Internal Control Advisor

Reporting line and general responsibilities  

• Reporting into UNOPS’ Head of Compliance, the Internal Control Advisor is expected to bring in significant experience in designing, improving and implementing internal control systems and work autonomously to implement the necessary activities within UNOPS. 

• The successful candidate will be responsible for defining the strategy for enhancement of the ICF and the function’s annual focus areas, targets, performance indicators, resourcing and workplan. 

• The successful candidate will be expected to independently lead reviews on existing capabilities specific to policies, processes, systems, functions and offices. This may take the form of gap analyses, reviews of control designs, validating Internal Control data as well as testing the effectiveness of control implementation. The reviews may extend to cover elements of organizational culture, skills, roles and tools critical to an effective control environment. 

• The successful candidate will also be responsible to address any audit recommendations specific to UNOPS’ ICF and close those recommendations by implementing appropriate corrective actions.

Strategic advice and transformation mandate

• The Internal Control Advisor is expected to play a transformative role in redefining the Internal Control agenda for UNOPS and uplifting the maturity of the Internal Control function across processes and regions. This will require aligning closely with a broader, ongoing business transformation and digitalization agenda, and advising local and functional leadership on optimizing internal controls to ensure the ICF strikes the right balance between appropriate segregation of duties, accountability for decision making and reasonable risk mitigation in light of UNOPS’ risk appetite and need for speed and agility. 

• Further, the Internal Control Advisor will be expected to drive rigour yet simplicity into the rollout of any enhancements to the existing ICF. 

• Lastly, the Internal Control Advisor will be expected to provide regular updates on progress on priorities agreed with line management. 

Capacity building and knowledge management

• The Internal Control Advisor is expected to provide Internal Control training, coaching and facilitation support to UNOPS stakeholders, whether at Headquarters or in regional offices. 

• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or PhD) in accounting, finance or a related field;
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent) with two (2) additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of a Master’s degree;
• Certifications in Accounting, Internal Control and Internal Audit are considered an advantage.

• A minimum of seven (7) years (or more depending on academic credentials) of experience in the design, development, and implementation of Internal Control frameworks (required)
• Experience in managing an Internal Control function and associated resources (required)
• Experience in control testing (required)
• Experience in fraud risk management (required)
• Experience in developing reporting dashboards for Internal Control visualization  (required)
• Experience in cross-functional collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders (required)
• Experience in developing controls across end-to-end processes (required)
• Experience in large, global organizations (required)
• Experience in optimizing internal controls through acquisition and roll out of enterprise technology platforms (desirable)
• Experience as an auditor (desirable)
• Experience designing and rolling out in-house trainings (desirable)

• Fluency in English (required)
• Fluency in Spanish and/or French (desired)