Finance Analyst HEO

Main purpose of job:

The British Embassy Addis Ababa manages one of UK’s largest bilateral development budgets, with a complex portfolio and a diverse suite of programmes that need tailored approaches to ensure that it’s investments reach to the intended beneficiaries. The Finance Analyst role is a very critical role in the delivery of this UK development support to Ethiopia. The job holder will be tasked with responsibilities that will ensure quality financial and fiduciary risk management. These will include ensuring accurate budget monitoring and forecasting by teams, providing challenge and advise on key risk and finance issues, capacity building of staff, and contributions to improve relevant delivery policies and processes.

You will work closely with the finance lead to provide challenge, advice, and support to colleagues that will ensure excellence and adherence to relevant finance and risk policies and processes, and the embedding of suitable skills and an excellence culture.

Working closely with the finance lead and Head of Finance, you will be the network’s linkage to finance colleagues at HQ, and other posts in Africa where you will gather intelligence, insights, and best practice, and ensure that colleagues are timely updated of any important developments.

The role also provides an excellent opportunity to develop your leadership skills and ability to deliver change, as you will support the embassy as it progesses through the process of integrating its the legacy finance functions in line with the wider Finance Transformation agenda from HQ. It also provides learning and development opportunities that you can tailor to your professional development need.

Roles and responsibilities:

In this role, you will be responsible for driving excellence in financial management across the British Embassy’s portfolio, including:

1. Spend management: Support the finance lead and colleagues across the embassy on the annual budgeting processes and in-year budget management, including on the management of large cash forecasts. Drafting of high-quality reports, including to leadership and the Delivery Board to support decision making on key financial issues. Coordinate inputs from various teams to corporate exercises, e.g. support the month-end and year-end accounting processes.
2. Strengthening control and assurance processes: work with the finance lead to support the maintenance and strengthening of the internal control environment both on programme delivery and corporate services to mitigate risks, by ensuring compliance with key finance processes and making associated recommendations for improvement. Support internal and external audits and report on progress made recommendations relating to finance and control.
3. Wider support to other embassy teams: Support programme and corporate delivery teams by providing technical financial advice. Support the embassy as it progesses through integrating the financial management processes of its development programmes and operational delivery sections.
4. Capability building: supporting the finance lead to improve finance and risk capability across the network that will ensure high standards of delivery, including by implementing partners.

This role is expected to evolve through time as the financial integration project beds in. Therefore, some of the key responsibilities may change over time depending on internal directions or changes in HQ. The post holder will support the oversight of management of a £80m-160m+ annual ODA budget and £4m+ Operational budget, reporting to the Finance Lead.

Qualification:

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting/finance. Full or Part qualified member of one of the five Consultative Committees of Accounting Bodies [CCAB] i.e. ACCA; CIPFA; ICAEW; ICAI or ICAS; or CIMA; or a European or international equivalent qualification.
• Work Experience: A minimum of 7 years’ experience in financial management roles in the aid sector/ development agencies supporting development programme delivery and operational finance.
• Advice: Experience of working with multiple teams and skills in adapting financial terminology to suit a wide variety of audiences.
• IT Skills: Proficient in Microsoft Excel, Word and Outlook.
• Demonstrate resilience with the ability to work in a busy, challenging and rapidly changing environment.
• Demonstrated understanding of risk management.
• Changing and Improving, Delivering at Pace, Managing a Quality Service