Senior Finance Officer at World Bank Group

Senior Finance Officer

Description

The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges.  For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.

VPU Context: 

The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) operates independently of the Management of the World Bank Group (WBG), reporting directly to the Executive Board. In pursuit of the World Bank Group’s objective of ending poverty on a livable planet, IEG plays the pivotal role of helping the WBG learn from high quality evaluative evidence of what worked and what didn’t in different client settings. Our goal is to improve the World Bank Group results through excellence in evaluation. As independent evaluators for the World Bank, IFC and MIGA, IEG seeks to promote a stronger culture for results, accountability, and learning across the entire World Bank Group. To achieve this, each year the Group conducts a blend of corporate, sectoral “thematic” evaluations, and country program evaluations. In addition, IEG validates the World Bank’s self-evaluations in country learning reviews and project implementation completion reports and validates self-evaluations by MIGA and IFC. IEG’s evaluation work is carried out by two Departments, IEGHE (covering Macro, Human Development, and Corporate evaluations), and IEGSP (covering Digital, Planet, Infrastructure and Private Sector). The Knowledge and Communications team supports the Group’s evaluators with dissemination and learning events to support awareness of the findings of thematic and country evaluations. In addition, the Independent Evaluation Group manages a multi-donor Global Evaluation Initiative that builds capacity in monitoring and evaluation in evaluation offices in World Bank client countries and supports coordination across a network of MDB evaluation offices through active participation of the Evaluation Cooperation Group. IEG’s evaluations help the WBG to build on its development successes and avoid unnecessarily repeating past mistakes. Our network with professional evaluators supports learning across evaluation offices worldwide.

Unit Context: 

The Senior Financial Officer of IEG leads the Resource Management work of IEG. S/he will report to the Director of Strategy and Operations (DSO) and will oversee a team of RM professionals. 

Duties and Responsibilities

The primary focus of the Senior Finance Officer will be in the Budget workstream. As part of this work stream, they will act as business partners and trusted advisors to senior management.  They are expected to be experts in budgeting disciplines and financial planning and analysis. They are expected to lead teams to deliver key products and services on time and to standard.  

The Senior Finance Officer will serve as formal supervisors of other BPS staff in IEG, responsible for setting objectives, overseeing work distribution and managing performance, and/or managing major projects. They are expected to work directly alongside senior management, representing BPS; able to influence decisions about how financial resources are managed and responsible for ensuring corporate budgeting policies are applied successfully.

Selection Criteria

• Minimum Education consisting of a Master’s Degree in Accounting, Business, Finance, or other relevant discipline required to fulfill position-specific requirements (e.g., Economics, Finance, Public Administration, Information Systems, etc.); or a Bachelor’s Degree plus an internationally recognized professional qualification (e.g., CPA, CA, ACCA, CGMA, CIMA, CFA)
• Minimum eight years relevant experience across two units or moving to an assignment in a different unit (relevant country office, non-BPS, or external experiences would fulfill this requirement). 
• Ability to write well and present complex data/analyses in a concise and clear manner, including reports, briefings, talking points, and “frequently asked questions.” 
• Strong client relationship management experience and skills.
• Strong collaboration skills with other functions, an excellent team player with good project management skills.

Preferred Qualification and Experience

• Experience in leading teams to deliver high performance under tight deadlines and often under a multi-tasking environment; strong supervisory skills are desirable.
• Advanced working knowledge of Bank budget/finance systems and reports, particularly SAP, BW/AO, Power BI, Generative AI tools and/or demonstrated experience with major systems for financial/budget management.
• Experience in data management/modeling, process analysis, design and automation, quantitative modeling skills for supporting decisions on resource allocation and utilization.
• Familiarity with the fundamentals of Business Process Management and Data Governance.
• Experience in capital budget and fixed asset and lease accounting (For BPSGA role).

Proficiency in Senior Finance Officer core competencies (listed below)

• Project management, including task team leadership and/or project leadership.
• Integrity and Independence - Interprets information in an objective manner, exercising professional skepticism and critical thinking; disseminates information with due attention to potential issues of confidentiality and disclosure.
• Statutory and other Stakeholder Reporting - Has a good understanding of financial statements and stakeholder reports and can explain trends, drivers, and variances to others (either for statutory purposes or other stakeholders, such as trust fund donors).
• Performance Evaluation and Reporting - Able to analyze and interpret reports and draw meaningful conclusions with respect to performance against strategic and operational priorities.
• Internal controls and corporate procedures - Able to evaluate and ensure the consistency of specific policies and procedures with the entity's stated mission, strategies and practices; Can identify deficiencies and analyze controls, policies, procedures and corporate guidelines, alerting and informing the appropriate channels to review and take corrective action.
• Planning and Budgeting - Able to coordinate work program and budget planning, formulation, allocation processes, and monitoring and management reporting at the department level; Able to ensure timely submission in accordance with deadlines; Able to monitor the funding position of the unit, and liaise with senior staff on addressing funding issues and provide advice to the unit management team, leading on corrective action to cover funding gaps and/or invest surplus funds (where applicable).
• Leadership and Innovation - Creates and promotes an environment that values team performance.  Takes the time to mentor other team members to build similar work climates that value and reward group achievements. Contributes new insights to understand situations and develop solutions to resolve complex problems and adapts as circumstances require. 
• Deliver Results for Clients - Adds value by constantly looking for a better way to get more impactful results; Sets challenging stretch goals for oneself; Immerses oneself in client experiences and perspective by asking probing questions to understand unmet needs; Demonstrates accountability for achieving results that have a development impact and financial, environmental, and social sustainability; Identifies and proposes solutions to mitigate and manage risks.

**This internal requisition is open to WBG and IMF staff only (including short-term and extended term consultants/ temporaries). External candidates are requested not to apply. In case an external candidate applies, their application will not be considered.**

WBG Culture Attributes:

1. Sense of Urgency – Anticipating and quickly reacting to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
2. Thoughtful Risk Taking – Taking informed and thoughtful risks and making courageous decisions to push boundaries for greater impact.
3. Empowerment and Accountability – Engaging with others in an empowered and accountable manner for impactful results.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.