Deputy Director for Financial Management

The Deputy Director for Financial Management leads UN Women’s global financial management function, overseeing financial operations, accounting, treasury services, financial policies, IPSAS-compliant reporting, audit engagement, and financial risk management. The role provides strategic financial leadership, ensures sound financial stewardship, and drives continuous improvement of finance policies and systems across a decentralized environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Financial Management Section and global finance network, setting priorities, workplans, performance standards and accountability mechanisms aligned with UN Women’s Strategic Plan and business needs.
• Provide strategic advice to the CFO and Director, DFA, senior management and governance bodies on financial management, financial risk, resource stewardship and organizational sustainability.
• Promote clear accountability, transparency and consistency across financial operations, reporting, field support and financial advisory services.
• Lead engagement with senior stakeholders to ensure finance priorities support organizational strategy, operational effectiveness and accountability for results.
• Maintain and continuously strengthen UN Women’s financial framework, including financial regulations and rules, policies, procedures, delegations of authority, guidance and internal controls.
• Ensure effective first- and second-line controls over financial management processes, monitor exceptions and support risk management, business continuity and compliance activities.
• Oversee financial due diligence and provide advice on donor agreements, cost recovery, revenue recognition and financial clauses in legal instruments.
• Approve, monitor and report on policy exceptions, including emergency or special operating procedures, ensuring appropriate controls and documentation.
• Oversee headquarters and field financial operations, including transaction recording, general ledger integrity, vendor and payment controls, partner advance monitoring, project closure and management reporting.
• Lead centralized revenue management, including recording of contributions, accounts receivable, non-core cash allocations, donor agreement finance data and related reconciliations.
• Ensure effective management of cash, bank positions, investments, foreign exchange and treasury-related risks in coordination with relevant UN system service providers and governance mechanisms.
• Ensure financial transactions and balances are accurately processed, recorded, reconciled and monitored to support reliable financial information and timely decision-making.
• Lead month-end, mid-year and year-end closure processes, including issuance of instructions, account reconciliations, review of financial data and timely resolution of material issues.
• Lead the preparation, review and certification of UN Women’s IPSAS-compliant annual financial statements, audit working papers and financial inputs to Executive Board and senior management reporting.
• Ensure timely and accurate donor financial reporting, certified donor statements, pooled or inter-agency funding reports, specialized financial reports and internal management reports.
• Provide financial analysis and reporting to support senior management decisions, Executive Board engagement, donor stewardship and organizational performance monitoring.
• Manage financial management engagement with the United Nations Board of Auditors, internal audit, donor assurance reviews, third-party partner audits, EU verifications, JIU reviews and other oversight bodies.
• Coordinate timely responses to audit inquiries, findings and recommendations; oversee corrective actions; and report on implementation and emerging financial risks.
• Provide financial assurance advice and support to headquarters, regional and country offices before, during and after audits and reviews.
• Identify recurring assurance issues and drive systemic improvements to strengthen financial governance, compliance and risk mitigation across the organization.
• Lead continuous improvement of financial management processes, with emphasis on simplification, harmonization, automation, management by exception, ERP optimization and technology-enabled solutions.
• Support UN reform and efficiency initiatives, participate in inter-agency finance and accounting standard-setting groups, and contribute to resource mobilization and innovative financing initiatives.
• Ensure financial systems and related tools are configured and functioning to manage, monitor and report on key financial processes and information.
• Champion data-quality, analytics and digital finance capabilities that improve insight, efficiency and accountability across global financial management.
• Represent UN Women and the Financial Management Section in internal governance bodies, Executive Board-related processes, UN inter-agency fora and oversight, advisory, investment and compliance committees.
• Provide financial management guidance to headquarters and field offices and strengthen the global finance community through learning, technical guidance, communities of practice and on-the-job capacity building.
• Lead, motivate and develop finance staff, promoting collaboration, accountability, service orientation and high standards of professional performance.

Requirements

• Master’s degree or equivalent in accounting, finance, financial management or a related field is required.
• An internationally recognized professional accounting qualification, such as CA, ACA, CPA or ACCA, is required and may be accepted in lieu of a master’s degree.
• At least 15 years of progressively responsible senior-level experience in financial management, accounting, financial operations or related areas in a large public, international or private sector organization is required.
• At least 7 years of experience producing IPSAS- or IFRS-compliant financial statements and notes is required.
• Experience with ERP-enabled financial management systems, preferably Oracle Cloud or another UN system ERP, is required.
• Experience leading and managing personnel in international settings is required.
• Experience in the UN system or another international organization is desirable.
• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

Skills

• Finance Management
• Accounting
• Financial Operations
• IPSAS-compliant Reporting
• IFRS Reporting
• ERP Financial Accounting
• Oracle Cloud
• Financial Statement Preparation
• Audit Engagement
• Financial Risk Management
• Financial Policies Development
• Strategic Leadership
• Personnel Management
• International Financial Management
• Public Sector Finance
• Financial Stewardship

Languages

English