Senior Budget Officer at The OPEC Fund for International Development

Job Profile

The Senior Budget Officer is responsible for planning, negotiating and preparing the Administrative and Capital Expenditure budget, and for maintaining accurate records of utilization, cost center and cost element allocation, all in accordance with the institutional strategy and framework.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Leads the preparation of the Fund’s 3-year rolling Administrative and CapEx Budget, taking into consideration Management’s and Board’s decisions and their short to medium-term financial impact.
• Reviews, analyzes and finalizes the preparation of the departmental annual work plans, working closely with other departments, and taking into account recommendations and decisions of relevant committees.
• Prepares budget proposals, other analytical information and regular reports and submits them for approval to Senior Management, Budget and Strategy Committee and the Governing Board and timely delivery of quality Budget reports and presentations as required.
• Supports budget discussions with Senior Management, with special emphasis on the link between resources, outputs, performance indicators, work programs, business plan and strategy.
• Provides advice on best financial management practices: budgeting standards, costing methodologies, resource projections, variance analysis, cost allocation and performance reporting.
• Continuously monitors budget implementation, cost drivers, financial projections and prepares comparative and variance analysis, supports and executes budget reallocations upon obtaining required approvals in compliance with the Fund’s relevant policies and procedures as well as providing budgetary guidance, consultation and services to departments and cost centers
• Works with Accounting to enhance budget and financial management systems and processes, to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of delivering the organizational mandate; pays particular attention to financial management and reporting, cost center accounting and activity/output based budgeting requirements and performance indicators;
• Analyzes departmental and cost centers budget submissions, evaluates the soundness of justifications, ensures performance measures are accurately translated into the budget, finalizes budget proposals and prepares quarterly Budget utilization reports.
• Contributes to the strengthening and capacity building of the Fund by developing or improving the Budget governance and management as well as the related organizational processes, procedures and manuals ;
• Supports the Fund and management in defining and implementing projects for system enhancements and introduction of budget related IT applications and platforms; 
• Carries out other tasks assigned by the supervisor that are related to the job function.

Qualifications and Experience

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Finance/Business, majoring in Accounting, Financial Control, Business Administration or other immediately relevant fields 
• Recognized accounting certification such as the CA or CPA
• A minimum of 10 years relevant professional experience
• Preferably 3-5 years of budget preparation experience within an international financial institution
• Fluent in English
• Good working knowledge of French, Arabic, German or Spanish is a plus

Competencies

• Capacity for conceptual and strategic analysis and good command of budgetary, operational management and performance monitoring matters
• Competence in the use of ERP Systems (preferably SAP PS&IM module), Business Intelligence (BI) tools (preferably Business Information Warehouse (BIW) and Dashboards), and standard MS office applications (Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint), and a good knowledge of operational and project management systems
• Knowledge of financial and budgetary principles and practices, budget management and financial administration of resources. 
• Proven analytical skills and ability to provide technical advice in budget management to managers. 
• Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; 
• Conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; 
• Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges and ability to perform and execute assignments and time sensitive activities under stressful situations.
• Operates in compliance with organizational regulations and rules