Overview
The Finance Specialist plans, manages, and leads project and office financial operations, ensuring integrity, transparency, and compliance with UNOPS Financial Rules and Regulations, IPSAS standards, and donor/partner requirements.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop Finance/Budget annual work plan, setting of priorities and planning of work in line with corporate goals and business planning process for NYPO projects.
- Monitor and analyze the operating environment to ensure adequate agility, risk management and quick readjustment of the operations as needed.
- Reduce reputational risk by ensuring NYPO's financial reporting requirements are met.
- Lead internal and external audit exercises and accountability for financial audit recommendations.
- Act as the practice specialist by contributing to corporate strategy requirements, and to corporate recommendations made by Finance Group.
- Drive finance function initiatives to ensure added value and optimal support across NYPO, as well as the achievement of the Strategic Objectives.
- Contribute with specialist financial knowledge to long-term strategy of NYPO's business efficiencies.
- Ensure financial records are maintained and available on file for review by clients upon request.
- Lead the revision of LSS models and manage financial conversations with clients regarding cost recovery.
- Support monthly LSS budget monitoring and communicate deviations to relevant teams.
- Lead financial closure activities, ensuring all activities conclude within agreed financial limits.
- Ensure that project financial closure activities are initiated in a timely manner to guarantee efficient project budget management.
- Responsible for verifying the Final Financial Reports (FFR) for the accurate and timely closure of client projects, in charge of requesting corrections and/or clarification where needed, and ensuring that the final financial reports are tailored to partner-specific needs and share the certified reports with the related field office after the approval of the report.
- Ensure that the FFR issued are in full compliance with UNOPS' rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and partner-reporting requirements as agreed in the legal agreement and/or in the global agreement between UNOPS and the partner.
- Support for any project audit/verification to identify transactions, prepare documentation etc.
- Any other project financial closure and verification tasks as necessary.
- Review and release internal (project) budgets, including cost estimates and budget revisions in line with the approved budgets at engagement/legal agreement level.
- Verify the completeness and accuracy of the supporting documentation for advance financing requests and ensure the associated financial risks are mitigated as much as possible.
- Submits received requests transparently with a recommendation for action to senior management where applicable.
- Track project budgets and conduct detailed variance analyses to identify risks to budget adherence.
- Ensuring that advance financing is recovered as it becomes due according to the terms of their approval.
- Escalate cases that can not be recovered as per the original plan, with a recommendation of action to senior management.
- Process refunds/transfer of surplus project cash balances once the partner has accepted the Final Financial Reports, as and when needed.
- The refunds are based on the approved FFRs, and the incumbent is expected to verify the correct banking information for the cash transfer to the partner.
- Process refunds/transfer of surplus project cash balances for ongoing projects.
- Liaise with FG colleagues to process exceptional financial closure, including application of balances to the unclaimed balance account and oversight of balances on the account.
- Any other project fund management and budget management tasks as necessary.
- Provides support through tools and reports on the project financial closure process performance.
- Serve as a "third line of defense" regarding payroll payments to ensure compliance with client DoAs.
- Provides support through tools on the project financial reporting performance.
- Provides support through tools and reports on the refund/transfer process and the exceptional closure balances.
- Support the establishment and implementation of an effective expenditure control framework, ensuring that vouchers are matched, verified, and cleared in accordance with financial rules.
- Proposes solutions to resolve issues linked to the financial reporting and closure of partner projects, e.g. delay in partner responses, late submission of reports, etc.
- Advise management on financial accountability mechanisms, including full-cost recovery and spending limit oversight.
- Prepare, review and analyze monthly, quarterly and annual financial reports for management and donors, ensuring accuracy and adherence to reporting timelines.
- Support the preparation of client financial statements, interim financial reports (IFRs), and delivery reports in line with contractual and audit requirements.
- Develop and maintain financial dashboards and reporting tools for portfolio oversight and performance analysis.
- Ensure reports are timely, accurate, and compliant with donor requirements and funding agreements.
- Act as the main point of contact for clients’ financial queries and requests for information.
- Coordinate with clients to ensure data collection and reporting follow agreed formats and timelines.
- Contribute to the annual financial closure process, ensuring all accounts are reconciled and adjustments made in compliance with UNOPS standards.
- Serve as Officer-in-Charge (OIC) when the Finance Advisor is unavailable.
- Participate in strategic meetings, such as Steering Committees and Quarterly Assurance Meetings, to provide financial guidance.
- Ensure financial strategies align with project priorities and external donor expectations.
- Foster knowledge building by sharing best practices and contributing to financial SOP development.
- Assists in training of colleagues upon requests from portfolio managers, the supervisor and other finance officers on project finance management.
- Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
Required Experience
- Relevant experience is work in project financial management, budgeting, cash management and financial reporting, or related areas.
- Demonstrable proficiency in the use of collaboration and productivity tools (e.g. MS Office, G-Suite, etc) and web-based management systems.
- Familiarity with digital technologies and their application in process optimization and automation is highly desirable.
- Familiarity with UNOPS or other UN policies, processes, tools and systems is an asset.
- Experience in people management is highly desirable.
- Experience in large scale digital transformation would be an asset.
- Experience working in a UNOPS, UN or other large international organization at country level is desirable.
Qualifications
- Required Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration or other disciplines with 7 years of relevant experience OR A master's degree (or equivalent) in any of the above disciplines with 5 years of relevant experience is required.
- Desired Professional certification (e.g. CPA, ACCA, CA, CIMA) is desired.
- Knowledge of IPSAS or other international accounting standards is desired.
