Finance Associate Job #: req32733 Organization: World Bank Sector: Resource Management Grade: GD Term Duration:ย 3 years 0 months Recruitment Type: Local Recruitment Location: Pristina,Kosovo Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Albanian Closing Date: 4/22/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC
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ย Description
Do you want to build a career that is truly worthwhile? Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. 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 poverty on a livable planet. 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.
Vice-Presidency Context
The Budget, Performance Review, and Strategic Planning (BPS) VPU is mandated to oversee the finance and corporate procurement functions of the World Bank.ย The purpose of the VPU is to deliver high value for money with efficient, effective, and professional finance and resource management services to help drive sustained business success through the delivery of the WBG strategy. At the same time, it is focusing on improving governance to enable better oversight of what and how services are provided and continuing to strengthen its professional workforce with up-to-date skills, knowledge, and experience.ย
BPS is organized into four departments under a Vice President: (1) BPS Corporate Units (BPSCU) - supporting Institutional, Governance and Administrative Units, Capital Budget and providing BPS systems, knowledge, data governance and the service center; (2) BPS Operations Units (BPSOU) โ supporting Practice Groups and Regions (3) BPS Strategic Planning (BPSSP) โ supporting the corporate strategic business and budget planning process; and (4) BPS Corporate Procurement (BPSCP) with teams responsible for coordinating and overseeing the sourcing strategy, selection, contract execution, and vendor management across the globe.
BPS has a service delivery model with three core roles:ย
โข Business Partners (client-facing): embedded partners focused on decision support and performance oversight with a strong understanding of the business.
โข Centers of Expertise (COE): providing thought leadership and analytics, designing business finance policies and practices, and coordinating business finance knowledge management; and ย
โข Service Center: central unit to manage high volume delivery and transactional and reporting services across the Bank, including help desk support to clients.ย
Hiring Unit Context
BPS is seeking to recruit one Finance Associate (FA) to help drive, support, and implement the BPS Service Delivery model. Note that additional GD vacancies for this or other (non-listed units) may be included should the business need arise in the short term. These may be in the same or alternative locations. Regardless of location, they will be Local Recruitments.
Current open position is in the following unit:
BPSSE: Business Partner Unit supporting the Sustainable Development (SD) Global VPU and Europe & Central Asia (ECA) Region, planning, monitoring, and executing budgets and expenses, including bank budget (BB), and external funds (e.g. TFs, RAS, EFO). This includes providing quality business planning, budgeting, and monitoring services to the Vice President and Directors. The team also supports Country Offices in managing CMU budgets and performing CO accountant functions, as well as compliance and internal controls management.
The selected candidate will be positioned in the Kosovo Country Office (Pristina) within the Western Balkans Country Management Unit (ECCWB) and may support one or two Country Offices. The selected candidate is expected to be excellent team player, preferably with finance/accounting/economics background/ experience, with analytical skills and knowledge in one or more of the key functional areas that BPS supports. As with all other BPS staff, Finance Associate is expected to be fungible and able to work across different assignments over time depending on business needs and professional development objectives.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The Finance Associate functions range from responsibility for accounting transactions and vendor payments to performing compliance reviews and reporting to central control units, to setting/streamlining procedures in the office and supporting and advising staff on a host of the Bank policies and procedures. Finance Associate assists in preparing and managing the Country Office budget, ensuring accuracy and compliance with financial policies and regulations, analyzes budgetary data, monitors expenditure trends, and reports on variances between actual and budgeted figures to support financial decision-making. Additionally, the Finance Associate collaborates with various departments to gather financial information, assists in forecasting future budgetary needs, and contributes to developing budgetary strategies and cost-saving measures.
Selection Criteria
โข Minimum Education: Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Business, Finance, Management or other relevant discipline required to fulfill position specific requirements. OR NonโFinance Bachelor's Degree plus an advanced Diploma in accounting or equivalent Accounting certificate (e.g., CIMA, ACCA);
โข Minimum Years of Relevant Experience: 1 year of relevant experience, e.g. in accounting, finance, business; but itโs preferred to have a candidate with professional experience for two years or longer.
โข Track record of handling transactional level financial/accounting works.
โข Demonstrated expertise in financial reporting, budget monitoring and internal control
โข Experience with relevant business areas from both in and outside the Bank is not a must but will be helpful.
โข Proficient user of relevant computer applications and systems, including Excel/PowerPoint, AO.
โข The incumbent should be fluent in English; knowledge of local language is an advantage.
โข Excellent communications skills (written and oral) and people oriented
Common Competencies:
Technical Skills:
Cost and Financial Accounting: Understand and describe the main elements of financial statements and reports, demonstrates awareness and knowledge of accounting standards, understand general compliance requirements and provide accurate and timely financial submissions, demonstrate basic understanding of techniques used to analyze and manage costs.
Evaluation, Reporting and Financial Analysis: Extract and deliver straightforward management information reports, prepare and provide accurate and timely financial data for inclusion in the financial control process.
Business Planning: Contribute to business planning, budgeting and expenditure forecasting processes, apply basic modelling, forecasting and planning techniques to develop cost forecasts with cost drivers identified and explained, basis understanding of capital budgeting process.
Risk Management and Internal Controls: Basic understanding of the application of the organization's risk management policies, understanding internal control framework and the type of risks to mitigate.
Core Competencies:
Client Orientation - Takes personal responsibility and accountability for timely response to client queries, requests or needs, working to remove obstacles that may impede execution or overall success.ย
Drive for Results - Takes personal ownership and accountability to meet deadlines and achieve agreed-upon results and has the personal organization to do so.ย
Teamwork (Collaboration) and Inclusion - Collaborates with other team members and contributes productively to the team's work and output, demonstrating respect for different points of view.
Knowledge, Learning and Communication - Actively seeks knowledge needed to complete assignments and shares knowledge with others, communicating and presenting information in a clear and organized manner.ย
Business Judgment and Analytical Decision Making - Analyzes facts and data to support sound, logical decisions regarding own and others' work.
Preferred Qualification and Experience
Advanced working knowledge of Bank budget/finance systems and reports, proficiency in applications like SAP, AO, Power BI, and/or demonstrated experience with major systems for financial/budget management.