Staff Assistant

*Pending Approval*

As this post still requires North Atlantic Council's (NAC) approval, the contract may only be offered once approved by NAC.

If you are an experienced Staff Assistant (Budget and Disbursing) looking to join a dynamic team working in a multi-national environment, JFTC would be interested in hearing from you

Post Context

The Joint Force Training Centre supports Warfare Development, contributing to concept development and maintenance of joint doctrine and standards while coordinating the integration of experimentation, capability development, and interoperability to improve NATO's interoperability, capabilities, and operational effectiveness.

The Deputy Commander/Chief of Staff (DCOM/COS) leads and coordinates all aspects of the staff's work in support of the COM, including tasking, direction and guidance, cross-staff support, oversight and management of resources, and development and delivery of training and experiments.

The Staff Advisory Group (SAG) provides general staff support, coordination, management, administrative service, and specialists' advice to the COM and DCOM/COS.

The Office of Budget and Finance (BUDFIN) ensures financial management at the JFTC and in support of static and, as required, distributed training and experiments. The Office executes financial control of the JFTC and its activities, implements internally all instructions, directives, plans and procedures in the area of finance, facilitates efficient use of financial resources and provides continuous guidance to the staff on all financial and budgetary matters related to JFTC mission and Programme of Work. It administers and executes financial privileges (tax and excise reimbursement) granted by the Host Nation to JFTC. The Office provides full BUDFIN functionality in the areas of budgeting, contracting, accounting, fiscal, disbursing and travel.

The Staff Assistant (Budget and Disbursing) is the primary point of contact within JFTC, for disbursing payments and keeping associated records

Reports to: Staff Officer (Budget and Disbursing) - A2/G15

Principal Duties

The incumbent is responsible for disbursing the approved JFTC payments and administering the relevant records. Additionally, he/she supports the Head of BUDFIN in ensuring efficient, timely and accurate budget preparation and robust administration in compliance with all NATO financial regulations and procedures, which include the following duties:

a. Assists in the preparation and execution of the annual JFTC budget.

b. Supports preparation of budgets for training events run by JFTC.

c. Prepares budget uploads and budget adjustments in Centralized NATO Automated Financial System (FinS).

d. Disburses funds to suppliers based on invoices approved for payment, payroll to JFTC NATO civilians, travel claims payments for duty travels of JFTC staff and any other approved JFTC payments.

e. Uploads all the disbursed payments to the e-banking platform and processes them there.

f. Negotiates foreign exchange rates on behalf of JFTC for execution of foreign exchange transfers.

g. Approves payments at the bank (both e-banking and paper transfer orders) on behalf of JFTC (with co-signature of another authorized BUDFIN staff member).

h. Liaises with the bank administering JFTC bank account for daily routine issues related to payment execution.

i. Administers the cash stored at JFTC (petty cash box). Disburses, records, reconciles and re-fills cash box as required.

j. Monitors bank account statements daily and solves the issues identified.

k. Reconciles bank account statements daily and clears reconciled payments in FinS.

l. Operates the NATO Financial Accounting System and computerized commercial bank payment system to make all authorized payments and receive amounts due to the JFTC.

m. Serves as treasurer to Morale and Welfare fund: administers M&W bank account, tracks and executes payments and collections, prepares M&W annual financial plan, reports on execution, prepares simplified financial statements.

n. Performs other duties as assigned by the Head of Budget and Finance.

Special Requirements and Additional Duties

Lessons Learned (LL) is an integrated part of all activities. LL requests, planning, creation, collection, staffing and handling in accordance with the NATO LL Process as an integrated part of any activity.

The employee may be required to perform a similar range of duties elsewhere within the organisation at the same grade without there being any change to the contract

a.  Flexibility Clause:  In order for the command to deal with emergent requirements the incumbent may be required to perform other related duties as directed (in particular, the incumbent can expect to work as a member of Working Groups, Project Teams, etc. for defined periods of time).  Additionally, for military personnel the incumbent may also be reassigned as directed by Chief of Staff for up to 365 days (through consultation with the Allies concerned).

b.  Operations/Temporary Duty:  The incumbent may be required to undertake Operational Deployments consistent with ACT's transformation mission, both within and outside NATO's boundaries, in compliance with agreed NATO workforce policy and subject to national caveats.

c.  Annual TDY Requirement:  The incumbent may be required to undertake TDY both within and outside NATO's boundaries for up to 20 days per year.

Personnel are expected to conduct themselves in accordance with the current NATO Code of Conduct agreed by the North Atlantic Council (NAC), and thus display the core values of integrity, impartiality, loyalty, accountability, and professionalism.

The work is normally performed in a Normal NATO office working environment.

Normal Working Conditions apply.

The risk of injury is categorised as No Risk.

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS

Professional Experience

1. At least two years of professional experience in accounting, budgeting or finance appointment.

2. Formal training in accounting, budgeting or financial administration.

Education/Training

Higher Secondary education and completed higher vocational training  in accounting, finance, management, business administration, public administration or related discipline  leading to a formal technical or professional certification with 3 years function related experience, or Secondary education and completed advanced vocational training  in that discipline leading to a professional qualification or professional accreditation with 5 years post related experience.

Language

English - SLP Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing)

NOTE: The work both oral and written in this post and in this Headquarters as a whole is conducted mainly in English.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

Professional Experience

1. Minimum 2 years of experience in military organizations.

2. Minimum 2 years of experience in international environment.

Attributes/Competencies

• Personal Attributes: Attentions to details, ability to prioritize and control concurrent tasks, sense of responsibility and ownership towards the assigned tasks, output focus, interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team.

• Professional Contacts: Works with the JFTC BUDFIN staff in the capacity of budget assistant. On top of that within the disbursing function works with external entities (i.e. banks, suppliers). Furthermore, works with all the MWA entitled personnel of JFTC and other NATO organizations in Bydgoszcz belonging to the programme.

• Contribution To Objectives: Contributes to all JFTC objectives that are supported by budgetary allocations through engagements in the budgets preparation and administration processes. Supports the wellbeing of the entitled staff as a treasurer of JFTC MWA Programme.

There are no reporting responsibilities.

Security Clearance

The successful applicant will be required to apply for and receive a NATO SECRET Security Clearance prior to final confirmation of contract and commencement of employment.

Contract

Serving NATO International Civilian staff will be offered a contract in accordance with the NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations. Newly recruited staff will be offered a three year definite duration contract.

As this post still requires North Atlantic Council's (NAC) approval, the contract may only be offered once approved by NAC.

Notes for candidates

The candidature of NATO redundant staff at grade G10 will be considered with priority.

Applicants who are not successful in this competition may be offered an appointment to another post of a similar nature, albeit at the same or a lower grade, provided they meet the necessary requirements.

Notes for NATO Civilian Human Resources Managers

If you have qualified redundant staff at grade G10, please advise the JFTC Civilian Human Resources Manager no later than the closing date.

Recruitment Process

Due to the significant volume of recruitment being undertaken by Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC) the processing time for applications will take longer than normal.  Once you have submitted your application please ensure that you have received a TALEO/NTAP acknowledgement email, which is your proof that your application has been submitted.  After this you will be contacted in due course by our recruitment team with further information on the status of your application, but please note that this may not be for several weeks after the vacancy notice closes.

Please answer each of the pre-screening questions completely in English. Expressions such as: "please see attached CV, please see annex, please see enclosed document, etc." are NOT acceptable; this is a cause of immediate rejection of the application.

Particular attention should be given to Education and Experience sections of your application form, which should be populated with details fo your career to date and educational acheivements and certifications as they relate to your application.

When completing the application form using the NATO Talent Acquisition Platform, you will be able to add attachments. One of these attachments must be a copy of the qualification or certificate covering the highest level of education required by the job description. If this certificate is not in one of the official NATO languages, you should include a translation into English.

You should attach only RELEVANT certifications and diplomas to support your application for the given post.

NOTE: 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.

For any queries, please contact the JFTC Recruitment Team at:  .