Finance Specialist – Portfolio Planning, IFAD

DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT

2 years

I. ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating poverty and hunger in rural areas in developing countries. It does so by financing projects and programmes that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and by advocating at the local, national and international level for policies that enable poor rural people to overcome poverty.

II. DIVISIONAL CONTEXT

The Financial Operations Department (FOD) is tasked with managing IFAD’s financial resources proactively and making them available as needed for the Fund’s programme of work and budget.  As one of the components of FOD, the Treasury Services Division’s (TRE) mandate is to safeguard IFAD’s resources through management of investment and cash operations with the aim to preserve capital and maximise  returns within the provisions of IFAD’s Financial Regulations; formulate and implement investment and cash operations strategies and policies; ensure prompt availability of cash for IFAD operations through prudent liquidity management; oversee the integrity of the Fund’s daily investment and cash operations in line with corporate risk management standards and manage the investments and cash of extra budgetary funds, hosted entities and trust funds.

Within the Division, the Portfolio Planning Team is responsible for coordinated strategic portfolio and liquidity planning and effective oversight of externally managed portfolios.

Position Title of Immediate Supervisor:  Assistant Treasurer

III. POST’S ORGANISATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Finance Specialists at this level are seasoned professionals reflecting an in-depth, broad understanding of applicable regulations, standards and methods as well as IFAD’s financial regulations, rules and transactional procedures in one or more financial occupations including accounting, budget, loans and grants, and/or treasury. The accountabilities/key results include:

• Finance Business Partner
• Financial Management
• Agent of Change

Finance Specialists work under the overall strategic, policy and management guidance of the division director and the direct supervision of a finance/budget/treasury manager. When tasked with supervision, they are typically supervisors of general service (GS) staff.

IV. KEY RESULTS EXPECTED/MAJOR FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

FINANCE BUSINESS PARTNER: The Finance Specialist is a credible, trusted partner to the client offices served and the Department/Division/Unit where assigned. S/He supports the Fund’s finance strategy and plans as well as models a commitment to financial integrity by acting as a responsive and constructive service provider with a focus on results. The Specialist provides seasoned verbal and written advice and guidance to supervisors and staff on finance regulations, rules and procedures, facilitating a mutual understanding of roles and fiduciary accountabilities in direct support of integrity in the management of the Fund’s financial resources.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: At this level the Finance Specialist is a seasoned professional with the capacity to interpret and apply a broad range of international and IFAD financial policies, rules and regulations as well as standards and techniques. Activities performed by Finance Specialists at this level may include (a) maintaining the financial procedures relating to the assigned operation; (b) preparing information for internal financial reporting and for IFAD’s Annual Financial Statements, as applicable; and (c) preparing timely, substantive replies to internal and external audit observations concerning the assigned financial operation. Finance Specialists (Treasury) are responsible for a complete component within a Treasury Operation (Cash Flow Management [CFM] or Investment Management [IM]) under the supervision of a team leader.

AGENT OF CHANGE: The Finance Specialist understands and applies the principles of change management and proactively serves as a role model for transformation and capacity for acceptance of change. S/He uses a seasoned knowledge of results based management and budgeting, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other information technology to develop, analyze and promote acceptance of new methods of work and automated work flows. At this level the Specialist manages change through consultations with finance colleagues and outreach to client offices to build understanding of and to ensure open and regular communications pertaining to current and planned changes in the Fund¿s financial standards, regulations and rules.

MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS:The Finance Specialist is accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the personal use of assigned IFAD resources, including equipment, supplies and, as applicable, staff supervised

 In specific the incumbent will:

• Develop tools and analyses to provide insight and support strategic decision-making on liquidity and portfolio planning.
• Integrate investment portfolio flows with actual and projected operational outflows/inflows to  implement and maintain a comprehensive operational cash flow model.  Coordinate closely with the Financial Planning and Analysis (FPA) team of FOD and with the Project Management Department (PMD) to ensure validity of data and projections.
• Develop and maintain detailed intra-year forecasts  and, in close coordination with the IM and CM TRE teams and FPA,   ensure consistency of overall investment and cash flows and  long term projections of IFAD’s cash flow.
• Prepare cash-flow simulations for a range of likely scenarios reflecting IFAD’s short term resource and financial position and prepare regular forecasts and reports.
• Prepare performance analysis and scenario building for internally managed portfolios.
• Maintain and develop Treasury’s database and the models/dashboards developed, including the pre-trade compliance functionality,   to ensure continued relevance, robustness and sustainability. In cooperation with the Information and Communications Technology division (ICT), improve integration with other financial information sources including PeopleSoft, Bloomberg, Global Custodian databases.
• Design and  develop Treasury’s financial reports ensuring solidity and accuracy of underlying data structure. Critically evaluate and document the business requirements for new reports and research tools to effectively translate business needs into technical specifications.
• Participate in the formation and implementation of a coordinated work plan for the Portfolio Planning team
• Provide sound technical advice and support to Treasury staff across all functional teams

V. IMPACT OF KEY RESULTS/KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Specialists at this level are accountable for in-depth analysis of a variety of financial reports that reflect transactions where many different consecutive stages of operations are involved; problems involve interrelationships and interactions within the financial structure and his/her role is to ensure that the Organization’s financial business conforms to regulations. Based on a thorough knowledge of finance principles, concepts and systems, the Finance Specialist independently performs the full range of work for a complete, homogenous financial operation or components of financial operations in support of a geographic or other organizational area. The supervisor may be consulted in the analysis of complex and/or precedent setting cases to ensure consistency in the interpretation and application of regulations and rules and to document such decisions. The work typically requires the identification of the need for changes to finance policies, as well as the authoritative interpretation and application of finance policies, rules and regulations to a broad range of complex casework.

The key performance indicators for Finance Specialists at this level include accurate performance of assigned finance operations, technical quality in terms of both substantive depth and adaptive relevance to client needs and customer service approach to problem resolution.

VI. REPRESENTATION / WORK RELATIONSHIPS

Finance Specialists may represent the unit to which assigned on related matters at internal and external meetings and conferences as requested by the supervisor.

Internally Finance Specialists are required to explain, clarify and implement financial plans and decisions taken or procedural changes planned to ensure accuracy, completeness and integrity of financial data and reporting. Contacts are with finance, budget, loans and grants, treasury, audit and programme management staff in country offices and Headquarters. External work relationships for Specialists at this level normally require an exchange of information with a range of outside sources including staff from governments, specialized agencies acting as CO host agencies, Borrowers and Cooperating institutions, external investment managers and vendors/suppliers. They are also delegated authority to make commitments on routine aspects of the assignment.

VII. COMPETENCIES

Organizational

• Strategic thinking and organizational development: Personal influence
• Demonstrating Leadership: Personal leadership and attitude to change
• Learning, sharing knowledge and innovating: Continuously seeks to learn, shares knowledge and innovates
• Focusing on clients: Focuses on clients
• Problem solving and decision making: Demonstrates sound problem solving and decision making ability
• Managing time, resources and information: Manages own time, information and resources effectively
• Team Work: Contributes effectively to the team
• Communicating and negotiating: Communicates effectively: creates understanding between self and others
• Building relationships and partnerships: Builds and maintains effective working relationships
• Managing performance and developing staff: Manages staff and teams effectively

 Technical/ Functional

• In-depth knowledge of the principles and concepts of financial operations including sound understanding of project financial management and IFRS.
• Capacity to identify and analyse systemic issues, formulate options and make conclusions and recommendations to resolve same.
• Analytical and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively in a diverse organization tailoring language, tone, style and format to match audience; ability to present corrective feedback in a considered and tactful manner to promote acceptance.
• Excellent knowledge of PeopleSoft ERP and other information technology systems and tools. Exposure to accounting software.
• Ability to empathize with client managers, supervisors and staff while maintaining the integrity of financial resources, implementing internal controls and ensuring consistent and accountable application of promulgated financial regulations and rules.

 VIII. MINIMUM RECRUITMENT QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• A Master’s degree in finance or business related field.

Experience

• Minimum 5 years of Treasury, Finance and/or Accounting experience, particularly in the field of financial analysis or financial modelling
• In lieu of a master’s level degree, a bachelor’s degree in business, finance, accounting or related field with at least 9 years of relevant professional experience in investment analysis and/or treasury management.
• Strong data mining and data automation skills
• High proficiency in Visual Basic for Applications, Microsoft SQL-Server, Microsoft Excel and Access) for analysis and modelling.
• Strong knowledge of Bloomberg with an emphasis on API formulas, COM v3 Data Control and PORT.
• Strong knowledge of financial principles, treasury, and capital markets

Languages and other skills:

• Full command of the English language, with excellent verbal and written communication skills. Working knowledge of another official language (Arabic, French, or Spanish) is desirable.
• Strong analytical and fixed income mathematics skills to perform in depth financial analysis.
• Ability to analyse facts and data to support sound, logical decisions.
• Strong negotiation, and influencing skills.
• Ability to interface with senior levels of management internally and externally.

Location: Rome, Italy

Application deadline: 9 March 2015

Read more and apply here.