Nature of the tasks:

Reporting directly to the Director and as part of a team of three persons, the post requires strong aptitude for carrying out specific budget and financial tasks in order to ensure sound financial management.

More specifically, the official will be required to manage the following areas of activity:

• For budget lines for which he/she is appointed Financial Initiating Agent, initiate financial files for the purposes of validating budgetary and legal commitments, payments, estimates of amounts receivable and recovery orders in compliance with the Financial Regulation, its Rules of Application, the Internal Rules for the implementation of the budget and all other applicable rules and procedures, in order to ensure the legality and regularity of operations;
• Monitor budget planning and execution (commitment and payment consumption) in cooperation with the operational service(s);
• Assist colleagues and contractors in correctly applying financial procedures, including coaching and/or training;
• Report any issue relating to non-compliance with rules or procedures to the Authorising Officer by Sub-delegation and prepare financial exception reports, where necessary;
• Prepare Calls for Tenders in cooperation with Operational Initiating Agents, in particular with regard to the financial aspects. Analyse the financial aspects of tender documents in the context of public procurement procedures. Ensure that contracts are registered in the designated register;
• Handle the financial aspects of contract management, in particular the monitoring of contract consumption. Ensure that all financial files and contracts are archived;
• Provide assistance with drawing up annual activity reports and disclosing information for the purposes of internal audits and to the Court of Auditors. Produce statistical reports with the Business Objects programme (ABAC Datawarehouse);
• Keep budgetary monitoring tables for staff and management up-to-date;
• Update budgetary procedures and put forward proposals on the application of Internal Control Standards relating to budgetary issues.

Qualifications required:

• Thorough knowledge of an official language of the EU and satisfactory knowledge of another official language of the EU. For functional reasons, thorough knowledge of French or English is required. Knowledge of other languages of the EU would be an asset;
• Good knowledge of the financial rules (essentially, the Financial Regulation, its implementing rules, the rules on public procurement);
• Experience with management of framework contracts and external service providers;
• Legal, accounting, economic/statistical or administrative training;
• Profound knowledge of Excel;
• Knowledge of the IT applications of the European institutions would be an asset (ABAC, SAP Business Objects Infoview, SYSPER, AGORA...);
• Ability to work as part of a team;
• Ability to work well under pressure and to meet deadlines;
• A very good capacity for summary and analysis (ability to distinguish the essential from the inessential and to identify areas of risk);
• Oral and written communication skills;
• Good interpersonal skills and diplomacy.