Manager, Executive Delivery

Position title:    Manager, Executive Delivery
Contract type / duration:    5-year defined contract 
Location:    Geneva
Department:    Office of the Chief Operating Officer
Team:    Office of the Chief Operating Officer
Reports To:    Chief Operating Officer
Career Step:    3

1. About the Role
The Manager, Executive Delivery plays a pivotal role within the Office of the Chief Operating Officer (OCOO). The role works closely with senior leaders and portfolio teams across Human Resources, Operations & Procurement, Monitoring Evaluation & Learning, Digital Technology Strategy and Solutions, Performance and Transformation and other cross-functional areas of the Secretariat. 

Its primary purpose is to ensure strategic alignment, disciplined oversight and organisational readiness across the COO’s priority agenda. The role leads the integration of cross-functional initiatives and facilitates tangible alignment across teams to ensure coherence and execution against shared priorities. It combines a strong strategic mindset with hands-on execution capability, enabling not only what needs to be delivered, but how it is delivered with pace, discipline and impact. By strengthening foresight, decision quality inputs and operating rhythms, the role frees the COO to focus on strategic leadership, organisational interventions and high impact decision making.

This role serves as the COO’s strategic and analytical support in driving execution, ensuring coherence and delivery momentum across cross functional initiatives.

2. Key Responsibilities

• Integrate and prioritise the COO portfolio: bring all priority initiatives into one clear portfolio view, with objectives, sequencing, dependencies and key trade-offs to enable timely decisions. 
• Drive disciplined execution and alignment through others: follow up on actions, unblock issues via the right leaders, identify overlaps / unclear ownership early and embed lightweight ways-of-working / tools that improve consistency without bureaucracy.
• Maintain real-time visibility on delivery: keep an up-to-date view of priorities, milestones, decision points, risks and bottlenecks, refreshing as priorities shift. 
• Create decision-ready briefs: produce concise packs that present options, implications, risks and recommended next steps, based on structured synthesis of stakeholder input. 
• Distil complex content into usable first drafts: turn papers, decks and discussions into clear, structured “first-cut” outputs for executive meetings and follow-up. 
• Run the COO operating rhythm: design meeting flows and agendas, ensure pre-reads/materials are ready, capture decisions/actions, and maintain decision/action log. 

• Typically 7 years of experience in strategy delivery and project management in cross functional settings and providing decision making support to executives with strong substantive analytical content, in complex, matrixed environments. 
• Proven, hands-on experience supporting organisational change, transformation initiatives and cross-functional improvement efforts, including translating ambiguity into structured plans and practical execution. 
• Demonstrated experience supporting cross-functional delivery, coordinating complex priorities and helping translate leadership direction into structured plans and follow through. 
• Strong track record of bringing structure and discipline to leadership priorities through practical tools, tracking methods and well managed operating rhythms. 

• Degree in business administration, public policy, public health, economics, international development, or a related field. Certification in project management would be an asset.

• Portfolio management: Demonstrated capability to connect multiple, fast‑moving initiatives into a single, coherent narrative, making dependencies, gaps and trade‑offs explicit so leaders can choose and act with confidence. 
• Operating model process design and implementation: Ability to design light‑touch structures that keep complex work moving (e.g., clear milestones, simple governance artefacts, and practical tracking methods) while avoiding unnecessary process or bureaucracy. 
• Executive Decision Support:  Demonstrated track record of turning complex information (quantitative and qualitative) into clear executive judgments—framing options, consequences and recommendations in a way that supports high‑stakes decisions. Creating high‑quality first drafts (notes, summaries, presentations, decision narratives) that can be refined with minimal rework.
• Risk management and scenario planning: Ability to anticipate uncertainty and pressure‑test plans—spotting emerging threats early, developing credible alternatives and clarifying implications so plans remain robust when conditions change. 
• Stakeholder Management & Influence (without Authority): Demonstrated capability to build commitment across senior, cross‑functional stakeholders without relying on formal authority—using credibility, diplomacy and emotional intelligence to move groups from discussion to shared commitment. 
• Executive Cadence Management: Demonstrated capability to define and sustain a reliable leadership cadence that structures discussions, ensures the right inputs are ready in advance, captures outcomes crisply and keeps follow through visible and moving.

• Essential: Fluent English (written and spoken)
• Preferred: French or another UN language

• You demonstrate high emotional intelligence (EQ), building trust, reading organisational dynamics, and adapting your approach across teams and senior stakeholders.
• You communicate with clarity, structure, and diplomacy, tailoring your approach to diverse audiences.
• You combine strategic thinking with execution discipline, enabling organisational readiness and risk mitigation.
• You navigate ambiguity with agility, flexibility, structured thinking, sound judgement, and calm problem solving.
• You work independently, operating with clarity, discipline, accountability, and a high standard of excellence.