Senior Innovative Financing Officer

December 22, 2025

H (no hardship)

FamilyFamily

PR4

Professional

Reason

Regular > Regular Assignment

2025-12-08

Senior Innovative Financing Officer

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization committed to saving lives, protecting rights, and building a better future for those forced to flee their homes due to conflict and persecution. It spearheads international efforts to safeguard refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless individuals. UNHCR delivers critical life-saving assistance, upholds fundamental human rights, and develops solutions to ensure people have a safe place to call home to rebuild their lives. Additionally, UNHCR works tirelessly to ensure that stateless individuals are granted nationality.

UNHCR relies almost entirely on voluntary contributions to fund its programs. In recent years, its global budget was only partially funded. Despite growing needs driven by escalating conflicts and displacement, the funding gap continues to widen.

The Division of External Relations (DER) drives efforts to generate empathy for refugees and encourage personal and public engagement in their favour. It maintains effective partnerships with governments, UN agencies, NGOs, civil society, and the private sector to mobilize financial and political support and to create operational alliances for refugees and others of concern.

With traditional funding from both development and humanitarian contexts seeing a downward trend, UNHCR has made it a strategic priority to pursue innovative financing modalities to channel additional funding for the benefit of people forced to flee. In addition to its potential for securing private sector and development support and investment for refugee and displacement issues, there is also significant potential for innovative financing to spur support from governments and multilateral sources, particularly from the non-humanitarian budgets of these donors.

The Senior Innovative Financing Officer, being a significant contributor to these objectives, is responsible for leading UNHCR’s work to investigate, create, design, negotiate, and implement new financing modalities to enable sustainable and innovative solutions for refugees and host communities across pre-emergency (risk management), emergency, and protracted situations. Building on UNHCR’s overall strategy for innovative financing, this includes exploring options for innovative financing models through global capital markets that improve the well-being of both refugees and host communities. Additionally, it involves providing project management functions to ensure innovative financing project development and execution, in coordination with relevant internal and external stakeholders.

The incumbent oversees a team of innovative financing professionals who work with relevant internal interlocutors, such as field-based colleagues and technical units, to investigate business cases, identify and develop promising concepts, conduct financial modelling and other business analytics, and negotiate with external parties on term sheets and other arrangements. This role also ensures the updating of the innovative financing strategic plan as needed and helps UNHCR ensure proper governance of the innovative financing project pipeline and project governance of innovative financing projects under development and implementation. This work includes the development of strategic partnerships with key internal and external stakeholders, including international organizations, international financial institutions, donor governments, refugee-hosting governments, and potential private sector donors, partners, and investors.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable to perform their duties as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR’s core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties

• Create and manage a pipeline of innovative financing ideas and potential projects. This entails ideation, concept development, analytical research, and business case development. It also entails assessing project ideas against clear criteria and recommending to senior UNHCR leadership which projects to pursue.

• Develop and implement innovative financing projects for UNHCR. This entails working in close coordination with relevant internal stakeholders (e.g., Global Public Partnerships and Financing Service (GPS), Private Sector Partnerships Service (PSP), Sustainable Responses Service (SRS), Division of Emergency and Programme Support (DEPS), Division of International Protection and Solutions (DIPS), Division of Resource Management (DRM), Legal Affairs Service (LAS), field units, technical units) to ensure aligned project design and delivery.

• Develop financial models, conduct business analytics, and manage negotiations on term sheets and other points of negotiation with external parties.

• Oversee a team of specialized innovative financing professionals to develop a robust project pipeline and implement concrete innovative financing projects.

• Manage the operational functions of the innovative financing team, including recruitment and HR, team communications and connectivity, strategic reviews and planning, and budgeting.

• Develop and update UNHCR’s strategy for innovative financing and ensure proper governance of the project pipeline and projects.

• Act as the UNHCR focal point for matters related to innovative financing and ensure coordination between relevant internal and external stakeholders.

• Lead regular ongoing engagement with all key external partners in the UN and NGO community, Multilateral Development Banks, and within the government donor community.

• Explore, with the involvement of relevant UNHCR units, potential collaboration with international financial institutions such as the World Bank to achieve the realization of innovative financing modalities for UNHCR.

• Explore further concepts and partnerships around innovative financing, including but not limited to bond financing, disaster risk financing, carbon financing, blended financing, debt swaps, impact investing, endowments, revolving funds and guarantee mechanisms.

• Lead risk assessments and discussions with team(s) to proactively manage risks and seize opportunities impacting objectives. Ensure that risk management principles are integrated in decision-making, both at strategic and operational levels. Allocate resources for planned treatments with resource requirements in Strategic Plans. Ensure that risks are managed to acceptable levels and escalate, as needed. If a Risk Owner, designate the Risk Focal Point and certify that the annual risk review is completed and ensure that the risk register is updated during the year, as needed.

• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum Qualifications

Education & Professional Work Experience

Years of Experience / Degree Level

For P4 - 9 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 8 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 7 years relevant experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education

Business Administration;                  Management;                     Finance;                             Economics;

Development Economics                 or other relevant field.

Certificates and/or Licenses

Not specified.

(Certificates and Licenses marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Relevant Job Experience

Essential

Substantive experience in business case development in the business or financial sector, or working on structured finance, financing for public-private partnerships, or similar work involving innovative financing or closely related mechanisms, combined with knowledge of development and humanitarian programming. Substantial private sector experience. Demonstrated experience in project coordination and management on multi-party financial arrangements in managing complex and fast-moving projects which are cross-disciplinary and require expert knowledge. Familiarity with and ability to construct and review financial models. Proven ability in understanding how to reconcile the needs of the organization with those of a private sector or development partner, including working with technical departments and stakeholders. Experience in managing effective multi-functional teams.

Desirable

Minimum of 2 years working in the United Nations, in an international organization, or in development or humanitarian contexts. Proven experience in building and maintaining partnerships and securing gains from negotiations with different partners. Knowledge of public-private partnerships in a global context.

Functional Skills

MG-Project Management

CL-Strategy Development and Monitoring

BU-Budget and Financial Management

BU-Project budget development and management

PM-Project design and development

PM-Project lifecycle management

ER-Development Financing/Development Planning

(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements

For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.

For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.

For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

Competency Requirements

All jobs at UNHCR require six core competencies and may also require managerial competencies and/or cross-functional competencies. The six core competencies are listed below.

Core Competencies

Accountability

Communication

Organizational Awareness

Teamwork & Collaboration

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Client & Result Orientation

Managerial Competencies

Judgement and Decision Making

Leadership

Empowering and Building Trust

Managing Performance

Managing Resources

Cross-Functional Competencies

Analytical Thinking

Innovation and Creativity

Stakeholder Management

All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe, and empowered to perform their duties. This includes by demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination, and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seeking guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates.

It is expected that the incumbent has a strong knowledge of the international innovative financing landscape and expertise in financing models used in both the public and private sector. S/he is expected to have strong negotiation skills and past experience working with the international financial institutions, donor governments and private sector institutions and investors. The incumbent should have strong business development and financing experience, including familiarity with and ability to build and assess financial models, assess business cases, analyze business plans, and structure and execute large-scale financial transactions.

The incumbent is expected to lead a team of innovative financing specialists who will work with relevant internal interlocutors such as field-based colleagues and technical units to investigate business cases, identify and develop promising concepts, conduct financial modelling, structure and execute innovative financing transactions, and support operationalization of associated programs and projects. Hence strong management experience is required, including in strategy development and in building and leading effective teams.

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Operational context

Occupational Safety and Health Considerations:

To view occupational safety and health considerations for this duty station, please visit this link:

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel

Nature of Position:

The Division of External Relations (DER) leads efforts to generate and foster personal and public engagement to support those forced to flee. It builds and maintains effective partnerships with governments, UN agencies, NGOs, civil society, and the private sector to mobilize financial and political support and to create operational alliances for refugees and others of concern.

 

UNHCR’s innovative financing team develops and implements beyond-grant mechanisms to support UNHCR’s mission to serve forcibly displaced people and/or to support UNHCR’s financial position by attracting more income, reducing costs, or improving cash flow. With traditional funding from both development and humanitarian contexts seeing a downward trend, UNHCR has made it a strategic priority to pursue innovative financing modalities to channel new financial resources for the benefit of people forced to flee. In addition to its potential for securing private sector support and investment for refugee and displacement issues, there is also significant potential for innovative financing to spur support from governments and multilateral sources, particularly from but not limited to non-humanitarian sources.

 

The incumbent will be based in Geneva, Switzerland, as part of DER, and will be responsible for leading UNHCR 's work to investigate, create, design, negotiate, and implement new financing modalities to enable durable and innovative solutions for refugees and host communities across pre-emergency, emergency and protracted situations. They are also expected to ensure effective management and scale-up of existing innovative financing modalities at UNHCR.

 

The incumbent will oversee a technically specialized team of innovative financing experts with backgrounds in business case development, financing modelling, and project implementation & management, working on a range of projects at various stages of development around the world and in all sectors that UNHCR works in.

Living and Working Conditions:

Geneva is classified as a Category H duty station with all amenities and excellent infrastructure.

Additional Qualifications

Skills

BU-Budget and Financial Management, BU-Project budget development and management, CL-Strategy Development and Monitoring, ER-Development Financing/Development Planning, MG-Project Management, PM-Project design and development, PM-Project lifecycle management

Bachelor of Arts: Business Administration, Bachelor of Arts: Development Economics, Bachelor of Arts: Economics, Bachelor of Arts: Finance, Bachelor of Arts: Management

Certifications

Competencies

Accountability, Analytical thinking, Client & results orientation, Commitment to continuous learning, Communication, Empowering & building trust, Innovation & creativity, Judgement & decision making, Leadership, Managing performance, Managing resource, Organizational awareness, Stakeholder management, Teamwork & collaboration

https://icsc.un.org/Home/SalaryScales

Compendium

Flash Vacancy Notice

Additional Information

This position doesn't require a functional clearance