Senior Accountant (ACO Corporate Accounting Management)
🔍 Belgium
- 📅
- 250575 Requisition #
Post Context/Post Summary
SHAPE supports the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe (SACEUR) in fulfilling his terms of reference, as directed by the North Atlantic Council.
The Finance and Acquisition Directorate is responsible for all international and multinational appropriated and non-appropriated funds in Allied Command Operations (ACO). The responsibility encompasses supervision and oversight of subordinate ACO commands and development of financial and acquisition policies.
The ACO Corporate Accounting and Control Branch performs delegated financial controller functions for the ACO HQs.
The Corporate Accounting Management Section ensures solid finance, accounting and cash management expertise on ACO HQs and operations.
The incumbent provides direction, hands-on management, and continual improvement of day-to-day financial operations and systems including accounting and reporting. Ensures general ledger, cash management, financial statements and bank reconciliations are accurate and completed in a timely manner and prepares the consolidated annual financial statements process of ACO.
Principal Duties
The incumbent's duties are:
· Ensures the development and implementation of and compliance with policies, directives and international accounting standards.
· Contributes to the development and implementation of IPSAS and financial accounting policy/directives throughout ACO. Is part of the NATO accounting working group.
· Is part of the key user team for the development of ACO centralized accounting strategy and implementation of upgraded accounting system.
· Provides support and direction to ACO Finance and Accounting offices. Ensures general ledger, cash management, financial statements and bank reconciliations are accurate and completed in a timely manner.
· Prepares the consolidated annual financial statements for ACO.
· Contributes to the preparation of the ACO End-of-Year Guidance for the ACO Commands and MWA activities.
· Deals with logistic, finance, accounting, budgeting and disbursing offices throughout ACO and other NATO entities for all accounting matters & issues.
· Maintains the fixed asset inventory system by supervising the recording of all items in the inventory, maintaining pertinent records and ensuring adequate treatment of fixed asset acquisitions and retirements, within means and capabilities.
· Maintains the ACO General ledger providing support to the section for the recurring accounting requirements, analysis, monthly reconciliation, quarterly reconciliation, iterative process and preparation of the annual closure in line with the adopted accounting principles and standards;
· Liaises with the internal and external auditors for reports of financial and performance audit of ACO HQ and programs. Contributes to the follow-up of the internal/external audit recommendations;
· Makes recommendations in relation to reimbursable services for external NATO HQs, Agencies, and other organisations on the basis of service level agreements (SLAs). Is responsible for developing the requirements external service providers have to meet for the accounting and asset management performed by ACO.
· On behalf of the Branch Head, takes decisions of financial accounting policy guidance and ACO issues as they arise. Authority to make decisions regarding work priorities of the supporting staff of the organisational unit. Authorised to intervene to adjust the day to day work priorities of the staff to ensure that they match those of the head of the organisational unit and the HQ.
Special Requirements and Additional Duties
The incumbent may be required to undertake deployments in support of military operations and exercises, and/or TDY assignments, both within and without NATO boundaries up to 180 days. The employee may be required to perform a similar range of duties elsewhere within the organization at the same grade without there being any change to the contract.
Essential Qualifications
A. Professional/Experience
1. Extensive experience in developing finance and/or accounting policies and processes.
2. Extensive experience in ensuring proper internal controls in the finance and accounting area to achieve reasonable assurance that the entity is operating efficiently and effectively.
3. Extensive experience in the analysis and/or preparation of financial statements in the private or public sector.
4. Demonstrates in-depth knowledge and expertise of accounting principles, procedures and standards (IPSAS and/or IFRS). Ability to support the implementation of IPSAS and/or IFRS.
B. Education/Training
University Degree in accounting, finance, management, business administration, public administration, economics or related discipline and 4 years post related experience, or Higher Secondary education and completed advanced vocational training in that discipline leading to a professional qualification or professional accreditation with 7 years post related experience.
C. Language
English - SLP 3333 (Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)
Desirable Qualifications
A. Professional Experience
1. Extensive experience with operation of ERPs systems.
2. Experience and knowledge in the application of NATO financial rules and regulations.
3. Experience as an accountant, finance officer or Chief Finance in NATO, a major international/multi-national organization or a national audit institution.
4. Experience in the preparation of consolidated financial statements.
5. Experience to coordinate/supervise functional teams within his/her area of expertise.
B. Education/Training
1. Professional accounting qualification.
2. An advanced university degree (MS, MA, MBA, MPA, or equivalent) or postgraduate diploma in accounting, finance, management, business administration, or related field.
Attributes/Competencies
1. Personal Attributes: Displays a high degree of integrity, proactivity, and professionalism. Strong skills in analyzing complex and novel issues in international accounting standards/directives. Excellent skills in drafting policy documents, including briefing notes and reports on financial and accounting.
2. Managerial Responsibilities: Excellent coordination skills to ensure smooth financial closure of all the ACO HQs and preparation of ACO Consolidated Financial Statements. Additionally, dependent on requirements, may be required to direct and supervise the work priorities of one or more ACO HQ multifunctional finance and accounting teams
3. Professional Contacts: Individual has daily external contacts with the financial community in ACO. The incumbent interacts routinely with financial managers (A3/4), Legal Officers (A4/A5) or military equivalents through ACO ensuring efficient use of available resources.
4. Contribution to Objectives: The incumbent will develop, analyse and consolidate financial accounting data in order to develop financial solutions to important challenges facing ACO. They will:
a. Develop financial directives and accounting policies.
b. Contributes to the development of the strategic level implementation of a centralized accounting system together with the upgrade of the financial accounting system.
c. Identify and recommend solutions for providing accounting support to operational missions and ACO HQs.
d. Guarantee the integrity of the accounting aspects of the ACO automated financial management system.
e. Provides direct support to operational mission objectives and the establishment and management of complex contingency funding mechanisms.
5. Supervisory Responsibilities: Supervises the operations of the corporate staff in charge to of the daily operation related to the corporate office. This post deputises the Section Head (ACO Corporate Accounting Management).
REMARKS:
Duration of contract: Serving staff members will be offered a contract according to the NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations (NCPR). Newly recruited staff will be offered a definite duration contract of three years normally followed by an indefinite duration contract.
The salary will be the basic entry-level monthly salary defined by the NATO Grade of the post, which may be augmented by allowances based on the selected staff member’s eligibility, and which is subject to the withholding of approximately 20% for pension and medical insurance contributions.
NATO is committed to diversity and inclusion, and strives to provide equal access to employment, advancement, and retention, independent of gender, age, nationality, ethnic origin, religion or belief, cultural background, sexual orientation, and disability. NATO welcomes applications of nationals from all member Nations.
Building integrity is a key element of NATO’s core tasks. As an employer, NATO values commitment to the principles of integrity, transparency, and accountability in accordance with international norms and practices established for the defence and related security sector. Selected candidates are expected to be role models of integrity, and to promote good governance through ongoing efforts in their work.
Applicants who prove to be competent for the post but who are not successful in this competition may be offered an appointment in another post of a similar nature, which might become vacant in the near future, albeit at the same or lower grade, provided they meet the necessary requirements.
We believe that all people are capable of great things. Because of this, we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet all of the criteria listed within this job description.
HOW TO APPLY FOR A NATO CIVILIAN POST AT SHAPE:
Applications are to be submitted using NATO Talent Acquisition Platform (NTAP) (https://nato.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobsearch.ftl?lang-en). Applications submitted by other means (e.g. mail, e-mail, fax, etc) are not accepted.
More information to be found on these links:
Shortlisted candidates will be requested to provide original documentary evidence and a set of copies supporting statements in their applications. Appointment is subject to obtaining a NS security clearance and a medical certificate.
Remarks:
A) Only nationals from the 32 NATO member states can apply for vacancies at SHAPE.
B) Applications are automatically acknowledged within one working day after submission. In the absence of an acknowledgement please make sure the submission process is completed, or, re-submit the application.
C) Qualified redundant staff of the same grade interested in this post should inform this office, via their HR/Personnel Office by not later than vacancy’s closing date.
D) NATO will not accept any phase of the recruitment and selection prepared, in whole or in part, by means of generative artificial-intelligence (AI) tools, including and without limitation to Chatbots, such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (Chat GPT), or other language generating tools. NATO reserves the right to screen applications to identify the use of such tools. All applications prepared, in whole or in part, by means of such generative or creative AI applications may be rejected without further consideration at NATO’s sole discretion, and NATO reserves the right to take further steps in such cases as appropriate.