Treasury Associate - (Re-Advertisement) - [Open… at UN Women · Madrid

Duties and Responsibilities

This vacancy is open to nationals of EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, or Switzerland.

Background

The Bureau for Management Services’ Office of Financial Resources Management (BMS/OFRM) supports the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the implementation of the 2030 agenda and UNDP’s Strategic Plan. It achieves this by developing and making fully operational a dynamic and harmonized integrated resource management framework based on comprehensive analysis that enhances UNDP’s financial and administrative performance, as well as facilitating UN reform and coherence. The primary role of BMS/ OFRM is to maintain the financial integrity of UNDP through providing functional leadership, supporting the efficient and effective management of its financial resources, promoting financial sustainability and responsible resource allocation. This is accomplished by the development and implementation of sound financial policies and practices, oversight of corporate financial management performance, and flexible scalable support to resource allocation. BMS/OFRM serves as a business partner to Bureaux and Country Offices, providing sound financial management, advisory and analytical services, with a view to continuously improve the financial management performance of business units and support Bureaux in the exercising of their oversight functions.

Within OFRM, the Treasury Division oversees cash, currency and banking risks globally in over 130 countries and over 100 currencies, managing the organization’s liquidity with centralized investment of excess cash balances to meet its liabilities. Treasury Division maintains policy and oversight of global payments and receivables, cash management, manages banking relationships, compliance, and KYC. The Treasury Division safeguards UNDP’s financial assets and ensures efficient, transparent global payments supporting programme delivery. As digital technologies transform global finance, Treasury is accelerating modernization to enhance speed, cost efficiency, transparency, and automation.

Scope of Work:

Under the direct supervision of the Treasury Specialist, the Treasury Associate provides analytical support and services in the day-to-day cash management areas, monitoring of imprest cash levels, conducts compliance oversight, and problem solves for local cash management, cash replenishment from HQ, petty cash operations, and bank account and signatory management. The incumbent works closely with the Treasury Officer and Treasury Associates within the team, Investment Specialist in the Investment unit to process CO replenishment through FX Optimization program, repatriation of excess fund, and to support with the data analysis for CO imprest management, cashflow forecasting, to ensure a resilient, flexible, and scalable global support model.

Duties and Responsibilities

Support Country Offices in having adequate local and hard currency balances to optimally meet operational needs:

• Provide analytical and modelling support to the Treasury Officer and Investment Specialist in developing and refining cash‑flow forecasting models that enable Country Offices to accurately determine optimal imprest levels. Utilize trend analysis, sensitivity testing, and scenario modelling to strengthen

  Country Office liquidity planning.

• Assess and advise on optimal currency positioning, ensuring that Country Offices maintain adequate balances in both local and hard currencies to meet operational expenditures efficiently while minimizing FX exposure, liquidity constraints, and idle cash.

• Review and validate replenishment requests submitted through UNall or other channels, conducting detailed checks for accuracy, completeness, and compliance with imprest management policies, liquidity thresholds, and Treasury’s internal control framework. Ensure that requests align with available HQ liquidity and Country Office expenditure patterns before processing.

• Analyze Country Office short‑term and medium‑term cash‑flow requirements, using historical disbursement patterns, pipeline data, and operational projections. Based on validated needs, process EFTs in FIS/Integrity with full adherence to settlement timelines, funding windows, and FRR requirements.

• Develop and maintain monitoring dashboards and tracking reports, utilizing analytical tools to identify anomalies, unusual fund movements, recurrent errors, or potential control gaps. Escalate material risk indicators and provide evidence‑based recommendations for corrective action.

Bank Signatory updates of Country Office Bank accounts including review of internal control compliance:

• Conduct periodic and systematic reviews of the aging status of all bank account signatory changes to ensure their accuracy, validity, and timely implementation. Perform analytical checks to identify lags, control gaps, or inconsistencies in signatory updates maintained by Country Offices and Headquarters.
• Run compliance and control reports to verify adherence to UNDP Financial Regulations & Rules (FRRs) and segregation‑of‑duties requirements governing bank signatories. Perform variance and exception analysis to identify discrepancies, potential conflicts, or breaches in authority structures, and initiate immediate corrective actions in coordination with relevant business units.
• Process and validate bank signatory updates for Zero Balance Accounts (ZBAs), ensuring completeness and accuracy of documentation, proper authorization, and full alignment with Treasury’s internal control framework. Review and verify signatory updates submitted by Country Offices, flag anomalies, and ensure timely resolution to maintain institutional banking integrity.
• Prepare high‑quality documentation for management approval, maintaining comprehensive, audit‑ready records of all signatory changes. Serve as a liaison with banking partners to coordinate updates, clarify requirements, and support due‑diligence processes, ensuring uninterrupted account operability and alignment with banking compliance standards.

Monitor and manage open cases and inquiries from Country Offices to ensure timely resolution:

• Manage and analyze zero-balance account (ZBA) payment inquiries, evaluating and ensure proper end‑of‑day resolution .
• Triaging and resolving ServiceNow (UNall) inquiries from country offices by assessing operational bottlenecks, data‑quality problems, or payment routing errors; provide authoritative guidance on Treasury processes and escalate system defects or recurring patterns to functional teams with documented root‑cause insights.
• Process, track, and resolve payment recall requests and investigate returned or rejected payments by analyzing SWIFT return codes, sanction screening outcomes, and account validation errors; coordinate remediation with banks, country offices, and internal stakeholders to ensure timely recovery or re‑execution.

Coordinate periodic publication of UN Operational Exchange Rate (UNORE):

• Collect, validate, and analyze local exchange rates submitted by Country Offices, applying reasonableness checks, and outlier detection. Update the UNORE working files with validated data and ensure timely submission for UNORE setup in accordance with the established monthly and ad‑hoc rate‑setting schedule.
• Execute specialized rate‑upload activities by performing manual UNORE uploads in the ERP for specific currencies that require non‑standard treatment or exceptional handling. Verify accuracy of rate mapping, system posting logic, and downstream impacts on Treasury, Finance, and Country Office transactions.
• Conduct ongoing governance of the UNORE calendar, ensuring that rate‑setting timelines, blackout periods, and processing cycles are accurately reflected and proactively updated. Identify scheduling conflicts or operational risks that could affect timely publication of UN operational rates.
• Provide technical oversight of the UNORE SharePoint site, which serves as the central platform for rate collection and communication with Country Offices. Troubleshoot functionality issues, support CO users with error resolution, and escalate technical problems to IT support teams as needed to maintain system reliability.
• Deliver analytical insights by identifying anomalies in rate submissions, significant FX fluctuations, recurring data quality issues, or country‑specific risks. Escalate material deviations and provide recommendations for corrective action or further review by Treasury management.

Monitor country office compliance with the Internal Control Framework, cash management procedures and policies on an ongoing basis:

• Continuously monitor Country Office bank balances to assess the receipt of local contributions, identify excess cash positions relative to established imprest benchmarks, and detect liquidity inefficiencies.
• Perform variance and trend analysis to flag abnormal accumulation of funds or deviations from expected cash‑flow patterns.
• Oversee and analyze Country Office local investment activities, where authorized, by reviewing compliance with imprest ceilings, liquidity thresholds, and investment eligibility criteria. Conduct exception analysis to ensure that local investments are aligned with Treasury’s risk parameters and do not expose UNDP to undue financial or operational risk.
• Identify and follow up on aged petty cash and cash‑arrangement exceptions, applying root‑cause analysis to detect control weaknesses, delayed clearances, or repeated non‑compliance. Work with Country Offices to implement corrective actions, strengthen internal controls, and ensure timely liquidation of outstanding cash balances.
• Support the annual Treasury Certification process by providing analytical inputs, validating Country Office cash management data, and verifying compliance against Treasury control requirements. Prepare documentation, reconcile evidence, and ensure that certification activities are audit‑ready and consistent with UNDP Financial Regulations & Rules (FRRs) and the Internal Control Framework (ICF).

Prepare periodic country office/ Bureau Cash Management Review:

• Lead quarterly analytical reviews of Country Offices and bureaux performance, synthesizing financial and operational indicators into concise One‑Pager executive briefs. Apply trend, variance, and cohort analysis to surface key drivers, structural shifts, and outliers that require management attention.
• Design and maintain a standardized One‑Pager framework with consistent KPIs (e.g., cash utilization vs. imprest benchmarks, settlement efficiency/STP, FX exposure to UNORE, aging exceptions, compliance status against FRRs/ICF controls).
• Conduct comparative and cohort analysis across regions, bureaux, and peer Country Office clusters to benchmark performance, identify recurring pain points, and highlight leading practices. Use time‑series and seasonality checks to distinguish structural issues from cyclical patterns.
• Track implementation of recommendations through a formal follow‑up and verification cycle, including evidence reviews (e.g., updated SOPs, corrected SSIs, reconciliations cleared, system fixes deployed).
• Develop management dashboards and drill‑down reports (Power BI or equivalent) that visualize KPI movements, red‑amber‑green statuses, and heat maps of risk concentrations. Enable Country Offices and bureaux to self‑monitor and pre‑empt exceptions before quarter close.

Facilitate knowledge sharing:

• Synthesize lessons learned and best practices in financial management.
• Provide sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
• The functions are assigned and distributed by the supervisor in the team as necessary. The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

Institutional Arrangement:

• The position is part of a team of four members, including the supervisor, and has no direct reports.

Competencies

Core:

Achieve Results: LEVEL 1:

• Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1:

• Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1:

• Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1:

• Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible

Act with Determination: LEVEL 1:

• Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1:

• Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1:

• Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Cross-Functional & Technical:

Business Management - Customer Satisfaction/Client Management:

• Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers' needs. Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy. Look for ways to add value beyond clients' immediate requests.
• Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.

Business Management - Communication:

• Communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience. Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels

Finance - Treasury Cash Management:

• Ability to manage organization's cash and investment holdings with the ultimate goal of maximizing liquidity and mitigating risks. Understands the economic environment, interest rates and the importance of economic forecasting. Understands and can implement a treasury management strategy, including cash flow management, debt management and investment strategies.

Finance - Anti-fraud and anti-bribery and corruption:

• Anti-bribery and corruption: Understands the policy and best practice relating to anti-bribery and corruption controls and ensures these are implemented and widely understood within the organization.
• Anti-fraud: Understands the fraud risks faced by public bodies and is able to effectively analyse data to support fraud identification and fraud risk management; understands the fraud risks faced by public bodies and is able to conduct fraud risk assessment and response plan.

Finance - Banking and cash management:

• Ability to collect, handle, and manage cash, which involves assessing market liquidity, cash flow, and investments.

Finance - Finance Business Partnering:

• Able to support business units and add value by innovating and providing solutions to financial issues/queries, including through FAQs, financial tools, advisory, etc. Influences and appropriately challenges non-finance colleagues for whom the service is being provided. Understands the operations, opportunities and challenges of the organization. Holds a commercial outlook, demonstrating accountability towards organizational goals.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Completion of Secondary Education is required with specialized certification in Accounting, Finance or Treasury.
• First level University degree (Bachelor’s Degree) in Finance or Accounting .or equivalent field will be given due consideration, but not a requirement.
• Part-qualified accountants from a recognized institute of accountancy, or relevant Treasury qualification, will have a distinct advantage.
• Candidates with no professional accountancy qualifications, but with degrees that major in accountancy and/or finance must complete UNDP Finance Training and Certification Programme (FTCP), if recruited. However, no UNDP Accountancy and Finance Test (AFT) is required.
• Candidates with no professional accountancy qualifications but with relevant experience must successfully undertake UNDP Accountancy and Finance Test (AFT) before shortlisting, and must complete the UNDP Finance Training and Certification Programme (FTCP), if recruited.

Experience:

• Minimum of seven (7) years (with Secondary Education) or four (4) years (with Bachelor’s degree )in corporate treasury, FX operations, banking, or financial analytics.
• Experience, Knowledge, and skills
• Experience with ERP financial systems (e.g., Oracle).
• Experience and sound understanding of banking, cash management, global payments system.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel, BI and database packages.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills
• Proven knowledge of IPSAS, IFRS and/or GAAP.
• Demonstrated experience in AI, digital transformation, and process automation. Eager to explore and apply new technologies.
• Experience as a collaborative team player with flexibility to work across global time zones.

Desirable Criteria:

• Hands-on experience with Treasury Management Systems (TMS), including transaction processing, reporting, or system administration.

• Demonstrated experience in cash management, including liquidity management, forecasting, and reconciliation activities.

• Proven ability to serve and communicate effectively with clients from diverse and multicultural backgrounds, demonstrating cultural sensitivity and

  adaptability.

Required Language(s):

• Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of an official UN Languages an advantage.

Professional Certificates :

• Distinct Advantage: ACT, CFA, ACCA, CPA, CIMA, CIPFA, or other internationally recognized accounting certifications.

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination.

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles.

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Use of AI by candidates

Applicants are invited to read UNDP’s guidance for candidates on using AI responsibly in UNDP recruitment and selection

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.