Finance Assistant (Business Analytics)

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the global development network of the United Nations system that is on the ground in 177 countries, with its Headquarters in New York, USA. The Bureau for Management Services (BMS) is a central Bureau tasked with the development of corporate strategies, policies, tools and systems in key cross-cutting management areas. Drawing on sound analytics and a risk-management approach, BMS supports the achievement of development results through management advice, innovative business solutions, and other corporate services in line with international best practices and evolving needs and expectations of development partners. BMS also ensures policy adherence in operations management within UN Rules & Regulations, safeguarding UNDP’s accountability vis-à-vis Member States and other stakeholders.

The Office of Financial Resources Management (OFRM) performs a pivotal role within BMS and within UNDP’s global finance function, partnering with Bureaux and Country Offices. The primary role of OFRM is to maintain the financial integrity of UNDP through providing financial leadership, supporting the efficient and effective management of its financial resources, promoting financial sustainability and responsible resource allocation in the context of a fluctuating funding environment. This is accomplished by the development and implementation of sound financial policies and practices, oversight of corporate financial management performance, and flexible scalable support to resource allocation. OFRM is a key source of information for the Executive Board, General Assembly, to Partners and wider civil society. It supports transparency through the provision of on time and quality statutory and other financial reports that comply with international standards and regulatory guidelines.

As part of this commitment, UNDP adopted International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) on 1 January

2012, and established the Global Shared Service Centre (GSSC) to serve UNDP’s network of offices (covering 166 countries around the world) in the provision of financial, accounting and procurement services. The GSSC has been fully functioning since January 2012, and is presently expanding the breadth of its services to support expanded finance, accounting and procurement processes. In addition to their day-to-day operations, the GSSC personnel are also involved in supporting UNDP’s country offices through transactions support training where needed.

The OFRM Analytics team colocated with the GSSC in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, supports all OFRM Units for their analytical needs and the wider financial community in the development of standard queries and reports, undertake data mining/extraction, and help to solve financial, budgetary and procurement information and report generation needs, to help enable informed decision making and improve financial performance, whilst ensuring that the resultant reports present a consistent and accurate view. Within this team, this role involves the formulation of business unit’s reports, through data extraction, standard reports and queries, and adhoc analysis. The role will also provide some support to the refinement of functional specifications for ERP and BI system changes.

Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting to the Financial Business Analyst (Analytics Lead), the Finance Business Associate will provide financial analysis services to the business areas of finance and administration, and IT, for report development purposes.

1. Perform extracts, build reports and dashboards on time and respecting guidance. Perform appropriate checks as stipulated, and record results clearly.
2. Assist the Analytics Lead in developing the work plan and timelines to facilitate timely delivery to clients
3. Identify and report discrepancies to the OFRM user community and recommend possible solutions to resolve data discrepancies.
4. Assist in the development of Financial systems functional specifications identified by OFRM users and undertakes appropriate user tests in consultation with OIST.
5. Support business units refining their business requirements, including through formal interviews or facilitated sessions.

Competencies

Core Competencies

Innovation

• Ability to make new and useful ideas work

Leadership

• Ability to persuade others to follow

People Management

• Ability to improve performance and satisfaction

Communication

• Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform

Delivery

• Ability to get things done

Technical/Functional Competencies

Primary Competencies

Financial Reporting and Analysis

• Ability to evaluate financial data, derive relevant findings and present them in a meaningful manner

Audit

• Ability to examine and verify accounts and records

Accounting (General)

• Knowledge of accounting concepts, principles, regulations, and policies and ability to apply to strategic and/or practical situations

Financial Reporting and Budgeting

• Ability to create and manage processes to achieve UNDP’s long and short-term financial goals

Functional Technical Knowledge

• Firm understanding of business intelligence tools, and the architecture and design of advanced integrated management systems, preferable including PeopleSoft.

Secondary Competencies

Knowledge Management

• Ability to efficiently handle and share information and knowledge

Operational Efficiency

• Ability to identify and execute opportunities to improve operational efficiency

Problem Solving

• Accurately accumulating information and its analysis; forecasting potential problems and planning; allowing for alternative, creative solutions and identifying most reasonable solutions.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Undergraduate degree in Finance, Business Administration, with certification in SQL, SQR or equivalent, and complex data extraction routines, or
• Undergraduate degree in Information Technology, Computer Science or any related quantitative field, with experience in Finance.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience with Finance or Business Intelligence (BI) environments;
• Experience in analyzing financial information, mapping of source to target data, conducting data quality tests, and creating reports and dashboards in the financial arena a plus.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English. Knowledge of any other UN languages (French/Spanish/Arabic) is a plus.

Other:

• Hands-on proficiency with SQL, BI tools, Microsoft Power BI preferred;
• Experience in production of Financial reports and data management a plus;
• Experience in the usage of computers and MS Office packages Advanced knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages;
• Experience in handling of web-based management systems;
• Hands-on experience with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), preferably with ATLAS (PeopleSoft) is desirable.

Disclaimer

Important applicant information

Internal mobility at GSSU is strongly encouraged and we reserve the right to reassign the newly appointed staff members with similar skillset and educational qualifications for similar functions and job categories at the same level in GSSU. The internal lateral movements will be determined based on the needs of the organization while allowing the newly recruits to broaden their skills, build networks and gain fresh experience and to better align their profiles with the jobs.

All posts in the GS categories are subject to local recruitment.

Applicant information about UNDP rosters

Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Workforce diversity

UNDP is committed to achieving diversity within its workforce, and encourages all qualified applicants, irrespective of gender, nationality, disabilities, sexual orientation, culture, religious and ethnic backgrounds to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Scam warning

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

Candidates must be resident in Malaysia, or have the right to work in Malaysia

For further information, and to apply, please visit our website via the “Apply” button below.