The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.  We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination.  And its girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.  We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood.  And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 75 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.
Plan believes that gender equality and inclusion are central to advancement of children’s rights and equality for girls and a world in which all children especially girls and young women realize their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity. Plan aims to actively promote gender equality and inclusion in every sphere of its programmes, partnerships and organisational culture.
Plan recognizes that targeted and strategic investments in the promotion of gender equality and inclusion can improve the quality of our work, as a core part of our programme and influence approach, and significantly contribute to poverty reduction and the realisation of human rights. Adopting a gender transformative approach ensures that our work results in positive changes and sustainable outcomes for girls and for everyone. We work together with girls, boys, women and men to achieve these objectives

The purpose of this position is to:

• Contribute to the success of Finance Management strengthening work including supporting the development of a robust finance management culture. This will include developing support material for finance managers, providing virtual and on-site support to finance managers and supporting finance managers to access and successfully participate in Plan’s finance management training.
• Provide inputs to the finalisation and implementation of a new global ERP system including the finance management module to ensure that finance managers are able to manage, analyse and report on results in an effective and consistent way.
• Support finance managers to work in the new ERP system, including the finance management module, to ensure Plan’s approach to finance management is fully informed, transparent and effective.

Dimensions of the Role.
This position reports into in the Regional Hub Finance team and is matrix managed by the relevant Global Hub. Initially,
The Finance Management Specialist will support specific projects to strengthen Project Management across Country Offices, provide technical inputs to relevant regional initiatives and strengthen project management capabilities in preparation for the rollout of the Y.O.D.A. ERP system.

Accountabilities.
Outlined below are the key responsibilities for this position.
•    Support continuous Finance Management improvement as part of the CO preparedness.
•    Provide technical support to Country Offices, including to implement the new online finance management disciplines and approaches and to provide high quality guidelines, tools and upskilling as prioritised by Country Offices.
•    Support the finalisation and implementation of the new ERP system within Country Offices.

Drive continuous learning
•    Contribute to drafting learning papers that capture lessons from Plan International’s work in order to inform better finance management to improve programme outcomes.
Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Key relationships
•    Country Office Finance Managers and Regional Hub Finance Manager
•    Country Management Teams and Regional Management Teams on progress, capacity and status of finance management improvements.
•    Colleagues at the Global Hub and Regional Hub with responsibilities for, or dependent on, good finance management.
•    Other organisations and forums externally, for coordination, collaboration, learning.

Knowledge and experience
Essential
•    Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration or equivalent
•    Member of a professional body
•    Minimum of 5 years relevant experience in the Training, Grants or project management, Donor reporting or Finance and system monitoring and support services.

Knowledge
•    Expert knowledge of financial management in a project context.
•    Significant experience and a strong understanding of training processes, approaches, tools and methodologies that facilitate finance management and financial project management, and organisational learning.
•    Appreciation of the realities of NGO finance management and how to achieve effective finance management, financial control, monitoring, reporting, evaluation and learning.

Skills
•    Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
•    Able to develop appropriate guidelines, tools and templates for improved finance management and implement them at scale in challenging environments.
•    Able to develop global guidance that is simple and practical for Country colleagues to understand and use.
•    Writing in plain English (plus French for the West Africa region and Spanish for the Region of Americas).
•    Strong collaboration skills, able to build cooperation and negotiate compromises.
•    Strong attention to detail.
•    Proven experience of using online technology for communication and learning.
•    Fluent in English (plus French for the West Africa region and Spanish for the Region of Americas).

Behaviours
•    Listens to and consults with others with genuine curiosity and interest to learn.
•    Co-creates with diverse staff across the organisation.
•    Demonstrates genuine curiosity and enthusiasm to find win-win solutions when facing challenges and ambiguity.
•    Facilitates joint understanding and the development of good practices.
•    Inspires trust and support from others.
•    Promotes innovation and learning.
•    Takes responsibility for achieving significant results.
•    Able to build rapport with wide range of groups.
•    Demonstrably committed to Plan’s goals and values.
•    Committed to child safeguarding.

Desirable
•    Capacity in languages appropriate to the region will be an advantage.
•    Experience in or supporting project financial management in multiple countries.
•    Proficient with Excel with knowledge of Power BI.
•    Experience of using or training Microsoft Dynamics D365 would be an advantage.
Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Disclaimer: Plan International does not require applicants to pay any fee at whatever stage of the recruitment and selection process. We therefore advise the general public to exercise due diligence when applying for employment.