Finance & Controlling Advisor (Humanitarian Action)

 

Finance & Controlling Advisor (Humanitarian Action)

 

Unit: Humanitarian Action Team (IDS)

 

Preferred location: Vienna (Austria), Nairobi (Kenya), Skopje (North Macedonia), Amman (Jordan), Faridabad (India), La Paz (Bolivia), Dakar (Senegal) 

 

Duration: 1 year

 

About us

 

SOS Children's Villages, founded in 1949, is the world's largest non-governmental organization focused on supporting children and young people without parental care, or at risk of losing it.

Child neglect, abuse and abandonment is everywhere. Families are at risk of separation. Locally led, we work in more than 130 countries and territories to strengthen families who are under pressure so they can stay together. When this is not in a child or young person's best interests, we provide quality care according to their unique needs.

Together with partners, donors, communities, children, young people and families, we enable children to grow up with the bonds they need to develop and become their strongest selves. We speak up for each child's rights and advocate for change so all children can grow up in a supportive environment.

They contribute to the leadership of SOS Children's Villages International (CVI) including enabling sound budgeting and financial management by leaders and managers in the two units: FCS (Federation Secretariat) and IDS (International Development Support).

 

Mission

 

The Humanitarian Action enables and supports local national offices (NOs) or partners when needed or on request, in pursuing their mission as set out in the SOS Children’s Villages International Humanitarian Policy.

The Humanitarian Action Service is ensured by an agile team of deployable senior humanitarian experts having an executive role to Member Associations aiming at reinforcing their capacities, ensure a timely start-up of response or scale-up of humanitarian operations.

This includes internal coordination of various funding streams or humanitarian appeals particularly in case of large-scale responses, as well provision of support for disaster preparedness, recovery and prepositioning of new innovative approaches and partnerships opportunities on the ground or internationally.

 

Furthermore, the department would initiate institutionalization of Humanitarian Development and Peace nexus approach through deliberate integration of short-term life saving and long-term recovery actions in the time of acute and protracted crisis response, whereby the HA and the existing long term development program team work hand in hand and make sure that the affected communities are received an interrupted services in case of major crisis.

 The Finance Operations Advisor ensures sound financial management of SOS CVI’s humanitarian portfolio and the Humanitarian Action Team’s departmental resources by leading budgeting and forecasting, monitoring financial performance, managing funding flows and transfers, and providing consolidated financial information for management decision-making. The role develops and maintains finance tools, provides consolidated financial analyses, and strengthens Member Associations’ financial capacity to deliver compliant, timely, and high-quality humanitarian interventions.

 

Tasks and Responsibilities

• Budget Development: Support Member Associations in developing budgets for large-scale humanitarian interventions, ensuring alignment with organisational policies, donor requirements, and financial standards.
• Departmental Budget Management: Manage and monitor the Humanitarian Action Team’s departmental budget, including annual budget planning, development and regular updating of forecasts, actuals reporting, and variance analysis. Maintain an overview of available resources and expenditure and provide regular financial updates to management, following up on identified deviations and required adjustments.
• Financial Monitoring: Monitor financial operations across Member Associations by reviewing key financial reports, conducting spot checks, analysing financial trends, and providing recommendations for corrective action where required.
• Financial Management Tools: Develop and maintain financial management and monitoring tools, including budget tracking templates, reconciliation tools, and reporting formats, to support effective financial oversight and decision-making.
• Capacity Building and Training: Contribute to the capacity building of finance staff in Member Associations through coaching, guidance, and training on financial policies, tools, systems, and compliance requirements.
• Funding Transfers and Cash Flow Management: Manage the review and approval of humanitarian funding transfers in NPO Accelerator (D365), ensuring that transfers are based on sound cash-flow planning and aligned with project implementation, reported actuals, available balances, financial reporting in relevant systems, and donor transfer schedules. For projects supported through pooled funding from several SOS partners, coordinate transfer planning and liaise with contributing partners on funding priorities and transfer schedules.
• Funding Transfers: Manage and support the transfer of humanitarian funding in close collaboration with the Finance & Controlling Department, ensuring timely processing and compliance with internal policies and procedures.
• Financial Analysis: Produce and provide consolidated financial data and analysis for the humanitarian portfolio, including donor contributions, funding gaps, expenditure trends, and other relevant financial indicators, to support informed decision-making.
• Safeguarding and Code of Conduct: Safeguarding responsibilities and adherence to the Code of Conduct to be completed by HR.

 

Responsibilities to Uphold Safeguarding (standards) and Promote a Safe Environment

 

As someone working for or on behalf of SOS Children’s Villages, you are responsible for helping to create and maintain a safe and protective environment for staff, as well as for the children, young people, and adult programme participants supported and cared for by SOS Children’s Villages. You are expected to:

• Commit to the Code of Conduct and reflect on the safeguarding implications of your work on an ongoing basis.
• Actively participate in team discussions to identify risks and share and apply preventative and mitigation measures and strategies.
• Integrate safeguarding principles into your daily decisions and tasks.
• Report any safeguarding concerns promptly and in line with procedures.
• Promote values-based culture, accountability and zero tolerance of harm.

 

Requirements

• Master’s degree, preferably in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, or a related field.
• Professional certification (e.g., CPA, ACCA, CMA) is an advantage.
• 5–8 years of relevant professional experience in finance operations, financial management, or programme finance.
• At least 3 years of experience in an international or humanitarian context
• Willingness and availability to travel internationally up to 20% of the time.
• Excellent command of English, both written and spoken
• Desired: Proficiency in Spanish, French, or Arabic.

Technical Skills

• Financial Management: Strong knowledge of financial management of funds, including grant tracking, financial reporting, and compliance with funding agreements.
• Budget Development: Advanced skills in budget development, monitoring, and analysis for large-scale interventions.
• Financial Management Tools: Proven ability to develop and implement financial management tools, including budget tracking, reconciliation, and reporting tools.
• Financial Analysis: Advanced skills in financial analysis, including the ability to identify trends, risks, funding gaps, and financial variances.
• Capacity Building and Training: Strong skills in capacity building and training of finance staff across national and field teams.
• Microsoft Office and Financial Systems: High proficiency in Microsoft Excel and financial management systems, including D365.
• Collaboration: Excellent collaboration skills and the ability to work effectively with Finance & Controlling teams and operational staff.
• Humanitarian Finance: Knowledge of humanitarian financing mechanisms and pooled funding arrangements (desired)
• Project Start-Up Finance: Familiarity with surge support and establishing finance structures in emergency contexts (desired)
• Audit: Understanding of audit processes and financial risk management frameworks (desired)
• Financial Reporting Tools: Knowledge of additional financial reporting and business intelligence tools, such as Power BI (desired)

Other Competencies and Soft Skills

• Strong attention to detail and accuracy in financial data management.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex financial data.
• Excellent intercultural communication skills and the ability to work effectively with diverse teams.
• Strong advisory and coaching skills, with the ability to support colleagues with different levels of financial expertise.
• Ability to prioritise, organise, and deliver effectively under pressure in a humanitarian context.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively with national and field teams.
• Facilitation and training skills for group capacity-building sessions (desired)
• Experience providing remote support and using digital collaboration tools (desired)
• Flexibility and adaptability to changing funding flows and emergency requirements. (desired)

 

Ways of working: 

 

• Global collaboration and communication – Working effectively across countries, cultures, and time zones by maintaining clear communication, transparency, and shared understanding within distributed teams.
• Cross-functional collaboration – Working closely with colleagues across different functions and areas of expertise to combine knowledge, solve problems collectively, and deliver meaningful outcomes aligned with the organisation’s mission.
• Effective collaboration within matrix structures – Working constructively within solid and dotted reporting lines by maintaining open communication, aligning priorities with both line and functional managers, and ensuring clarity on roles, responsibilities, and expectations to support coordinated delivery across teams.
• Flexibility and adaptability – Remaining responsive to evolving contexts and adjusting priorities, approaches, and ways of collaboration as projects, services, or organisational demand evolve.
• Ownership and accountability – Taking responsibility for advancing tasks and initiatives, proactively addressing obstacles, and ensuring that commitments, decisions, and actions are carried through to completion, taking initiative within your scope of responsibility rather than waiting for direction.
• Strengthening member associations and their autonomy – Ensuring that knowledge, tools, and lessons from projects and services are shared with member associations so they can learn from the work carried out and progressively strengthen their capacity and independence.
• Continuous feedback and transparency - Contributing to a culture where feedback and data are shared openly and constructively, enabling teams and stakeholders involved to reflect, learn, and continuously improve their work and impact.

What We Stand for 

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to creating and maintaining a caring and protective environment, which promotes its core values, and prevents and addresses child abuse and exploitation. We strongly condemn all forms of child abuse and exploitation, be it within or outside of our organization, and always respond to any case of proven, alleged or attempted abuse within our sphere of influence according to its nature. Efforts ensure that mechanisms are in place to raise awareness, aid prevention, encourage reporting and ease response. They range from human resource development actions such as training and counselling to measures such as suspension, dismissal, and legal action. 

SOS Children’s Villages is committed to creating and maintaining a safe working environment for our staff, the children and young people and the communities that we work for. The organization prohibits harassment, exploitation and abuses by or of any employee, supervisor, manager, child, young people, community, contractor, applicant, or other individual with whom SOS Children’s Villages employees come into contact by virtue of their work. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our prevention and protection against Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse policy. 

In addition, SOS Children’s Villages apply a zero-tolerance concerning any fraud situation. The organization does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process. 

Successful candidates will have to submit a criminal record certificate, current within the last three years. In accordance with the organisation’s child protection policy, these positions will be subject to criminal record checks. 

 

How to apply?

 

If you are interested in this position, please send your detailed application in English through ICISMs here: https://careers-sos-kd.icims.com/

Please note that applications will be reviewed and suitable candidates will be contacted for interviews on an ongoing basis. The position will remain open until filled.