Job Detail

</div>Senior Specialist, Corporate Budgeting and Forecasting - GL D - 5 year duration contractReporting to the Senior Manager, Financial Controlling & Management Reporting, the Senior Specialist Corporate Budgeting and Forecasting coordinates, rolls out and consolidates the Secretariat Operating Expenditures (OPEX), Strategic Initiatives (SI) and Grant allocation budgeting and forecasting processes as per the Global Fund annual financial planning. This consists in timely communicating budgeting and forecasting milestones and expectations to relevant internal stakeholders, providing appropriate support to budget holders, and consolidating information to enable senior management to identify trends in funds utilization and proactively optimize forecasted unused resources. S/he is responsible for the timeliness, completeness and quality of corporate financial planning processes (Budget, and quarterly reforecasts F1, F2 and F3).



S/he is responsible for challenging budgeting and forecasting assumptions with the view to ensure value for money, fund efficiency and improve forecasting accuracy, identifying cost trend, variances and slippage risk using historical track record and then proposing adjustment to Finance management for portfolio optimization purpose as part of a budgeting / forecasting storyline.



S/he proposes and implement process improvements to ensure convergence in the maturity level of the OPEX, SI and Grant budgeting and forecasting processes, with the aim to optimize level of effort of internal resources, ensure consistency and standardization in methodology and approaches, and maintain high level of scrutiny across funding sources.



S/he is responsible for ensuring proper documentation of planning processes and assumptions including development of guidance, planning data integrity, monitoring of internal validation steps and tracking of management adjustment for audit trail purposes.



S/he develops and maintains a corporate project dashboard including all major projects or initiatives led by the Secretariat, ensuring budget and costs are tracked in a dedicated environment to enable MEC visibility on corporate projects implementation.



S/he manages the monthly accruals process working with budget holders or focal points and consolidating information provided by business controllers. S/he ensures compliance of budgeting and forecasting assumptions with accounting guidelines in terms of asset capitalization.



S/he will have an excellent understanding of Financial Controlling. S/he will have a strong focus on process improvement, coordination with business controllers and regional finance teams to ensure timely delivery of quality budgets and reforecasts and with Policy Hub, HR and Strategic Controlling to ensure linkages of budgeting and forecasting with other corporate cycles.



Under the oversight of the Senior Manager, Financial Controlling, S/he has a supervisory role and people management responsibility on the budgeting and forecasting team and Business Controllers for IT and Administration.

Key Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Senior Manager, Financial Controlling & Management Reporting, the Senior Specialist coordinates, rolls out and consolidates the OPEX, SI and Grant and budgeting and forecasting processes.

Timely and efficient budgeting and reforecasting process:

• S/he will prepare and ensure the timely communication of the annual financial planning and budgeting/forecasting guidance to all internal relevant stakeholders. S/he ensures that appropriate assistance is provided through dedicated training sessions for divisions and department with no business controllers.  


• S/he rolls out the quarterly budgeting and forecasting processes and assists major stakeholders to ensure accurate and timely submission of budget/reforecasts in accordance with budget guidelines.


• S/he will review and challenge budgeting and forecasting assumptions used by budget holders from a costing, feasibility and impact perspective with the objective of achieving budget efficiency, value for money and minimizing risk of unused funds for OPEX and Strategic Initiatives.


• S/he will propose and implement improvements across the 3 processes to ensure maturity level convergence and streamline level of effort. Feedback from budget and forecasting processes stakeholders will be collected on a regular to identify pain points with clear timeline of how to address them with the objective to optimize level of effort while maintaining high level of scrutiny. Consistent approaches and methodologies need to be used across the OPEX, SI and Grant budgeting and forecasting in line with the Financial Management Reporting Framework.   


• S/he will work with Policy Hub, HR and Strategic controlling to ensure alignment of resource allocation in OPEX and SI with Strategic Implementation Plan and Strategic Workforce Planning.


• S/he will ensure the team maintain appropriate documentation and  filing of financial planning documentation (annual financial planning, guidance, budgeting and forecasting final versions, planning data adjustment related to internal validation steps and management decisions) on SharePoint for audit trail purposes.

Accurate, value added budgeting/reforecasting consolidation:

• S/he will organize the consolidation of OPEX, GRANTS, SI budgeting and forecasting submissions along with variance analyses and related narratives, highlighting potential absorption issues.


• S/he will develop storylines for funding scenarios (OPEX, GRANTS and SI) at portfolio level for senior management and committee consideration with the view to highlight efficiency and value for money in the use of resources, including reallocation / reinvestment.


• S/he will provide ad hoc analyses on specific budget items to enable optimal decision making by senior management.

Actuals, accruals and asset capitalization:

• S/he will work with Accounting to ensure reconciliation between financial management and financial statements


• S/he will ensure accurate reporting of accruals and consistent reforecast on asset capitalization following accounting guidelines

Project controlling:

• S/he will perform a second level review of project controlling managed by business controllers (GHC, Sourcing transformation, IT initiatives…) for management reporting and direct monitoring of cross cutting initiatives (BMGF master agreement related programmes…)


• S/he will develop a project portfolio dashboard to enable Senior management to follow project cost evolution and will consolidate information on project controlling provided by business controllers (GHC, Sourcing transformation, IT initiatives…) for management reporting

Periodic Reporting on financial actuals to Senior management:

• S/he will produce and analyse comparatives, variances, trends, understanding major variance drivers and review of these with the budget owners and division heads s/he covers


• S/he will work with the Data & Management Reporting team to define the formatting of management reporting and to design ways to automate report generation

People Leadership:

• The Senior Specialist leads her/his finance team and ensures that the team have the appropriate understanding of the requirements of their role and the capacity and skills needed to meet them. S/he manages assigned resources within his/her scope of responsibilities.


• The Senior Specialist engages, motivates and develops a team in order to drive their performance and increase their impact. This includes performance management through regular feedback, coaching and ongoing development discussions, and working together with staff to achieve work-life balance.


• The Senior Specialist builds relationships with key stakeholders within Program Finance & Controlling and in other divisions to ensure clear understanding of process timelines, expectations and guidance and ensure good collaboration.

The above responsibilities are expected to be performed in accordance with the Global Fund Comprehensive Funding Policies, Grant Regulations, Financial guidelines and other operational procedures.

Qualifications

Essential:

• Advanced Degree in Finance (Masters in Finance or MBA Finance) or accounting qualification (professional qualification such as a Chartered Accountant, Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Analyst, Fédération des Experts-Comptables Européens).

Experience

Essential:

• Demonstrated experience in financial controlling or financial analysis obtained within an international accounting firm, bilateral or multilateral aid agency, government department, industry or a commercial or investment bank


• Strategic thinking i.e. ability to have a holistic view of a situation, to understand alignment between resource allocation and expected impact, to build scenarios and assess potential impact


• Successful management experience and ability to prioritize/manage tight deadlines


• Influencing skills as the job would involve budgetary discussions with internal stakeholders

Desirable:

• Minimum 8 years of demonstrated professional experience overseeing a financial controlling (budgeting and forecasting processes) in complex funds flow arrangements and high-risk environments


• Experience in sophisticated value-for-money and operational efficiency trade-off reviews including identification of levers in a highly fiscal constrained environment.


• Experience in wide scale implementation of financial, operational systems and management reporting tools with continuous improvement


• Experience of working within an international or regional sphere of activity, particularly in the big multinational private sector companies or international organizations with activities in developing world

Competencies

Languages:

An excellent knowledge of English and preferably a good working knowledge of French. Knowledge of other languages would be an asset.

Organizational Competencies:

• Global Fund awareness and mind-set


• Service orientation


• Drive for results


• Collaboration


• Interaction


• Adaptability

Functional competencies:

• Analytic: Understanding of the analytical techniques related to assessment of quantitative and qualitative information. Level 2


• Business: Understanding of the organisational and business mechanisms; operating knowledge of pragmatic and practical solutions that help translating ideas into specific plans, goals and KPIs within the Global Fund. Level 2


• Due diligence: Ensuring an appropriate spend of money by means of making informed decisions and initiating actions only after investigating all facts, conditions, rules, laws, regulations, financial considerations, or any other such matters. Level 2


• Finance: Knowledge/awareness of financial and accounting aspects related to the Global Fund’s services. Level 2


• Geopolitical awareness: Knowledge/sensitivity regarding social, political, economic realities and dynamics in specific geographies in order to use appropriate influencing and dialogue strategies, respond to challenges and problems arising. Level 1


• Operational policy: Knowledge of the Global Fund operational policies related to grant cycle. Level 2


• Multicultural understanding: Sensitivity to multicultural differences and general awareness of how they impact cooperation, ability to use it in cooperation with partners representing other cultures. Level 1 


• Risk: Knowledge of the risk management process: identification, aggregation, mitigation, monitoring and reporting of the risks associated with a grant making organisation that operates in high risk & challenging operating environments. Level 1

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Job Posting End Date

26 January 2020