Finance Specialist
Organizational Context
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems. The Shared Services Centre (SSC) manages process and procedures, ensures quality assurance for transactional processes, and drives service excellence through standardization and automation. The SSC aims to enhance customer satisfaction while reducing service delivery costs.
Job Purpose
The Finance Specialist will be responsible for the delivery of essential financial services to FAO's Decentralized Offices. This role involves managing and processing financial transactions, ensuring accuracy, and providing support to ensure the smooth operation of financial activities. The position plays a key part in maintaining financial integrity and supporting the operational needs of offices located away from the main headquarters, contributing to the overall efficiency of FAO's financial management.
Responsibilities
Serve as the primary contact for invoice booking and payment inquiries from Decentralized Offices. Process routine financial administration tasks, including data entry, verification, and discrepancy resolution. Monitor team workload and task progress, reporting updates to supervisors. Verify data accuracy, investigate irregularities, and implement corrective accounting actions. Extract transaction details for analysis and verification. Act as a liaison for continuous improvement initiatives, participating in the analysis and implementation of new financial process automations. Ensure efficient processing of invoices, payments, returns, and rejections. Assist in liaising with corporate banks for payment issue resolution. Draft correspondence to address queries and maintain standard operating procedures. Provide procedural guidance to staff and support other finance personnel as needed. Perform other assigned duties.
Work Experience
A minimum of four years of relevant experience in finance, accounting, cash management, or asset management related support work is required. This experience should demonstrate a strong understanding of financial processes and transaction management.
Skills
Key skills include Results Focus, Teamwork, Communication, Building Effective Relationships, and Knowledge Sharing & Continuous Improvement. Essential technical skills involve a strong understanding of financial rules, regulations, accounting policies, and transaction processing. Familiarity with ERP corporate financial systems, communication standards, and MS Office applications is required. Knowledge of Oracle ERP or similar systems is also necessary. Proficiency in English is mandatory, with knowledge of another FAO official language being an asset.