Finance Business Process and Change Manager

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries to achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

UNOPS has operated as a self-financing entity within the UN system since 1994.  Throughout this time, UNOPS has successfully delivered services to other UN entities as well as a variety of partners. UNOPS has, over the years, undertaken the delivery of increasingly complex engagements such as project implementation services for large physical infrastructure projects, multifaceted public health projects, and highly complex procurement assignments.

UNOPS is navigating a period of transformational change internally across all areas of the organization. .  Together with the steadily increasing size of UNOPS portfolio, UNOPS leadership structures, management practices, oversight mechanisms, as well as UNOPS ability to collaborate and manage knowledge, are being reshaped and improved through this process. 

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

Business Transformation and Digitalization (BTD) Programme

As a fundamental part of the organizational change effort, UNOPS is embarking on a digital transformation journey to enhance its operational efficiency, effectiveness, and agility. The Business Transformation and Digitalization (BTD) Programme  aims to overhaul processes, systems, and digital capacity of personnel by leveraging digital technologies and solutions and to ensure coherent alignment of our digital architecture and landscape of systems and tools with the core needs of the organization . A programme team is being established to provide business driven leadership for and support to UNOPS digital transformation. 

The BTD Programme will impact all parts of UNOPS organization, including headquarters functional business units and geographic (regional) business units , involving both process re-engineering and systems implementation. Each UNOPS functional business unit (Procurement, Human Resources, Finance, Project Management and Infrastructure, Partnerships, and Legal), known internally as practices will be represented by a Business Process and Change Manager that will act as a representative of the functional entity within which they are embedded.

To support the CFO with the implementation of this ambitious programme, UNOPS is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Business Process and Change Manager. 

The Business Process and Change Manager will be part of the Practice team and will work closely with the BTD Programme (in particular, he/she will be working under the coordination of the Business Process Re-design Manager on the process engineering part of the programme as well as with the Systems Project Manager on the digitalization part of the programme). This requires a deep understanding of the organization, its finance policies, tools and processes, both at the strategic as well as the operational levels; as well as a consultative and facilitative approach, to process re-engineering, development of digital systems and reporting. 

The BTD Programme is expected to last four (4) years.

Role of the Digital Transformation Business Process and Change Manager

The Digital Transformation Business Process and Change Manager will be responsible for coordinating and driving the process reengineering activities for UNOPS finance function as well as the definition of the functional requirements for UNOPS finance function, under the supervision of the CFO and in coordination with the Digital Transformation Programme (both the Business Process Re-design Manager and the Systems Project Manager). 

The key functions of the role include:

• Act as the central point of contact and coordinator for all business process redesign initiatives for UNOPS finance function, including acting as a representative of the Finance Group as well as also of regional and field offices interests. 

• Identify, analyze, and redesign business processes for UNOPS finance function to align with best practices, enhance operational efficiency, and support the successful implementation of business transformation initiatives (including digital ones), ensuring that reengineered processes and new/improved systems deliver the organization's digital transformation goals.

• Translate assessments into improvement projects and business solutions, covering both process and IT applications.

• Lead and drive the training, communications, and change management required in order to make the change ingrained into UNOPS.

The Finance Business Process and Change Manager reports to the CFO, who provides broad supervision and guidance.

In collaboration with the BTD Programme Support Office and Programme Management Office, as well as with the Practice Director:

• Develop comprehensive project plans for UNOPS finance function business process improvement initiatives, including timelines, milestones, and resource allocation

• Define finance related project objectives, deliverables, and success criteria 

• Implement robust finance related project monitoring mechanisms to track progress, identify risks, and recommend mitigation measures.

• Regularly review finance related project plans and adjust as necessary to ensure timely completion of deliverables.

• Conduct thorough analysis of existing business processes and identify opportunities for improvement and optimization.

• Collaborate with stakeholders (practitioners in the field and other parties involved) to understand their requirements, pain points, and challenges related to current processes.

• Utilize process mapping and analysis techniques to identify process gaps, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies.

• Collaborate with stakeholders to prioritize processes for reengineering based on their impact, feasibility, and alignment with UNOPS's strategic goals.

• Drive process improvements and standardization to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, and quality across UNOPS finance functional areas.

• Coordinate and deliver, for UNOPS finance function, the design and implementation of optimized business processes that align with UNOPS's digital transformation objectives, including the update of policies, guidelines, procedures, process maps and other outputs.

• Assess the operational and functional requirements of the business in order to define standards and identify opportunities for improving performance and optimizing business processes.

• Develops high quality, value-added (in the Lean sense), and responsive financial business processes.

• Participate actively to process redesign workshops, working closely with the Business Process Re-design Manager, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders.

• Implement industry best practices and innovative approaches to streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and promote automation.

• Contribute to the development of finance related functional requirements for the UNOPS BTD Programme.

• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather and analyze requirements related to financial business processes, systems, and technologies.

• Participate actively in IT functional requirements definition workshops, working closely with the Digital Transformation Systems Project Manager, Vendors Solutions Specialists, and other stakeholders.

• Translate business requirements into clear and comprehensive written functional requirements documents.

• Ensure alignment of finance related functional requirements with the overall programme objectives and organizational strategies.

• Support the testing of new / improved systems

• Proactively manage key internal stakeholders, including within the practice and across the organization to ensure a good understanding of the objectives and business benefits for the transformation

• Collaborate with IT teams, systems project managers, and stakeholders to align business processes with digital solutions and technologies.

• Develop and implement for UNOPS finance function change management strategies to ensure smooth adoption of new processes and technologies, with the support of the Digital Transformation Change Management Coordinator

• Establish a communication plan to keep stakeholders of UNOPS finance function informed of the progress, achievements, and challenges of the process redesign as well as systems design and implementation projects.

• Engage and collaborate with stakeholders at all levels to obtain buy-in and support for financial process improvement and digitization initiatives.

• Provide guidance and support to finance project teams, practitioners, and stakeholders during process reengineering as well as systems design and implementation efforts.

• Ensure effective change adoption, training, and communication strategies are implemented.

• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of optimized processes.

• Implement monitoring mechanisms to track process performance and identify areas for continuous improvement.

• Conduct regular performance reviews, analyze data, and provide recommendations for further enhancements.

• Prepare regular status reports, executive summaries, and presentations to update the CFO and relevant stakeholders on UNOPS finance function’s process redesign and digitization projects’ overall performance, key milestones, and outcomes.

• Contribute the development of standardized process documentation, including process maps, standard operating procedures, and guidelines, with the support of the BTD Programme Business Process Re-design Manager.

• Establish a centralized repository to store and manage process documentation and related knowledge assets.

• Ensure that process documentation is easily accessible and updated as per the evolving business needs.

• Foster a culture of continuous improvement within the UNOPS finance function and its community of practitioners, encouraging the sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and success stories.

• Capture feedback and suggestions from stakeholders (particularly finance practitioners), incorporating them into future iterations of the process redesign and system implementation initiatives.

• Engage with external partners, industry experts, and communities of practice to exchange knowledge and best practices.

• Foster a culture of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement within the Digital Transformation Programme.

• Develop and deliver training programmes and workshops to enhance for UNOPS finance function reengineered processes and new / improved systems understanding and drive adoption across the organization, with the support of the BTD Programme.

• Provide coaching and guidance to finance practitioners in implementing and maintaining optimized processes and new / improved systems.

• Ensure that process-related documents, functional systems documents and training materials are kept up-to-date and leveraged whenever organizational changes occur.

• An advanced degree preferably in Finance, Business Administration, Public Administration, or other related field.
• A combination of Bachelor’s degree with an additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the education requirements outlined above.
• Strong knowledge of business process management methodologies, tools, and best practices, Lean Six Sigma, or other process improvement certifications would be an advantage.

• A minimum of 7 years of relevant and progressive professional experience in Financial Management is required of which at least 2 years with UNOPS (included in the minimum 7 years of experience). Recent Field experience of at least 2 years would be an asset.
• Familiarity with UNOPS or other UN policies, processes, tools and systems is required
• Experience in facilitating workshops, engaging stakeholders, and managing change is required.
• Experience in business process analysis, redesign, and optimization is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with digital technologies and their application in process optimization and automation is desirable.
• Experience in large scale digital transformation of financial processes would be an asset.

• Full working knowledge of English is essential.
• Knowledge of another official UNOPS language (French, Spanish) is an asset.

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Terms and Conditions 

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 

• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. For more information on a retainer contract here.

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.