The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a global, CEO-led organization of over 200 leading businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world. We help make our member companies more successful and sustainable by focusing on the maximum positive impact for shareholders, the environment and societies.

Our member companies come from all business sectors and all major economies, representing combined revenues of more than USD $8.5 trillion and 19 million employees. Our global network of almost 70 national business councils gives our members unparalleled reach across the globe. WBCSD is uniquely positioned to work with member companies along and across value chains to deliver impactful business solutions to the most challenging sustainability issues.

Together, we are the leading voice of business for sustainability: with a vision of a world where more than nine billion people are all living well and within the boundaries of our planet, by 2050.

Job Overview

Managing the finances of WBCSD is a complicated puzzle with varied sources of income being used to cover various types of activity. The challenge for the Manager, Financial Planning and Analysis is to help the organisation keep projects and programs running as fast as they can whilst staying within the resources available. This is a permanent role, reporting to the Finance Director.

Responsibilities and duties

The majority of the role is focussed on classic not-for-profit FP&A, but it also includes responsibility for the coordination of grant funding, which is very closely linked. This means coordinating the annual budgeting process to ensure that both members’ preferences and WBCSD’s strategic priorities are appropriately funded. The running the two reforecasting cycles after 4 and 8 months, tracking and managing deviations from forecast on a continuous basis.

• Strategic and operational considerations
  • Review the medium and long term financial objectives and challenges of the organisation and support senior management in developing a five-year financial plan;
  • Provide financial management input into the enterprise risk management process
  • Continually review and refine financial and related operational KPIs to drive the appropriate behaviours;
  • Proactively implement ways to improve accuracy of financial projections and provide early warning to senior management of deviations from plan;
  • Ensure that the process for approving any expenditure budget (i.e. giving the green light to spend) is clear, transparent, understood and documented.
• Financial planning and analysis
  • Coordinate the annual business planning process including:
    • assisting with refining the program structure and survey of members’ interest
    • coordinating and critically reviewing income projections
    • assisting in the development of budget assumptions
  • Manage the process of defining the parameters of the resource allocation model for each budget cycle;
  • Drive the finalisation of the budget in good time for presentation to the ExCo and Council at the Council Meeting each year;
  • Coordinate the four, eight and twelve-month forecasting processes to ensure all income and expenditure is realistically forecasted and risks are quantified;
  • Continually monitor actual and forecast progress towards key income and expenditure targets, including financial risks, and alert senior management to any significant deviation or concern;
  • Develop a process of identifying opportunities to improve the financial situation in the short and medium term in terms of additional income, reduced cost or optimisation of resource allocation;
  • Develop and maintain close working relationships with budget holders and ensure their forecasting aptitude through hands-on support and coaching;
  • Develop and maintain a close working relationship with the ICT function and ensure systems and processes to support FP&A are robust, documented and secure.
• The Grants Management process
  • Design and get approval for a clear, simple but comprehensive grants management process that supports each of the key steps of the grant life cycle and is coherent with, and mutually reinforces, the project management and budget management processes;
  • Design and build a grants management database to support the management process including visibility of timelines, deliverables, deadlines and reporting requirements;
  • Coordinate the grant management process to grow the organisation’s access to grant funding whilst controlling liabilities and protecting reputation;
  • In collaboration with accounting staff, help project managers prepare and submit financial reports to grantors as per the requirements of their respective agreements;
  • Design and prepare a dashboard or other recurring management report for senior management to illustrate funding trends and issues.

Qualifications

• Education level
  • A Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics or similar
  • A postgraduate qualification in a related field would be an asset
• Experience
  • 3-5+ years of business finance or other relevant experience in a non-profit orgainsation
  • Some experience of grant management
• Skills and competencies
  • High proficiency with financial modeling and techniques
  • Strong fluency with Power BI, Salesforce or similar systems as well as Excel macros
  • Strong analytical and data gathering skills
  • Strong interpersonal skills, including written and oral communication skills
  • Good problem-solving skills and business acumen
• Personal characteristics
  • Self-starter with drive and enthusiasm
  • Comfort dealing with ambiguity
  • At ease interacting with staff at all levels including executive-level management

The position is full-time and based in Geneva.

WBCSD is a purpose driven, forward-thinking and action-oriented organization, characterised by diversity of gender, nationalities and work experiences.

The Work Environment:

WBCSD offers a competitive, modern, and flexible working arrangement:

• Geneva-based organization with offices in London, New Delhi, Singapore and New York City

• Competitive compensation and benefits
• State-of-the-art facilities and ICT-enabled working tools
• Flex-time and part-time possibilities
• Dynamic working atmosphere
• Open culture encouraging interaction and sharing of ideas and opinions
• International relocation support
• Sustainable commuting incentives

Please also note that WBCSD will only respond to candidates selected for the interview process.