligations across the US and UK.
• Systems and process. Building scalable financial systems and standardized processes that work for an organization 2-3x our current size, including documentation, controls, and approval workflows.

Over time you’ll grow into broader ownership over Tarbell’s accounts, with the Operations Director shifting focus to higher-level financial strategy and governance.

Who we’re looking for

We expect:

• Finance experience. 2+ years in finance, accounting, or related operations, ideally at a small-to-medium-sized US nonprofit. You don’t need to have done every part of this role before, but you should be comfortable with numbers and familiar with basic accounting concepts.
• Process mindset. You can take messy, ad-hoc processes and turn them into clear, documented processes and procedures.
• High attention to detail. You don’t miss things. You catch small errors before they become big ones. People trust your numbers.
• Strong project management. You meet deadlines, manage multiple workstreams, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
• Clear communication. You can explain financial concepts clearly to non-finance colleagues, write clean reports, and work effectively with external partners (auditors, bookkeepers, regulators).

Bonus points for:

• Multi-jurisdiction finance experience, especially UK and US payroll, tax, and compliance
• Experience with QuickBooks

We care less about a conventional resume and more about your ability to succeed in the role. If your background is unusual but you can demonstrate these capabilities, we want to hear from you.

Compensation and location

Based on experience and seniority, we’ll offer the following titles and salary ranges:

• Finance Associate: $72,000 – $103,000 in the US; £47,000 – £62,000 in the UK
• Senior Finance Associate: $92,000 – $128,000 in the US; £62,000 – £78,000 in the UK.

Our benefits include:

• 33 days of annual leave in total (including national holidays)
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave, increasing with tenure
• $2,000 per year in professional development funding
• Up to 5% employer contribution towards a standard pension/401(k)
• For employees based in the US: Platinum health, dental, and vision plans, with 95% of premiums paid for by Tarbell
• Flexible working hours
• Productive, collaborative offices in London and San Francisco

We prefer candidates based in London or the San Francisco Bay Area and will require such candidates to work 2 days/week from our office space. We’re also open to candidates based in New York or Washington DC.

Please inquire with recruitment@tarbellcenter.org if questions or concerns regarding compensation or benefits might affect your decision to apply.

Application process

Interested candidates should submit an application (<15 minutes) by Sunday, June 14, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.

The application process will involve paid work tests, a structured interview, reference checks, and a paid in-person work trial. We will acknowledge receipt of all applications and aim to get back to candidates within 10 business days of the application deadline. Our ideal start date is September 2026, though flexibility is offered for exceptional candidates.

Tarbell is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate against qualified employees or applicants based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, sexual preference, marital status, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law or local ordinance.