Senior Administrative Assistant

This position is located within the Common Administrative Platform at United Nations Headquarters, under the Division of Administration in the Department of Operational Support. The role provides administrative and operational support to client entities with certification of travel, procurement, and related activities, including budget and finance management, general administration, and coordination with internal and external stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Provides expert assistance in the preparation and development of the unit’s work programme and budget.
• Assists in monitoring budget/work programme with respect to various budgets, trust funds, grant and other funds on a regular basis, and suggests reallocations of resources and implements the reallocations as necessary.
• Collects data from relevant databases and prepares customized financial reports.
• Provides assistance in the review, and preparation of the medium-term plan and its revisions.
• Reviews, analyses and assists in the finalization of cost estimates and budget proposals, in terms of staff and non-staff requirements from departments/offices at headquarters and in the field, including programmatic aspects; ensures compliance with the medium-term plan and other legislative mandates.
• Assists managers in the elaboration of resource requirements for budget submissions.
• Monitors budget implementation/expenditures and recommends reallocation of funds as necessary.
• Reviews requisitions for goods and services to ensure correct objects of expenditure have been charged and availability of funds.
• Monitors extra-budgetary resources, including review of agreements and cost plans, ensuring compliance with regulations and rules and established policies and procedures.
• Assists in the preparation of budget performance submissions.
• Assists in finalization of budget performance reports, analysing variances between approved budgets and actual expenditures.
• Acts as Certifying Officers for travel and other commitments.
• Ensures that all related activities of the Specialized travel desk are implemented in compliance with intergovernmental recommendations and decisions as well as with United Nations policies and procedures.
• Assists with the collection and analysis of data as well as preparation of data presentations and reports for information sharing, responding to queries, knowledge management, planning and decision making.
• Supports management during audits and reviews by oversight bodies.
• Provides guidance, training and daily supervision to other general service staff in the area of responsibility.
• Identifies and resolves diverse issues/problems as they arise and determines appropriate actions.
• Coordinates extensively with service units and liaises frequently with internal team members both at Headquarters and in the field.
• Performs other related administrative duties, as required (e.g., operational travel programme, monitoring accounts and payment to vendors and individual contractors for services, physical space planning and the identification of office technology needs and maintenance of equipment, software and systems, organize and coordinate seminars, conferences and translations).
• Assists with day-to-day administration of contracts between the UN and external contractors for outsourced services, as required.
• Reviews, records and prioritizes purchasing requests and obtains additional information/documentation as required; provides assistance to requisitioners.
• Reviews the contractors' invoices against the goods and services provided by the contractor and approved by the UN.
• Processes the payment of contractors' invoices and monitor payments, as needed.
• Prepares and processes UN forms and permissions for contractual work as needed.
• Performs other related duties, as assigned.

Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent is required.
• A minimum of ten years of experience in finance, budget, accounting, administrative services or related area is required.
• Experience in using financial functions of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, such as Umoja, and other relevant software packages is required.
• Experience in management of extrabudgetary resources/trust funds is desirable.
• Experience in the United Nations system is desirable.
• Experience and demonstrated skills, of at least one year, in analysing data and producing reports using analytic tools (such as Umoja Analytics or Power BI) is desirable.
• Experience in arranging official travels or other administrative support of senior management or delegations of the United Nations system or similar international organizations is desirable.
• Experience in changing management of administration procedures in international organization is desirable.
• English language proficiency at UN Level II for reading, writing, listening and speaking is required.

Skills

• Finance Management
• Budget Management
• Accounting
• Administrative Services
• Enterprise Resource Planning
• Umoja
• Umoja Analytics
• Power BI
• Data Analysis
• Report Production
• Travel Arrangements
• Extrabudgetary Resource Management
• Trust Fund Management
• Change Management
• Administration Procedures
• UN System Experience

Languages

English