Finance Specialist (Supply Financing), P-3, Fixed Term Position, Copenhagen, Supply Division #00116964

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.

For every child, the right to a Future

UNICEF Supply Division (SD) works to ensure equitable and inclusive access to essential supplies and services for children and their families, in development, humanitarian and fragile contexts. These supplies are critical to saving lives, supporting children’s health and education, and protecting them from abuse, exploitation, and neglect. As the UN’s largest end to end supply chain entity, UNICEF leverages its global reach, market influence, supply chain expertise and partnerships with governments, civil society, private sector, industry, and other stakeholders to meet children’s needs and protect their rights around the world.

SD focuses on three result areas to maximize impact, scale, and effectiveness: strategic procurement; supply preparedness and response in humanitarian and fragile contexts; and supply chain optimization. To facilitate and accelerate progress toward these results, SD employs three change strategies: financing for supply and services, supply chain digitalization and supply chain localization.

How can you make a difference?

The Finance Specialist (Supply Financing) will be based at UNICEF Supply Division, and will support the implementation of the UNICEF Supply Division’s Financing Partnerships and Solutions Strategy (which focuses on supporting governments’ mobilization of domestic resources to buy essential supplies while “bridging” timing gaps in government or grant disbursements of Ministries of Health and Finance, development partners, as well as to build new financing opportunities, partnerships and solutions to support the provision of essential supplies and accelerate results for children) related to supply financing activities with respect to other programmes / challenges, especially resource mobilization by national budgets, market dynamics, accessing financing instruments, such as the Vaccine Independence Initiative (“VII”) revolving fund. 

Under the supervision of the Senior Manager, the Finance Specialist (Supply Financing) will coordinate day-to-day supply financing operations, and support resource mobilization efforts and donor reporting of the Vaccine Independence Initiative (VII), among other security pre-financing sources to support procurement efficiency; will coordinate Procurement Services forecast exercises to secure quality projections for the proper resource planning of the Division and Country Offices; will perform analytical functions and provide support to Countries in the following functional areas: 1) Country budgetary processes and country procurement forecast materialization and monitoring; 2) Working directly with Ministries of Health and Finance (or equivalent) on accessing UNICEF’s VII revolving fund 3) Engaging with Supply Division business units and Regional/Country Offices and external Partners and Donors to support supervisor’s coordination of work. 

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

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Advanced university degree (Master’s degree) in Financial Management, Economics, Accounting, Audit, Risk Management, Business Adminstraction, International Development Finance or related field is required.
• Work Experience: Minimum 5 years of progressively responsible professional work experience in public or private sector at national and international levels in the area of development finance, risk management, risk underwriting, investment banking, finance, public finance, health economics, accounting or auditing.
• Experience with Country Ministries of Health and Ministries of Finance, Financing, Budgeting, Procurement or Commercial Issues relating to Health Products. 
• Experience working with credit facilities, revolving funds, or lending portfolios.
• Proficiency in use of data processing systems or for financial modelling and forecasting skills.
• Skills: Development Finance, Investment Banking, Risk Underwriting and Management, Financial Modelling and Forecasting, Auditing
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

• Language: Fluency in French is desired. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.
• 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

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

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 and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.