Budget Specialist

Background

NOTE: The duration of the assignment is for 364 days. Whereas an external candidate will be offered a temporary appointment, subject to release agreements, staff members in UN Women may be administered as a temporary assignment and staff members in the UN Common system may be administered under a loan arrangement.

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

The Strategy, Planning, Resources and Effectiveness Division formulates corporate strategies aligned to the corporate objectives, promote transparent budget planning of resources from all funding sources in line with the organization’s priorities and advocates fiduciary integrity by ensuring that internal controls and risk management are fully in place. The Division monitors and reports on corporate programmes and budget implementation to ensure coherent achievement of results in keeping with the UN Women Strategic Plan and United Nations Strategic Framework. The Division also ensures coherent and integrated strategic analysis, planning and budgeting across UN Women while providing advice to senior management.

UN Women is in the process of migrating from the current PeopleSoft ERP to Oracle Cloud ERP to improve internal processes and keep up with evolving industry standards. The targeted dates for the implementation of the Oracle Cloud ERP is around the second half of 2022. The Budget Specialist position forms part of Budget section’s response to the new Oracle Cloud ERP and will be under the daily supervision of the Chief of Budget.

Under the supervision of the Chief of Budget, the Budget Specialist is the focal point and responsible for providing technical support to the Chief of Budget and the Budget section on the implementation of the new Oracle Cloud ERP design in budget management, resource planning and utilization. In this role, the Budget Specialist will provide advice on the Oracle Cloud ERP solutions that satisfy the business requirements and mapping to existing capabilities of the system or creating requirement specifications to provide alternative solutions. The Budget Specialist plays a key role throughout the project and serves as the primary focal point for the coordination of the ERP design during all phases of the project, including but not limited to reviewing existing budgetary policies and procedures to ensure relevance in line with the new Oracle Cloud ERP to identify gaps and business process reengineering, development of training materials, conducting training sessions as relevant to Budget section’s functions and processes, and communicates clearly and effectively in written and spoken formats.

The Budget Specialist will also provide guidance and support in budget planning, preparation, allocation, management and monitoring to ensure the availability and effective and optimum utilization of UN Women financial resources according to plans and approved allocation and compliance with UN Women financial regulations and rules, policies and procedures to meet UN Women commitments, goals and objectives. Additional responsibilities will include support with the monitoring and implementation of the cost recovery policy and formulation of required templates and guidance.

Duties and Responsibilities

Act as the Budget Section Oracle Cloud ERP Focal Person:

Act as a liaison and provide project updates to Budget Team.
Coordinate, organize, lead, and attend meetings with key stakeholders as needed to review project status.
Map business process requirements to software functionality, determine gap/fit, and design solutions for identified gaps.
Document functional requirements and use cases for custom-development items including data conversions, interfaces, reports, forms, etc.
Provide strategic, expert advice and consultation on the design and implementation of effective administrative and business processes, that include process analysis, redesign, re-engineering, and organizational effectiveness.
Monitor project progress and performance.
Perform data migration specifications.
Review current policies and guidance to assess change implications.
Coordinate and develop user manuals, training materials, and other documents as needed to enable successful implementation.
Ensure all system changes to platform or security configurations adhere to all internal controls.
Identify strategies, risks, and options, recommend approaches and mitigations to meet functional requirements.
Assess the completion and consistency of the related functionalities and their readiness to go live by governing the testing, training, data conversions and technical & business cutover plan.

Provide technical Support to budget planning, analysis and management:

Analyze and resolve issues that have the potential to jeopardize performance and/or ability to meet agreed upon deliverable.
Analyze past/current operations, estimate revenue and expenditures, evaluate trends in patterns of resource allocations, analyze budget proposals for budgetary objectives and present thoroughly researched information/conclusions/recommendations, including reports containing an analysis of the office’s financial situation (expenditures versus budget allocations) to facilitate budget preparation, planning and approval processes.
Provide technical support to the planning, analysis and management of budgets funded from UN Women core and non-core resources.

Provide Budget monitoring, oversight and control support:

Support the formulation, monitoring and oversight of the ERP project budget to ensure that expenditures do not exceed planned budgets and advice management on available balances.
Establish and implement budget control mechanisms and monitor budgetary status versus authorized spending limits and take appropriate and timely action to ensure compliance.

Provide dvisory support and technical guidance:

Serve as technical resource person and focal point for the ERP Project/Budget module.
Provide advice to UN Women personnel on budget issues, processes and procedures.
Collaborate with UN Women ERP helpdesk and departments on corporate issues related to project/budget modules to ensure UN Women needs and interests are taken into account in systems development and updates.
Provide input and direction to specific budget related and ad-hoc projects in support of senior management requests.
Identify areas for development and drive improvement.

Provide knowledge management and capacity building support:

Design and/or introduce, learning tools, best practices and innovations in budget business operational practices and management including drafting guidelines and policies.
Provide technical support to the development of knowledge base in budget planning, preparation and management through capacity building and conducting and/or organizing training events and activities on budget panning principles, processes, policies, rules and procedures.
Identify, participate, formulate the development and/or recommend enhancement/updates/improvement in / ERP budget modules.
Capture, synthesize and/or codify lessons learned and best practices in financial management and services. Disseminate to clients and stakeholders as appropriate to build capacity and knowledge.

Perform other duties as specified by Chief of Budget.

Key Performance Indicators:

Active inputs provided in the formulation and implementation sessions and other working groups on the new Oracle Cloud ERP.
Timely escalation of issues and potential risks as identified due to the implementation of the new Oracle Cloud ERP.
Effective and efficient support to processes as relate to budget planning, preparation and management.
Sound policies, procedures, guidance, and advice.
Effective oversight, control and monitoring of programme and project resources provided.
Timely and accurate budget oversight and control.

Competencies

Core Values:

Integrity;
Professionalism;
Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
Accountability;
Creative Problem Solving;
Effective Communication;
Inclusive Collaboration;
Stakeholder Engagement;
Leading by Example.

Functional Competencies:

Strong knowledge and experience in the application of complex financial systems and web-based management systems (such as Peoplesoft, SAP, Oracle);
Strong knowledge and expertise in budget/financial principles, planning and management;
Solid knowledge of complex budget, financial rules and a regulations, preferably UN/UNDP/UN Women Financial Rules and regulations;
Strong business acumen and judgment;
Strong conceptual/strategic skills and success in implementing budgetary re-engineering, management systems development, policy design, innovation and knowledge product development;
Advanced knowledge of office software packages, spreadsheet and database (MS Word, Excel).
Strong verbal and written communication skills and personable approach;
Strong analytical skills;
Ability to clearly communicate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders is essential.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in Financial Management, Economics, Business, Public Administration, or other related area, or a professional certification from an internationally recognized institute. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

A minimum of seven (7) years of experience in financial planning, budget management and operations.
At least (3) years in a large international and/or corporate organization preferably in the UN system and its organizations.
Experience in formulating, drafting and implementing budgetary policies, processes and procedures.
Experience in the design, implementation and application of Oracle and/or other similar systems, is an asset.
Experience in business process reengineering, is an asset.

Languages:

Fluency in English is required.
Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.