Background Information - UNOPS

UNOPS – an operational arm of the United Nations – supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by successfully implementing its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve peace and sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management, and human resources.

Working with us

We are proud of our people. With a wealth of knowledge and skills in various disciplines – engineering, finance, human resources, ICT, leadership, project management, procurement, and more – they help tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time. Their work around the world supports progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).


At UNOPS, we offer a range of short- and long-term opportunities in various environments and duty stations – from Denmark and Kenya to Mexico, Switzerland, Myanmar, Senegal, Uganda, and many more.

Diversity

With over 5,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,400 personnel recruited on behalf of our partners, spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced and diverse labor force — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs. We continually strive to maintain our gender-balanced workplace. We encourage qualified underrepresented groups as per UNOPS Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy to apply for our vacancies.

Background Information - Afghanistan

Afghanistan

With more than 20 years of experience in the country, UNOPS Afghanistan focuses on providing maximum support to the people of Afghanistan through the delivery of projects and services that improve the lives of people in need. The UNOPS Afghanistan Country Office (AFCO) serves as an organizational mechanism to deliver a range of projects for which UNOPS has been designated as the implementation agency. At present, UNOPS AFCO activities cover a range of sectors including humanitarian, basic human needs, cash for work, infrastructure, development, procurement and HR services.

The functional objective of UNOPS AFCO is to contribute to improving the lives of girls, boys, men and women living in Afghanistan. The aim of UNOPS AFCO is to provide efficient and cost-effective implementation services on behalf of all our partners to support the humanitarian response and development of the country. UNOPS AFCO’s mission is to exceed the expectations of all stakeholders in the delivery of AFCO services, at all times, in all places, in all circumstances, in order to improve the lives of Afghans in need.

 Background Information - Job-specific

Organisational Context:

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world.  Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organisations.  With over 6,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, where they need it.  By implementing around 1,000 projects for our partners at any given time, UNOPS makes significant contributions to results on the ground, often in the most challenging environments.

Senior Project Manager  is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the projects and provides services to the different donors, partners and beneficiaries. Senior Project Manager acts on behalf of the Project Board to manage the project on an ongoing basis during the Implementation Stage. The main responsibility of aSenior Project Manager  is to ensure that the project outputs are delivered within the specified project tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. He/she is expected to meet the organization’s performance and delivery goals.

Senior Project Manager  has the authority to assign, as per the Project Plan, work packages to Team Managers and approve deliverables produced by them.

Senior Project Manager  is responsible for creating the Implementation Plan, using the Project Initiation Document (PID), Legal Agreement and having a thorough understanding of the terms, conditions, and the respective roles and responsibilities of the partners/stakeholders, to ensure the projects outputs are capable of meeting the business cases for both UNOPS and the partners. Success of the projects and hence of the Senior Project Manager  will be based on the defined Success Criteria. 

Project Information:

The functions and services of the Senior Project Manager include:

• Strategic Oversight/Portfolio Management: Applying an evidence-based approach to project oversight, early warning, corrective actions, and mainstreaming lessons into business planning

• Manage Delivery: Doing Projects the Right Way with specific emphasis on in-depth, full project cycle management, from starting up new projects, to substantive closure.  Leading teams in delivering projects according to policy and best practice

• Best Practices: Doing Projects Consistently and well through mentoring, coaching and developing the project team’s capacity to deliver successful and impactful projects

Through these functions and services, the Senior Project Manager will ensure that project management policies, processes and methods are followed and practiced according to the organization standards, while acting as the overall Project Assurance capacity within the business unit on behalf of senior management. 

The selected candidate will work under the direct supervision of the Head of Programme to ensure that projects meet their intended outcomes, are implemented to the highest standard of project management practices, and meet partner satisfaction.

Projects under the portfolio includes:

Being one of the Participating UN Organisations (PUNOs) under the revised STFA JP for West, UNOPS will support earthquake-affected communities in Herat province to restore access to essential services and infrastructure in Component 2 - Improved Access to Essential Services, along with UNDP, UNHCR, and UNFPA. Also, in accordance with the revised JP, aligned with the United Nations Strategic Framework for Afghanistan 2023-2025 (UNSFA), this UNOPS STFA West project will contribute to UNSFA Output 1—Essential services and community infrastructure, including for health, agriculture, and energy supply, are functional, sustained, and expanded to meet the different needs of women and men. 

The Japan supplementary fund project is responding to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan caused by the sudden return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan and the ongoing threat of Explosive Ordnance (EO) contamination. Among the key proposed activities, this project will include: Conducting Humanitarian Mine Action Operations, including community liaison, survey, risk education and clearance of EO-contaminated land and providing Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) training to approximately 6,900 people through the selection of a national NGO as an implementing partner. It also aims to implement small-scale community infrastructure projects through Cash for Work programs, providing income opportunities for 150 people and supporting national capacity in mine action and sustaining the operational capacity of local partners.

UNOPS offers flexible and tailored human resources solutions to UN partners, where speed and efficiency are essential. We provide specialist human resources support in peace and security contexts, during rapidly changing humanitarian emergencies, or for longer term development, based on the needs of our partners. In Afghanistan, UNOPS supports WHO, which includes on-time contract and payroll management,

And the Senior Project Manager  can be assigned to, as per Country office requirements, to follow up and closure of legacy projects. 

 Functional Responsibilities

Summary of functions:

1. Project Delivery and Performance

2. Procedures 

3. Monitoring and reporting

4. Stakeholder engagement

5. Quality assurance

6. Knowledge management and innovation 

7. Personnel management

1. Project Delivery and Performance 

• Develop, complete and update implementation plans

• Implement the approved plan (including the establishment of milestones) within tolerances set by the Project Board. 

• Embed sustainability dimensions including social and gender inclusion, environmental and economic aspects into project life span. 

• Manage the production of the required outputs, taking responsibility for overall progress and use of resources and initiating corrective action where necessary.

• Ensure that quality of work packages and deliverables complies with the quality requirements defined in the Implementation Plan.

• Liaise with any external suppliers or account managers

• Manage acceptance and delivery of work packages

• Monitor project progress ensuring that work packages are being executed properly

• Control project and work packages changes

• Accept goods, services or works delivered by suppliers. 

• Lead contract management duties including supplier performance evaluation. 

• Identify, and anticipate in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advises mitigating measures to senior management/ Project Board so that maximum benefit to partner(s) and other stakeholders is achieved

• Identify and report to the supervisor potential business opportunities for UNOPS

2. Procedures 

• Comply with all organizational policy and specifically the Project Management Manual

• Prepare/adapt all relevant plans for approval by the Project Board.

• Manage the reporting obligations defined in the Legal Agreements and in the Implementation Plan

• Draft the requirements definitions for procurement processes. Approving requisitions and requests for non-purchase order payments; Evaluating submissions received, if appointed to the evaluation team. 

• Ensure maintenance of the project files and lessons learned are recorded

• Ensure the development and implementation of project financial management guidelines and control mechanisms, in conformity with UNOPS rules and regulations. 

• Manage budgets, cash flow and obligations to ensure that deliverables are met and payments to contractors and personnel are received on time.

• Understand and manage UNOPS overheads, allocable charges, and related corporate charges as they apply to the project

• Understand the unique structures of the UN and budget appropriately for personnel

• Manage expenditures against the budget (based on accurate financial reports)

• Where the Senior Project Manager has no delegation as a committing officer, s/he retains these responsibilities and will monitor and instruct/request others to carry out the relevant commitments and disbursements.

• For project closure purposes, provide a formal handover of the project or take the role of  to the closure manager as per requirements

• Support project audit activities, including planning, preparation and coordination during the audits and follow up on audit observations/recommendations

3. Monitoring and reporting

• Prepare and issue regular project and/or financial reports in accordance with Partner and UNOPS requirements for reporting.

• Regularly review project status, evaluating performance criteria (scope, cost, schedule and quality).

• Maintain diaries and progress reports as required by the organization’s standard procedures.

• Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery data within the dashboard system.

• Ensure all project team members track and regularly update milestones and targets for the duration of projects' life span

4. Stakeholder engagement

• Develop stakeholder profiles and facilitate the formulation of stakeholder engagement strategies

• Establish solid working relationships with the Project Board (Executive, Senior Users and Senior Suppliers), client and key stakeholders

• Enable the formulation of project communications plans. Coordinate internal project communications. Monitor the effectiveness of project communications

• Coordinate stakeholder engagement and communication, ensuring effective timing and interdependency management of communications. Ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are in a position to accept handover outputs

5. Quality assurance

• Work with internal stakeholders to ensure projects comply with audit requirements

• Work with procurement/purchasing staff to ensure effective interface with suppliers' quality systems

• Coordinate quality reviews of project documents and deliverables

• Provide quality control for management outputs (project documents, reports, etc.)

6. Knowledge management and innovation

• Encourage routine and effective capacity building activities are conducted in order to build the long-term and sustainable capacity of staff.

• Actively interact with other Project Managers and the wider PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices 

• Contribute to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely and appropriate manner. Participate in the relevant Communities of Practice

• Research and logging of lessons learned throughout the project life span.

• Provide feedback to Practice Groups on policy, supporting guidance with an aim towards continuous improvement of UNOPS policies

7. Personnel Management  

• Lead and motivate the project management team

• Ensure that behavioural expectations of team members are established 

• Ensure that performance reviews are conducted fairly, accurately and timely

• Select, recruit and train a team as required and take into account gender parity and diversity objectives.

• Ensure safety and security for all project personnel and comply with UNDSS standards

• Create, foster and role model a culture of respect and zero tolerance for discrimination, abuse of authority, harassment, sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse. Ensure accountability for actions and perform duties in accordance with protection mechanisms and action plans, as expected by UNOPS policies, standards and commitments.

Impact of Results

Senior Project Manager directly impacts on achievement of project results by adhering to project management methods and strategies, reducing risks, cutting costs and improving success rates.  This consequently reinforces the visibility and image of  UNOPS as an effective service provider in project services and management and strengthens its competitive position as a partner of choice in sustainable development and project services.

 Education/Experience/Language requirements

a. Education

• Advanced University Degree (Masters Degree) in Project Management, Business Management, Development Studies, Procurement/Supply Chain Management or other relevant disciplines is required.
• A Bachelor's Degree in Project Management, Business Management, Development Studies, Procurement/Supply Chain Management in combination with an additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the education requirements outlined above.

b. Certification: 

• Certification in Project Management (PRINCE2, MSP or equivalent) is an asset.

c. Experience:

• At least 7 years' experience in developing and managing projects (including establishing and executing project plans, conducting monitoring and reporting, and managing risks) is required.

• A minimum of 7 years' experience in developing countries or post-conflict environment is required.

• Experience in working with the UN or other international organizations is an asset. 

• Working knowledge of project management software tools and applications is an asset;

• Experience in developing and successfully implementing stakeholder engagement plans is a distinct advantage.

• Knowledge of the UN system and familiarity with UNOPS procedures is an advantage;

Language Requirements:
 

• Proficiency in English is required.

Please click on the below link for actual vacancy announcement to see the complete details and submission guideline as this is only an attempt for attracting female applicants for gender parity in organization. Please make sure you fill your profile/application properly with all relevant details in order to be considered for the next stage of recruitment/selection.

https://jobs.unops.org/pages/viewvacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=29913