Portfolio Finance Officer

Job Description

The Finance Officer provides technical support and builds staff capacity globally to deliver high quality, effective, and efficient Financial Planning and Analysis services (“FP&A”) for MSH projects. S/he supports the implementation of service level agreement for FP&A services.

Support country offices to deliver timely and high-quality budgets, financial reports and financial analyses (35%)

As needed by country teams,

• Review and approve budgets, pipelines and workplans, including Performance Monitoring Plans. Perform integrity, math, and compliance checks
• Ensure needed data and reports are available to appropriate staff in country
• Review and approve financial reports for internal and/or external audiences and before submission to customer.
• Provide support in financial analysis activities
• Backfill finance manager capacity in country offices with short and long-term gaps in skillset
• Support country teams to respond to audit queries

Develop, train and build Country Offices’ Finance Managers (“FM”) capacity (35%)

• Actively participate in onboarding and capacity building of Financial Manager in country office
• Assist country offices’ financial managers to troubleshoot and respond to donor and project management queries as needed.

Support corporate monitoring and oversight activities (25%)

• Test and ensures that created standards, job-aids and other tools for promoting sound financial management practices are complete to meet needs of country offices financial managers
• Monitors projects and countries financial performance and compliance with MSH standards
• Orient and train Atlas portfolio finance analysts

Other duties as assigned (5%)

• Includes participation in corporate workplan activities and various Atlas activities and initiatives

Required Minimum Education:

• BA or MA

Required Minimum Experience:

• 6+ years of experience in international project financial management or related experience is required with a BA, 4+ years of experience international project financial management or related experience is required with a MA.
• Experience with complex financial planning and analysis required.

Preferred Experience:

• At least 8 years’ experience in international project financial management or related experience is required.
• Experience with aspects of federal cost reimbursement practices, such as the Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR) and USAID regulations desirable.
• Prior work experience with non-USG, foundations and other donors also desirable.
• Experience building capacity/ training diverse groups both in a classroom and online highly desirable.
• Experience with collaboration tools like Google Docs desirable.

Knowledge And Skills:

• Strong software skills including extensive experience with database, spreadsheet, word processing tools and other applications.
• Familiarity with accounting software, particularly QuickBooks, Serenic Navigator and/or Microsoft Navision highly desirable.
• Skilled at working in a culturally diverse environment.
• Very good interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Fluent English required; working knowledge of French and or Spanish is desirable.
• Technical writing skills.
• Teaching or training delivery skills.

Competencies:

• Manage work with shifting priorities
• Manage and coordinate a variety of activities simultaneously
• Work in a team-oriented environment while driving for results
• Creative problem solving

Physical Demands:

• Ability to travel internationally as needed (up to 30% time).
• Office environment including keyboard use, pulling drawers, lifting papers <10 lbs.

About the Organization

Management Sciences for Health, an international nonprofit organization, is dedicated to closing the gap between what is known and what is done about public health problems. MSH saves lives and improves health by helping public and private organizations throughout the world to effectively manage people, medicines, money, and information. Working from more than 30 country offices and our US headquarters, our staff from 65 nations is highly regarded for its technical expertise, integrity, and commitment to making a lasting difference in health.

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) is a nonprofit international health organization composed of more than 2,000 people from 73 nations. Their mission is to save lives and improve the health of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people by closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health. Together with their partners, they are helping managers and leaders in developing countries to create stronger management systems that improve health services for the greatest health impact.

EXPERTISE

MSH takes an integrated approach to building high-impact sustainable programs that address critical challenges in leadership, health systems management, human resources, and medicines. Simply put, they support stronger health systems for greater health impact.

Their expertise in these areas falls into the broad categories of management functions—for example, leadership and governance or pharmaceutical management—and health areas like tuberculosis or maternal, newborn, and child health. They apply their expertise by

• Partnering with governments, local organizations, and communities in developing nations to build their own capacity for long-term health impact;
• Providing global leadership in critical areas of health management and health care delivery;
• Bringing the best of MSH from around the globe to the people we serve, working as One MSH with a focus on lasting health system improvements.

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Leadership, Governance, & Management

They work with in-country partners to build stronger health systems to improve:

• the management and leadership of priority health programs, health organizations, and multisectoral partnerships such as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, developing a critical mass of managers at all levels of the health system who can lead and inspire teams to achieve results;
  
• the management systems of health organizations in the public and private sector, transferring practical approaches and skills to ensure that management structures contribute to sustainable organizational success;
  
• the governance and management of health organizations and multisectoral partnerships, facilitating change and transferring knowledge to enable organizations to administer their resources efficiently and scale up their services.

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Health Service Delivery

MSH combines extensive public health expertise, proven service delivery approaches, and evidence-based interventions in five critical areas:

• HIV & AIDS
• Tuberculosis
• Maternal, newborn, and child health
• Family planning and reproductive health
• Other communicable diseases, including malaria and pandemic and avian influenza

Human Resources for Health

MSH helps governments develop multisectoral strategies and policies to plan and manage their health workforces. We use a comprehensive approach that addresses all the facets of human resources for health needed to achieve an adequate supply of well-trained and motivated health workers. MSH offers capabilities in leadership, human resource management, education, partnerships, policy, and finance to achieve these goals.

Pharmaceutical Management

Vital to our success is a participatory approach to project design and implementation, which cultivates broad-based support from all stakeholders. We also build and improve infrastructure and local capacity to effectively purchase, store, deliver, and use quality essential medicines.

Health Care Financing

MSH helps governments and NGOs assess their current financial situation and systems, understand service costs, and develop initiatives to use existing funds more effectively and generate additional revenue—all with the goal of supporting a nation’s health priorities.

Health Information

MSH has developed proven methods for rapidly strengthening the analysis and use of existing health data—normally at the province, district, and facility levels—without revising existing recording and reporting requirements. With an emphasis on learning through action, district teams undertake assessments of health services, identify gaps in performance, and design solutions to support better decision-making and, therefore, better management of improved services.

MSH has worked closely with the Health Metrics Network of the WHO to develop a comprehensive approach for enhancing the performance of health information systems and data by employing a practical, strategic planning process that can be carried out by national working groups.