International Finance Project and Knowledge Management Officer

Location: Any MSF Office (*)

Contract: permanent at 100%

Start date: January 2025

Deadline to apply: 17th December 2024

Compensation and benefits: MSF practice is to offer the C&B package current in the MSF entity establishing the contract.

*By default, the successful candidate will be offered a contract in the MSF office of their country of residence at the time of application.

I. MSF INTERNATIONAL

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural disasters. MSF offers assistance to people based only on need and irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.

MSF International is the legal entity that binds MSF’s 24 sections, 28 associations and other offices together. Registered in Switzerland, MSF International provides coordination, information and support to the MSF Movement, as well as implements international projects and initiatives as requested.

II. POSITION BACKGROUND

This position is new. It is being created to improve/create approaches, processes and tools in order to bring current practices to an appropriate level of quality, consistency and efficiency.

The International Finance Team (IFT) is part of the International Office.  One of its main functions is to coordinate an evolving set of permanent and temporary working groups formed by financial directors and other key finance staff from different MSF entities. To do this well:

• The IFT needs to make sure that the members of these groups are informed of and appropriately involved in all movement-wide discussions that touch on financial matters.

• The IFT helps each of these groups oversee an expanding portfolio of projects or initiatives. The IFT also coordinates their involvement in cross-functional projects.

• Contact Management across more than 45 MSF entities has improved but needs to be streamlined.

Another main function of the IFT is to provide movement-wide financial information to governing bodies. Accordingly, MSF entities must provide financial information on a regular basis to the IFT. The finance directors and their teams need to be very conversant with the policies, procedures and tools that exist at international level and that they must use to do this.

 The Project and Knowledge Management Officer would also be asked to assist the International Finance Coordinator on specific and discrete topics with specific initiatives (e.g. work planning of the team, specific studies/analysis, meeting planning).

III. PLACE IN THE ORGANISATION

The Project and Knowledge Management Officer is a member of the International Finance Team (IFT).  The IFT provides movement-wide information to decision makers, encourages collaboration and coordination across MSF entities on financial matters and supports initiatives and projects in the area of financial management. It is different from the finance unit of MSF International which provides financial services to the MSF International Office.

The Project and Knowledge Management (PKM) Officer reports to the International Finance Coordinator. She/he works with all members of the International Finance team and with all working groups.  She/he is also expected to coordinate with their counterparts in other international coordination teams to make sure that initiative management support is coordinated and more broadly, practices are aligned to the extent possible and that best practices are adopted across all areas covered by international coordinators. The PKM Officer will also need to collaborate with the Knowledge Management Team of the International Office and the IT Department.

IV. RESPONSIBILITIES

Since this is a new position, the incumbent would need to review and assess current practices and help establish new practices, tools and standards in all areas of responsibility.

1- Develop, manage and support knowledge management practices within the IFT to ensure that they are of the appropriate level of quality, consistency and efficiency

• Develop, maintain and document all necessary policies, tools and standards for knowledge management practices used by the IFT, including an archiving policy. Improve on the basis of experience or best practice,

• Support the IFT to ensure that its practices comply with the agreed policies or standards,

• Develop and maintain basic guidance for users. Orient new members of the finance community to the knowledge management system in place in a way that is relevant to them,

• Ensure that the use of IT tools (incl. Sharepoint and Teams) optimally serves the working groups or more broadly, the stakeholders who need the information,

• Ensure information repositories are optimally organized according to the needs of stakeholders,

• Manage access to the various repositories,

• Support the IFT to ensure that the information that is provided is appropriate in terms of content and presentation and more generally work closely with the team to ensure that its practices are optimal,

• Organize the collection of documents and potentially help draft/format news ones to ensure that the relevant information is presented optimally, promptly and readily available to stakeholders,

• Communicate with working group and stakeholders as needed to inform them of relevant developments and/or to evaluate their level of satisfaction,

• Problem-solve as needed, and

• Coordinate with counterparts in other international coordination teams or other MSF entities as needed.

2- Administer the projects coordinated by the IFT to ensure that project management is optimally done

• Develop and maintain basic guidance for project team members and other stakeholders,

• Orient new project team members to the project management system in a way that is relevant to them,

• Ensure that the use of IT tools (eg project management application) helps the IFT manage the project portfolio optimally,

• Ensure that the use of IT tools serves the working groups or more broadly, the stakeholders who need to contribute/monitor/oversee to the project effectively,

• Manage access to the tool,

• Work with the relevant IFT member (mostly the International Finance Coordinator) to ensure that practice is consistent across projects, that the quality of project management practices is optimal and that lessons learned result in improved practices, and

• Coordinate with counterparts in other international coordination teams or other MSF entities as needed.

3- Ensure that contact and access management processes are efficient

• Ensure that contact and access management takes advantage of technical developments and modify practices accordingly,

• Manage contact lists for all working groups,

• Manage access rights to all repositories and Teams groups,

• Keep stakeholders informed of how to use the contact and access management system, and

• Problem-solve as needed.

4- Support the International Finance Coordinator on specific topics

This would include :

• Help continuous relevance and consistent approach to creating/maintaining terms of reference of the groups,

• Help establish and maintain good meeting practices, including by helping document decisions and facilitating monitoring the status of past action points and decisions,

• Help plan and coordinate face-to-face meetings within the finance community (e.g. annual meeting of all Finance Directors),

• Help maintain internal planning tools.

5- Other responsibilities

• Contribute to all work planning activities of the IFT,

• Contribute to continuous improvement of work and team processes,

• Take on other responsibilities in line with job responsibilities in agreement with supervisor.

Experience

• 3 to 5 years’ experience with knowledge management and/or project management and/or quality management in a complex and  large organisation,

Education

• Project management certification a plus,

• BSc or MSc in Finance, Commerce or related field preferred,

Knowledges and skills

• Interest and experience in using IT tools/applications to support knowledge management and/or project management and/or quality management, including Sharepoint and Teams at a minimum,

• Excellent writing skills,

Languages:

• Fluency in English,

• French an asset,

And:

• Commitment to the aims and values of Médecins Sans Frontières

• MSF experience an advantage,

• Excellent organizational skills,

• Demonstrated ability to problem-solve innovatively and with forethought,

• Demonstrated ability to initiate or support new processes,

• Demonstrated ability to work with a broad range of stakeholders,

• Good attention to detail, and

• Good task and time management.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

At MSF, we are committed to an inclusive culture that encourages and supports the diverse voices of our employees. We welcome applications from individuals of all genders, ages, sexual orientations, nationalities, races, religions, beliefs, ability status, and all other diversity characteristics.