Chief, Grants Management and Reporting (P-5), #102987, DFAM - NYHQ

The Division of Financial and Administrative Management (DFAM) strives to ensure that financial resources are effectively and efficiently attributed to UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, to facilitate robust decision-making and strategic direction recognizing the needs of children across the world.

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child. UNICEF has spent 70 years working to improve the lives of children and their families. Defending children's rights throughout their lives requires a global presence, aiming to produce results and understand their effects. UNICEF believes all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential - to the benefit of a better world. To learn more about UNICEF, visit www.unicef.org.

For every child, A Fair Chance...

The Division of Financial and Administrative Management (DFAM) strives to ensure that financial resources are effectively and efficiently attributed to UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, to facilitate robust decision-making and strategic direction recognizing the needs of children across the world.

The expertise of the Chief, Grants Management is responsible for the transparent reporting of financial and administrative performance, and the development and application of risk-informed policy, through improved procedures and innovative systems.

How can you make a difference?

This position will assume a lead role in ensuring that donors have confidence in UNICEF's financial management systems by ensuring that all financial reports are of high quality.  To better understand UNICEF’s donor requirements and grant management policy, the Chief will collaborate with other UN/UNICEF partners, to ensure pooled funding type arrangements, by:

1. Manage the Grants Management and Reporting Unit

• Prepare work plans in consultation with Unit staff and monitor progress.  Identify and inform the Deputy Director of any significant issues that impact the completion of the key deliverables.
• Review the work structures identify and implement opportunities for improvements.

2. Participate in complex donor negotiations 

• Provide advice on complex issues and participate directly in negotiations with the goal of identifying creative solutions to meet donor requirements while at the same time ensuring compliance with UNICEF policy and in support of UNICEF's mandate.

3. Analyse Other Resources financial information to ensure risks are adequately managed

• Identify areas of potential risk to UNICEF, and, where appropriate, document issues and recommendations for the attention of the Deputy Director and the Comptroller.

4. Oversee the preparation and quality control of the donor financial reports

• Ensure appropriate quality assurance of all reports certified by the Comptroller prior to submission to donors, resolving issues with relevant business units as necessary.
• Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Director, identify options for providing donors with customized reports to meet their unique requirements.
• In consultation with relevant business units, ensure timely and relevant grant level information is uploaded to IATI and the UNICEF transparency site.

5. Support country offices in their financial management of Other Resources

• Understand the challenges faced by country offices and identify potential solutions.
• As appropriate, support country offices by initiating revisions to the relevant policies/procedures and through trainings.

6. Support UNICEF's response to donor initiated reviews

• Provide expert level input to donor reviews (e.g. verifications, due diligence assessments, "Value for Money" studies) to demonstrate that UNICEF is an effective manager of financial resources.

7. Ensure that UNICEF polices/procedures with regards to grant management effectively manage risk and support efficient processes

• Periodically review policies/procedures and propose revisions, where necessary, for the attention of the Deputy Director and the Comptroller.

To qualify as a champion, for every child you will need to have...

• An advanced university degree (Master's) in Accounting, Business Administration, Financial Management, Economics, and/or a directly-related technical field(s) is required. A valid professional certification (CA; CPA; etc.) from an accredited chartered accountancy institution, in conjunction with a relevant first-level (Bachelor's) university degree (as identified above), is highly desirable.
• A minimum of ten (10) years of relevant work experience, at the national and international levels, in Budget, Finance, Accounting, Financial Management, and/or a directly-related field(s) is required.
• Previous hands on experience in a supervisory/managerial capacity is required.
• Previous work experience within an international organization is highly desirable.
• Fluency in English (verbal and written) is required. Knowledge of an additional UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) is considered an asset.

Our core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results, Functional Competencies: Leading and Supervising, Formulating Strategies and Concepts, Deciding and Initiating Action, Analyzing, Applying Technical Expertise, Planning and Organizing,  Persuading and Influencing.  To view our competency framework, please click here. 

Remarks
This position is classified as "rotational", which means the incumbent is expected to rotate to another duty station upon completion of their tour of duty.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply