Oversight & Resource Management Specialist [Open to Tier 0,1 &2 Applicants]

UNDP•New York, NY

About The Position

The Crisis Bureau (CB) spearheads UNDP’s efforts to support countries on a key challenge: how to anticipate, prevent, respond to, and recover from fragility and crisis. The Bureau provides integrated policy, programme, operational and financing support across the crisis continuum, enabling countries to manage risk, respond to shocks and build resilience. To deliver this mandate effectively, the Bureau relies on robust operational systems and sound stewardship of financial, human and institutional resources. CB’s dedicated Operations Team has been established to strengthen operational oversight, improve service delivery, enhance compliance and accountability, and provide integrated management support across the Bureau. The Operations Team consolidates key operational management functions previously dispersed across different organizational units and serves as the Bureau's central coordination point for financial management, budget oversight, human resources, procurement, project management support, compliance and operational risk management. Working closely with Bureau of Management Services (BMS), Office of Human Resources (OHR), Office of Financial Resources Management (OFRM), Regional Bureaux and Country Offices, the team ensures that CB's operational systems remain efficient, responsive and fully compliant with UNDP rules and regulations, while supporting the Bureau's evolving organizational footprint and changing business requirements. Reporting to the Deputy Director, and with guidance from the Management Advisor/Head of the Front Office, the Oversight & Resource Management Specialist plays a central role in the operational management of the Crisis Bureau. The position is responsible for overseeing the Bureau's financial planning, budget management, resource oversight, project operational support, and compliance with corporate operational policies and procedures. The incumbent provides operational advice and support to Bureau management and technical teams on a broad range of management issues, including financial oversight, resource planning, project implementation, procurement, human resources, audit follow-up, and operational risk management. The position serves as a key liaison between the Bureau and corporate service providers—including BMS, OFRM, OHR and other central units—to facilitate timely operational support and ensure effective implementation of corporate policies and procedures. Working as part of the newly established Operations Team, the incumbent contributes to strengthening operational governance, improving business processes, promoting consistent application of UNDP rules and regulations, and supporting informed management decision-making through analysis, reporting and oversight of the Bureau's financial and operational performance. The incumbent is entrusted with Financial Portfolio reporting, review and approval of budgets, review of donor and partnership agreements and approval of POs, vouchers and special cases related to travel and procurement. H/she provides guidance to Operations Associates in a matrix supervisory role to ensure that operational transactions and requests are completed and compliant with financial rules and regulations. The position also provides day-to-day guidance and quality assurance to Operations Associates working across the Bureau, helping ensure timely, compliant and client-oriented delivery of operational services while supporting continuous improvement of business processes and internal controls. To ensure rapid and solutions-oriented deployments of expertise and other crisis response/recovery related operational requirements of UNDP COs on an urgent basis the Oversight & Resource Management Specialist works under the direct supervision of the Crisis Bureau Directorate. The incumbent is entrusted with Financial Portfolio reporting, review and approval of budgets, review of donor and partnership agreements and approval of POs, vouchers and special cases related to travel and procurement. H/she provided guidance to Operations Associates in a matrix supervisory role to ensure that operational transactions and requests are completed and compliant with financial rules and regulations. UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across units, functions, teams, and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Requirements

A professional accounting qualification from an internationally accredited institute of accountancy, and/or Advanced (Master´s) University Degree in Finance and/or Accounting is required. Or a first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Candidates with professional accounting qualifications from an internationally accredited institute of accountancy will have a distinct advantage.
Candidates with no professional accountancy qualifications, but with degrees that major in accountancy and/or finance must complete the Finance Training and Certification Programme (FTCP), if recruited.
Candidates satisfying the two above criteria are exempted from undertaking the UNDP Advanced Accountancy and Finance Test (AAFT).
Candidates with MBA or master's in finance with no accountancy qualification but with relevant experience must successfully undertake the UNDP Advanced Accountancy and Finance Test (AAFT) to be eligible for shortlisting.
Minimum 5 years (with master´s degree) or 7 years (with bachelor´s degree) of relevant experience at national and international level, including progressively responsible experience in operational monitoring, planning, designing, organizing and implementing development funds is required.
Professional certification in UNDP Financial Management and Accounting (or equivalent UNDP financial certification) is required.
Demonstrated hands-on experience using UNDP Quantum and Quantum+ financial and budget management modules, including budget preparation, financial approvals, monitoring and reporting, is required.
Experience in UN system CO settings or with a multilateral organization of similar size and complexity is desirable.
Experience in crisis contexts is desired.
Experience in using ERP systems, Office software packages desirable (MS Word, Excel, etc.) is required.
Fluency in English is required.

Nice To Haves

Experience in corporate financial oversight, budget planning and resource management at UNDP Headquarters or Bureau level is desirable.
Experience supporting external and internal audits, financial compliance reviews and implementation of audit recommendations is desirable.
Experience with data mining and extraction software for funding management (Rapid Miner, SQL Server Data Tools, Orange, Sisense) is desirable.
Experience in the preparation of donor reporting is desired.
Experience working with budgets, GMS recovery, oversight of UNDP financial rules implementation (IPSAS) and internal controls; quarterly monitoring of GL accounts (assets, liabilities, expenses, revenues), including reconciliations, is desired.
Fluency in another UN language is desired.

Responsibilities

Compliance of operations with UN/UNDP rules, regulations and policies, implementation of corporate operational strategies, establishment of management targets and monitoring achievement of results.
Provision of advice on strategies, policies and plans affecting delivery of policy advisory and programme support services.
In collaboration with the Information Management Advisors, promotion of continuous business improvement/automation and provision of advice in business processes mapping.
Constant monitoring and analysis of the operating environment, quick readjustment of the operations, advice on legal considerations and risks.
Provision of support services to Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) and CB personnel in NY and outposted locations and ensure smooth functioning of the Bureau as a whole.
Development of collaborations strategies with programme management team and other personnel to develop operational processes and procedures that enhance efficiencies in project/programme management.
Effective formulation and implementation of global programmes and projects through advisory support, focusing especially on execution modalities, management arrangements, implementation capacities, and other operational aspects.
Quality control in the preparation and approval of project documents, revisions, and budgets.
Establish collaborative arrangements with partners in line with applicable UNDP regulations and rules, including but not limited to donor agreements, memoranda of understanding, letters of agreement, grant agreements etc.
Capacity assessments and capacity building of implementing partners.
Follow up to make sure timely operational and financial closure of global projects.
Collaborative arrangements with OHR and procurement team, to ensure effective delivery of HR and procurement services in compliance with corporate regulations and rules.
Coordinate and follow through on decentralized local evaluations.
Preparation of analytical, management, and donor reports for assigned portfolio of projects.
Design systems and tools to monitor performance, continuously monitor performance and provide regular management reports and analytics on key performance indicators.
Coordinate CB annual budget process, compile, collate and submit to senior management recommended targets on resource mobilization, delivery and revenue.
Coordinate with programmes on resource requirements (pipelines), delivery, General Management Support (GMS) recovery and with BMS for IB and core DE resource allocations.
Constant monitoring and analysis of the operating environment, timely readjustment of the operations, advice on legal considerations and risk assessment.
Successful completion of special project(s) as assigned and effectively providing operational backstopping.
Timely approval of project budgets in ERP based on valid supporting documents, proper use of accounts and accurate F&A set up.
End-to-end resource planning and budgeting of CB core programme resources, allocation across projects/teams, and overall resource oversight, monitoring and reporting in Quantum.
Develop and maintain financial monitoring dashboards to enable CB leadership to make informed resource allocation decisions and carry out effective oversight of the bureau’s financial sustainability.
In liaison with BMS, follow up to clear contribution agreements, ensure timely receipts, monitoring of project level revenue and expenditures, assignment of authorized spending limits [ASLs] or transfer of cash from HQ to other departments.
Efficient and effective performance of financial approvals in ERP [Manager Level 2] for approval of purchase orders and vouchers.
Management of Revenue Service Portal.
Support in following up to external and internal audits.
Support to effective quarterly/year-end closures.
Oversight of UNDP financial rules implementation (IPSAS) and internal controls; quarterly monitoring of GL accounts (assets, liabilities, expenses, revenues) including reconciliations, advise on correction of accounting errors, advance liquidations, grant compliance, period-correct expense/revenue recognition, inventory and asset verification; run GL reports and monitor AP, advances, revenue receivables and PPM dashboards; upload quarterly/annual certifications and supporting documents to SharePoint for OFRM verification; complete annual representation checklist.
Prepare Quantum Budgetary/Expenditure Department ID creation/update forms based on management decision in coordination with OFRM, and OHR.
Knowledge building and sharing with regards to operational/finance business processes.
Organization of operations and programme staff trainings.
Synthesis of lessons learnt/best practices, and sound contributions to UNDP knowledge networks.
First entry point for interpretation of all operational matters and sharing with other staff in the assigned portfolio.