Finance Analyst (Nationals Only) [Open to internal and external applicants]

Multiple positions.

Tiered Approach

In line with the commitment to safeguard capacity and support personnel already in the Organization, a majority of UNDP UNCDF/UNV vacancies are advertised using a tiered application process whereby:

• Tier 0: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV IP staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments, whose posts will be abolished, or contracts will be terminated or not renewed during 2026.
• Tier 1: Other UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments
• Tier 2: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA), personnel on regular PSA contracts, and Expert and Specialist UN Volunteers
• Tier 3 or no tier indicated: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

Please make note of the Tier(s) indicated in the vacancy title, if any, and ensure that you satisfy the eligibility to apply.

Background

The Office of Financial Management (OFM), Bureau for Management Services, supports the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the promotion of its sustainable human development agenda. It achieves this by developing and making fully operational a dynamic and harmonized integrated resource management framework based on comprehensive analysis that enhances UNDP’s financial and administrative performance, as well as facilitates UN reform and coherence. To these ends, the framework addresses strategically critical financial resource planning and management issues, including results based budgeting; the integration of the Programming Arrangements and the Institutional Budget within the context of the integrated; enhanced cost classification and cost recovery; capital budgeting; adherence to IPSAS; foreign exchange and investment activities; corporate reporting of organizational assets; performance management tools and initiatives; and support to UN harmonization.
Effective and efficient integrated resources management is enabled through a continuous and robust process comprising of:

• Formulation and implementation of corporate financial and administrative strategies, policies and procedures.
• Formulation, alignment, documentation, and implementation of UNDP’s funding frameworks, assuring their integrity, viability and alignment with the Strategic Plan
• Provision of policy guidance, advisory services and operational support to strengthen client capacities and help them achieve results, seeking to build consensus within UNDP and with key stakeholders on critical budgetary related matters requiring Executive Board legislation.
• Administration of the organization’s internal control framework, overseeing and monitoring financial management of all global UNDP offices, including through formulation/implementation of resource planning, management and oversight tools and reports.
• Promoting clear accountability for financial transactions and producing financial statements, including financial reporting to donors and the UNDP Executive Board.
• Providing corporate reporting guidance to ensure that fixed assets are adequately recorded in all locations.

The Financial Performance Management and Reporting (FPMR) Division is the part of the Office of Financial Management (OFM) that is responsible for establishing the financial performance framework, policy and parameters in line with the corporate goals and UNDP’s Strategic Plan.

Within FPMR, the Financial Reporting and Agency Services (CFRA) unit promotes clear accountability for financial transactions and produces UNDP’s corporate financial statements.

In order to enhance efficiency and transparency of business processes to ensure more timely, relevant and frequent delivery of financial statements, UNDP has implemented the Oracle Hyperion software with advanced Web technology to automate preparation of financial statements. This allows rapid consolidation and reporting of financial results, delivery confidence in numbers.

Position Purpose

The Finance Analyst from the Financial Reporting and Agency Services (CFRA) team, plays a strategic role in the application of IPSAS. He/she ensures the overall integrity of UNDP’s financial data, leads the preparation of the UNDP financial statements and other statutory reports, undertakes monitoring in support of OFM’s responsibility for corporate oversight and oversees UNDP’s Agency Services as it pertains to financial transactions. He/she also defends management positions during the external audit process, using specialized and technical knowledge and understanding of audit assertions.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. This is a recognition of interconnected nature of development risks & crises that the world is facing and that call for assembling of multidisciplinary teams for an integrated & systemic response. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across issues, units, functions, teams and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key functions:

• Ensures data integrity over the GL and related modules and proper functioning of interface controls.
• Ensures periodic statutory financial closure processes are performed on time and efficiently.
• In ensuring data integrity, support data elements required for the preparation of the UNDP and other IPSAS compliant financial statements
• Support data integrity elements in corporate analysis e.g. GL reconciliations and responding to management, clients including external auditors on data element queries including financial queries pertaining to Quantum and other applications used by the team.
• Master data maintenance on select data segments.
• Supports other finance/accounting functions as necessary.

1) Ensures data integrity and proper functioning of interface controls as follows:

• Ensures all finance-related submodules to general ledger reconciliations are completed per practice with differences addressed (in collaboration with ITM and business owners) and sign-off is obtained from business owners
• Ensures no pending journals from all source modules including no unposted cash accounts which will affect the monthly GSSC B2B reconciliation process.
• Periodic review of subledger exception report to ensure all the errors or invalid items are timely cleared (in collaboration with ITM and business owners) prior to period closure. Identify unusual high volume of unprocessed transactions and collaborate with ITM for resolution if due to technical issues.
• Collaborate with GSSC AP team to ensure the pending invoices and unpaid invoices are validated and accounted. In addition, regularly follow up instalment on hold items (if any).
• Regular monitoring the cash accounts that wrongly processed by country offices or GSSC.
• Regularly monitor the Trial Balance power BI dashboard to identify the data errors, MoM/QoQ/YoY movement and collaborate with the respective business units or country offices for the clearance.
• Developing and ensuring adherence to protocols for communication relating to data integrity issues, their investigation, resolution, and signoff.
• Designing and being the owner of data integrity policies, procedures and processes that are well documented and process flow mapped as well as kept up to date with changes in the system.
• Collaborate with OFM Business Analytic team to conduct data mining as required including executing scripts to access large data volumes.
• Assist with automation of business processes.
• Quantum implementation started in financial year 2023 which is still not mature, Finance Analyst is required to continue to explore any preventive and detective measures/controls that will ensure strong data integrity and proper functioning of interface controls.

2) In ensuring data integrity, support data elements of preparation of the UNDP and Other e.g. UNCDF and GEF Trust Fund FS etc. IPSAS compliant financial statements and is able to exercise sound professional judgement in interpretation and application of IPSAS standards taking into consideration impact of data integrity elements.

• Responsible for supporting the preparation of the financial statements and applying sound professional judgement in interpretation and application of IPSAS including impact of data integrity elements.
• Ensures that the data presented in the statement of financial position, cash flow statement and notes is accurate and appropriately supported and data integrity elements are sound.
• Coordinates data collection and preparation of the non-financial sections of the notes to financial statements particularly where data integrity is concerned.
• Supports GL reconciliations and performs monthly/quarterly analysis of balance sheet accounts, ensuring significant issues are identified and escalated when necessary.
• Responsible for developing and maintaining appropriate internal control over data integrity elements linked to the production of UNDP’s IPSAS compliant financial statements.
• Responsible for the yearly contingent liability certification.
• Prepare quarterly cash report overview for senior management.
• Regularly monitor and collaborate with HQ offices, regional bureaus and country offices on any long outstanding receipts that not yet invoice or settlement which will result in overstatement of the expenses and liabilities if the POs are wrongly receipted.
• Conduct quarterly expense cut-off and receipt accrual certification exercise to ensure a level of confidence in UNDP data and underlying processes which have been highlighted as audit risk by UNBOA. Prepare quarterly expense testing report for senior management.
• Explore preventive and detective measures to reduce the financial risk due within the existing Quantum configuration limitations (e.g. on receipt accrual process).

3) Ensure periodic statutory financial closure processes are performed on time and efficiently including:

• Receipt accrual run after AP module closure.
• Snapshot of IPSAS commitment after AP closure.
• Monthly/quarterly/yearly revaluation run after GL closure and ensure that the posting meets the business requirement (e.g. correct segments).
• Opening balance rollover to ensure ITM steps are completed and CFRA to ensure the reserve fund adjustment and allocation entries are posted on-time.

4) Maintenance of the master data including:

• Coordinate with ITM and business owner on the account code and fund code creation.
• CFRA is the business owner on the account restriction, review and approve/reject the request on the account restriction.
• Updating the GL account glossary as and when required.
• Review the checklist for fund code inactivation request.
• Perform housekeeping of master data that is under the ownership of FPMR.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: Supervise and manage Financial Accounts Analyst.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making

People Management:

UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Audit & Investigation - General:

• Financial and Managerial Accounting and Finance key concepts
  • Key concepts and principles of financial accounting, interpret financial analysis, managerial accounting, etc.

Digital & Innovation:

• Data analysis
  • Ability to extract, analyse and visualize data (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making.

Finance:

• Accounting (General)
  • Knowledge of accounting concepts, principles, frameworks, standards, regulations, policies and trends, and ability to apply this to strategic and/or practical situations.

Business Direction & Strategy:

• Negotiation and Influence
  • Ability to reach an understanding, persuade others, resolve points of difference, gain advantage in the outcome of dialogue, negotiates mutually acceptable solutions through compromise and creates win-win situations.
• System Thinking
  • Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

Business Development:

• Knowledge Generation
  • Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need.

Business Management:

• Portfolio Management
  • Ability to select, prioritise and control the organization´s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimising return on investment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A professional accounting qualification from an internationally accredited institute of accountancy is required.
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience or an Advanced (Masters) University Degree in Finance and/or Accounting is required.

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years (with master’s degree) or 4 years (with bachelor’s degree) of practical experience in preparing financial statements and analyzing balance sheet accounts at national and international levels is required.
• Familiar with the complexity of client relationships among international organisations, national governments and civil society is an asset.
• Experience with ERP financials, preferably Oracle is desired.
• Experience of conforming to IPSAS/IFRS and full accruals accounting conventions is required.
• Audit experience is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Fluency in the national language (Bahasa Malaysia) of the duty station is required.
• Working knowledge of another UN language is an advantage, particularly Spanish or French

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination.

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles.

Probation

For all new UNDP fixed term appointments (FTA), including for staff members being transferred or seconded to UNDP under the Inter-Organization Agreement concerning Transfer, Secondment or Loan of Staff, on an appointment of more than one year, continuation of the appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.

Right to select multiple candidates

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.

Use of AI by candidates

Applicants are invited to read UNDP’s guidance for candidates on using AI responsibly in UNDP recruitment and selection

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.