Regional Finance Controller

Are you our next Regional Finance Controller? 

We are now looking for an experienced finance professional to join our team in the Asia, Europe and Latin America Regional Office. Read below for more details about the position.

About the Asia, Europe and Latin America Region

The Asia Europe and Latin America region for NRC comprises a diverse range of country programmes across a vast geographical area: Greece, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar. The operating environment is varied, encompassing a complex and multi-faceted set of humanitarian and recovery response needs in countries that are either fragile, environmentally vulnerable or both. 

The Asia Europe and Latin America Regional Office, based in Oslo/HQ, is overseeing the Asia,  Europe Country Offices and to the existing NRC operations in Latin America as well. The Regional Office provides strategic guidance across core programme, advocacy and support functions.

Located within the Regional department, the Regional Finance Team provide a range of support both to the region and to country operations within the region, taking account of NRC global policies and standards, funder requirements, and legislative and regulatory frameworks.  The Regional Finance Team also has a professional matrix relationship with the Global Finance team located in the HO OD directorate.

About the position:

The regional finance team (of which this post forms a part) provides support both to other regional staff and to country operations within the region, taking account of NRC global policies and standards, funder requirements, and legislative and regulatory frameworks. The regional finance team also works closely with the Global Finance team located in the Organisational Development department in Head Office.

The purpose of the Regional Finance Controller is to support the country operations in the region with implementation of finance activities in accordance with NRC policies and procedures. The Controller also performs quality control and compliance functions. Regular travel to the country operations is a key element of this role.

The Regional Finance Controller reports to the Regional Support Director with a technical reporting line to the Regional Finance Team Leader. 

General responsibilities:

1. Provide strategic advice to the country operations in the region on finance issues, and help to develop a strategic approach within the regional financial team.
2. Provide financial technical support to the country operations including regular travel to local offices.
3. Map country operations’ finance structure (strengths and weaknesses) and contribute to the development of change management plans that ensure compliance with financial rules and regulations.
4. Ensure that budgeting, accounting, year-end procedures, auditing and other financial processes are in adherence to NRC’s Financial Handbook, Annual Budgeting and Planning Instructions, other policies and donor and auditor requirements.
5. Contribute to the development of policies, strategies, tools and new approaches, with a focus on innovation and piloting, and participate in the implementation of global finance initiatives.
6. Ensure that best practices are identified, documented and disseminated both within the region and beyond.
7. Provide finance capacity building in relevant countries and for the Programme Advisors in the regional team.
8. Maintain accurate and up-to-date regional financial forecasting systems as well as regional cost allocation to country operations.

Specific responsibilities

1. Financial compliance monitoring and control.

• Ensure that all country operations keep their grant portfolios updated.
• Support Finance Managers in all country operations in the use of relevant Agresso tools.
• Ensure the quality of financial reporting to donors.
• Identify, assess and follow up financial risks in all country operations with special focus on mitigating risks of corruption.

2. Technical development and support to NRC country operations.

• Enforce the standardization of NRC tools and procedures across all country operations.
• Participate in and approve the development of guidelines to establish adequate context-specific internal control systems that abide by NRC and donor regulations.

3. Capacity building and training of NRC staff in the region.

• Ensure that structural strengths and weaknesses in country operation finance units are promptly analysed and addressed.
• Support and enable country operations in ensuring that relevant finance trainings are conducted for finance and non-finance staff on:
  • NRC budgeting and reporting tools and guidelines.
  • Donor specific budgeting and reporting requirements.

Download the full job description at the bottom of this page

Our Ideal Candidate has:

• Minimum 3 years of experience as Finance Advisor or similar position in a humanitarian/recovery context
• Professional knowledge and experience in finance, including financial and management accounting, budgeting and stakeholder reporting
• Relevant qualifications (e.g. accountancy, MBA)
• Experience from working in complex and volatile contexts, in order to understand the particular challenges of financial management within these environments
• Documented results related to the position’s responsibilities
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal
• Knowledge of the countries supported by the region is desirable
• Fluency in Spanish, both written and verbal, is an asset
• Experience with start-up and/or exit would also be an asset

If you fit into the above profile and want to be a part of a stimulating and rewarding work environment, a collaborative workforce and a genuine place of passion responding to global refugee crises we look forward to your application. 

What we offer:

Contract period: 2 years 
Salary/benefits: According to NRC’s general directions 
Duty station: Oslo, Norway
Travel: 30%

Grade 9: (see attached Grade Structure)

Other information

The contract conditions are as per national NRC Oslo terms of employment.

Please note that you are required to enter the geographical location for all your previous positions while registering your CV. There is no specific field for this information in our CV form, but you can use the "Company name" field for both company and location.

NRC reserves the right to conduct a full background check on shortlisted candidates.