The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR Research Center is looking for a competent, self-motivated, and dynamic candidate with excellent interpersonal, organizational and problem-solving skills, to join IWMI's Head Quarters in Pelawatta, Battaramulla as Senior Officer - Budgeting and Finance.
The Senior Officer - Budgeting and Finance is a member of the IWMI Finance Department which is responsible for financial management and reporting of IWMI’s portfolio of research for development projects.
The Senior Officer - Budgeting and Finance works across the project management lifecycle and is responsible for managing financial aspects from proposal development, project implementation and project closure.
To ensure full integration of the pipeline and proposal development process in IWMI’s overall project management lifecycle, the Senior Officer - Budgeting and Finance will work in close coordination with several departments and teams at IWMI including the Business Development unit, Project Management Office, and the Research Groups.
GENERAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Proposal development:
- Work with the Manager – Budget and Analysis and the Senior Manager Resource Mobilization and Partnerships, proposal Leaders, and Country Representatives to develop winning proposal budgets through the development of internal budgets and donor budgets and cost narratives to ensure comprehensive and competitive submissions that meet donor specifications and ensure full cost recovery. Enforce cost allocation guidelines and budgeting that maximizes the utilization of IWMI staff in proposals.
- Ensure all documentation related to financial proposals is organized, searchable, and easily accessible.
- Upload proposal development budgets and proposal budgets into IWMI’s ERP system and manage related workflows from the proposal development phase to end of the contract negotiation phase.
- Coordinate the transfer of proposal budgets from the internal IWMI format into the required donor format and develop approaches to directly charge cost items to maximize full cost recovery.
- For actual cost budgets, engage with the Finance office to collect actual salary costs based on salary and benefits.
- Check and review partner budgets when IWMI is nominating project partners for a proposal. Communicate directly with partners to ensure correct budget documentation is provided.
- Prepare Project Preparation Document (PPD) Budgets reflecting cost entry costs in SAP and clearly identify recovery of indirect or directly attributable cost items. For budgets in non-USD currency, prepare PPD Budgets also in the required currency.
- Update the IWMI Internal Budget template monthly to reflect staff changes, rate changes and any other additional information requested from Finance Department of Project Management Office. Circulate updated budgets and upload on the IWMI intranet.
- Support with the development and review of One CGIAR Initiative Budgets.
Support contract negotiation:
- Work with the Manager – Budget and Analysis, Head-Business Development, proposal leaders, and country representatives to successfully update budgets and financial proposals based on donor requirements during contract negotiations.
- Provide the Project Management Office with agreed internal and donor versions of budgets at the conclusion of contract negotiations.
Support during Project implementation:
- Work with the Project Lead and forecast the budget for the current and next year, using the SAP budget.
- Facilitate the overall process of contract amendments which involves reforecasting of donor budgets.
- Update any forecasted, revised, carryover budgets in SAP on a timely basis.
- For costed contract variations develop updated internal budgets for revision into the donor budget (in donor format) as per Project leaders’ requirement, liaising with the reporting team and other teams as needed.
- Check or review draft contract variation budgets prior to contract variation approval.
- Update donor approved budgets in SAP.
Support during Project Closure:
- Work with the Portfolio Managers and Project Leader to decide on the balances to be spent and allocate final spend on balances.
- Develop solutions for day-to-day budget issues in consultation with Project Leaders, check for overspending, underspending, recoveries and liaise with relevant teams to act needed.
- Check and request the clearance of Staff Time & recoveries working with required teams (HQ and County office)
General Tasks:
- Develop user friendly financial dashboards at project level.
- Update monthly and make available IWMI’s internal budget template to ensure accuracy and appropriate version control.
- Monitor the use of accurate cost codes in the ERP.
- Ensure recoveries are captured accurately and done so at each month end.
- Provide support and advice as required to improve IWMI’s approach to project costings and budget development processes (for example, contribute to revisions of IWMI’s Cost Allocation Guidelines).
- Provide support and training as required to researchers focused internal budgeting for proposals.
Requirements
MINIMUM EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
- A university degree in business administration, accounting or finance or other related field (A higher relevant degree or MBA is preferred)
- Relevant professional experience over 5 years.
- Experience with the development of budgets for multilateral and bilateral donors such as: World Bank, USAID, European Union, and Asian Development Bank.
- Advanced knowledge of financial accounting and budgeting, as well as financial planning and analysis.
- Experience working with ERPs such as SAP and OCS.
- Experience with dashboard reporting (ideally Power BI)
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES REQUIRED
- Act independently within broad program goals to prioritize tasks in the absence of specific instructions and exercise independent judgment to identify and solve problems.
- Strong financial management / budgeting skills.
- Excellent conceptual thinking capacity to understand donor financial budgeting/ reporting requirements and implications for proposal budget development.
- Ability to adapt to changing priorities and new procedures quickly.
- Excellent interpersonal and teamwork skills.
- Ability to operate spreadsheets, databases, and word processing programs at a highly proficient level.
- Ability to deal with sensitive and confidential information in a professional manner.
- Personal attributes such as high standards of conduct, respect, flexibility, and sound work ethics.
- Ability to work effectively in a multi-disciplinary and multicultural setting.
- Attention to detail and precision.
- Excellent analytical skills.
- Excellent English written and verbal communication skills.
Benefits
What we are offering:
This is a nationally recruited position and only candidates who are eligible to work in Sri Lanka will be considered. IWMI offers a competitive salary and benefits package, inclusive of health insurance, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance, and long-term disability coverage. The duration of the contract will initially be for a period of three years.
HOW TO APPLY: We will be accepting applications through 24:00 (IST) March 12, 2023 (applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis). Receipt of all applications will be acknowledged, but only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
IWMI believes that diversity powers our innovation, contributes to our excellence, and is critical for our mission. We offer a multi-cultural, multi-color, multi-generational and multi-disciplinary working environment. We are consciously creating an inclusive organization that reflects our global character and our commitment to gender equity. We, therefore, encourage applicants from all cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
