UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

The Grants Management Unit (GMU), anchored within DFAM, plays a central role in safeguarding UNICEF’s financial integrity, compliance, and operational effectiveness in the management of donor resources. GMU oversees the full financial lifecycle of grants from negotiation and revenue recognition to donor reporting and closure ensuring adherence to UNICEF’s Financial Regulations and Rules (FRRs), policies, and donor conditions. GMU provides guidance to offices and the Global Shared Services Centre (GSSC) on revenue recognition and fund utilization, ensuring accurate and timely financial reporting to donors and internal stakeholders. The unit issues certified and interim financial statements, prepares key corporate reports for the Executive Director, Comptroller, UNICEF Executive Board, and major donors, and supports the organization’s credibility through transparency and accountability. By driving process improvements, strengthening compliance, and fostering collaboration across divisions and field offices, GMU enables UNICEF to maintain donor confidence, optimize resource mobilization, and deliver programmatic results effectively.

How can you make a difference?

As Finance Specialist, your responsibilities will contribute towards the Division Of Finance and Administration's goal of providing robust and appropriate financial reporting to external and internal stakeholders. Specifically, accurate, timely and useful donor statements of account will increase UNICEF’s credibility with donors and will contribute towards UNICEF being seen as a partner of choice. For certain donors with complex framework agreements, accurate donor statements will lead to a reduced risk of disallowed expenditures which will need to be funded from other sources. Technical support provided to Country Offices will help ensure better grant management at Country Office level. This will also increase the quality and consistency of uncertified financial reporting at Country Offices, again this will increase UNICEF’s credibility with donors.

Under the general supervision of the Finance Manager, you will be responsible for the preparation of complex statement of accounts, for example, the statements for grants funded by the various key donors, who are strategic partners to UNICEF.
All statements must be prepared in compliance with the donor agreements including strict adherence to the deadlines.

You will also provide extensive support and guidance to country offices with regards to the preparation of the statements and, more generally, with regards to the management of complex grants.

In addition to ensuring compliance with donor agreements, you will carry out functions in accordance with UNICEF’s accounting policies and procedures, and UNICEF Financial Regulations and Rules. You are also expected to backstop the P4 post when he/she is away.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Guides regional and country office staff on the resolution of issues with donor reports, especially the non-standard complex reports to key donors. All reports must be in compliance with the contribution agreements and UNICEF accounting policies and financial regulations and rules.
Works on projects for improvements and efficiency to support donor statement issuance;including dashboards, applications and systems.
Coordinates periodic donor reporting closure processes and other closure tasks collaborating with other team members and units, as required.
Responds to queries from donors on donor report submissions and, in the process, give donors confidence that reports are correctly prepared in compliance with the contribution agreements.
For Joint Programme arrangements, including where UNICEF is acting as an Administrative Agentor as a Participating Organisation, ensures that the donor reports meet the unique accounting and reporting requirements.
Provides guidance to regional and country offices on maximizing funding from donors in the context of exchange rate complexities.
Oversees the completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of financial transactions in VISION and Insight to ensure that donor statements and other reports are correctly stated. Take corrective action where required, which could include deriving additional information from VISION or requesting the necessary information directly from the country offices.
Provide guidance to regional and country offices on grant management, especially on accounting matters that have implications for financial reporting.
Seek to improve the grant management and donor reporting functionality of VISION and liaises with staff in DFAM, Public Partnership and Resource Mobilisation, and Digital Impact Division as appropriate to bring about the improvements.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Download File JD - Finance Specialist_P3

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

Education: Advanced university degree in business administration, financial management or related field. Professional accounting or auditing qualifications (such as Chartered Accountant, Certified Public Accountant or equivalent) is an added advantage.
Work Experience: Minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in positions of increasing responsibility in budgeting and accounting, preferably including financial donor reporting. Professional experience in the preparation and review of complex donor financial reports, including multi-currency reporting. Strong knowledge of financial management principles, budgeting, and internal controls.
Skills: Proficiency in SAP, VISION for financial transactions and reporting.
- Advanced skills in Microsoft Excel, including complex formulas, pivot tables, and data analysis.
- Experience with Power BI or other data visualization tools for financial dashboards and analytics.
- Adaptability to emerging technologies and evolving donor requirements.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities under tight deadlines in a dynamic environment.
- Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to work collaboratively in a multicultural environment.
Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

French is desired. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.
Demonstrated experience working with European Commission (EC/ECHO) funding mechanisms (including financial reporting), with a strong understanding of EC/ECHO regulations, terms and conditions, and donor compliance requirements is highly desirable.
Ability to translate business user requirements into technical specifications, ensuring effective system solutions and process improvements.
Proven ability to respond effectively to donor inquiries and provide guidance to country offices on donor requirements, financial reporting obligations, and compliance-related matters.
Ability to identify and mitigate financial risks in collaboration with relevant teams.
Prior experience within international organizations, UN agencies, or large-scale development projects is highly desirable.
Familiarity with UN/UNICEF financial rules and regulations is an advantage.
Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others
(8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, fraud, corruption and other forms of serious misconduct.

UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference, safeguarding and background verification checks. These checks may include verification of academic credentials and employment history, screening against relevant United Nations misconduct databases, and requests for misconduct disclosures from current and former employers, professional associations, other relevant organizations and participating organizations under inter-agency safeguarding initiatives, including the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS), where applicable.

Appointment, selection and continued engagement are subject to the satisfactory completion of all required checks. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information and consent to enable UNICEF to undertake these checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments are conditional on the selected candidates' willingness to comply with current or future vaccination requirements, should UNICEF mandate it for personnel. Failure to comply with such requirements, where applicable and without a duly approved medical exemption from the relevant UN authority, will result in the cancellation of the selection or may lead to other administrative measures, including separation from service.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates are encouraged to apply.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

Finance Specialist, P-3, Fixed Term Position, Div of Financial and Adm Mgmt, Brussels, Belgium #00121857