Fund Coordination Specialist

The UNOPS Global Portfolios Office (GPO) brings together diverse expertise to help partners deliver impact worldwide. With hubs in New York, Geneva, and Vienna, and expert teams operating globally, GPO leads multi-regional initiatives that advance sustainable development, climate action, and peacebuilding - including in some of the world’s most challenging environments. By leveraging our collective expertise and global networks, GPO supports UNOPS’ strategic priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals across more than 130 countries. We work closely with major global partners - including governments, international financial institutions, and UN agencies - to deliver a wide range of services, such as project management, fund management, hosting services, and HR support.

From Geneva, UNOPS facilitates the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), working with governments, other United Nations (UN) agencies and partners by providing quality servces, integrated solutions and management support through strategic, cost-effective and results-oriented approches. This includes supporting platforms and hosting high-profile, flagship initiatives and funds focusing on health, nutrition, water and sanitation, sustainable cities, environment, energy, climate and trade. UNOPS is a recognized resource for the UN system in Geneva – from fund management and oversight and advisory services, to providing hosting solutions to a range of global initiatives, as well as operational support to partner organizations.

Launched in 2020, the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) was established as a coalition to mobilize new sources of public and private finance to safeguard the world’s most climate-resilient coral reefs—coral refugia—and prevent their collapse. The GFCR mission is to enhance the resilience of coral reef ecosystems, communities and economies by unlocking new public and private resources that accelerate sustainable businesses and finance solutions (reef-positive solutions).

GFCR applies a blended finance approach that sequences different forms of capital to support coral reef conservation, economic, and community resilience outcomes. The approach combines grant funding, technical assistance, concessional finance, risk-sharing structures, and private investment to address constraints from early pipeline development through scale.  At later stages, commercial and near-commercial capital can support expansion of proven reef-positive enterprises and larger-scale investment opportunities.

The GFCR supports reef-positive businesses and financial solutions across four core investment pathways: Sustainable Ocean Production; Sustainable Coastal Development; Circular Economy and Pollution Management; and Financial Mechanisms. Complementing these investment pathways, GFCR also advances a broader systems-change agenda by leveraging lessons learned from its portfolio and global coalition to promote ocean finance innovation, influence international policy processes, strengthen enabling environments, and catalyze the replication and scaling of reef-positive finance solutions.

As part of the GFCR Secretariat, the Fund Coordination Specialist provides coordination, operational, governance, and communications support to the Deputy Director and the wider GFCR Secretariat as well as the GFCR UN Global Team (UNGT). The position supports the effective planning and coordinated delivery of governing body processes, strategic engagement activities, programme and fund operations, reporting, work planning, file management, and outreach-related coordination. 

The role helps ensure effective delivery across the Secretariat through systematic coordination, timely documentation, stakeholder follow-up, operational support, and clear information flow across GFCR teams, governing bodies, programme partners, donors, and relevant stakeholders. The position serves as a core coordination focal point, helping maintain institutional records, support decision-making processes, track priority actions, and contribute to strategic engagement and communications outputs aligned with GFCR priorities.

Governing bodies coordination

• Manages and coordinates the planning of Executive Board/Steering Committee meetings; and produces, in coordination with the Deputy Director, the agenda; sends invitations, archives all decisions and communications; monitors action points and supports reports back.       
• Prepares or supports the preparation of communication decisions to the concerned implementers/stakeholders in close cooperation with relevant team members.       
• Builds and maintains management tools to enable management decisions such as internal budgetary needs & projections, grant earmarking & allocation, and other financial and operational matters.       
• Supports the Deputy Director in planning and preparations of other relevant governance instances and meetings. 
• Supports the development of tools to track implementation of Steering Committee decisions.
• Supports coordination of new initiatives as required

Fund operations coordination

• Leads the development and updates of the GFCR Operations Manual and project templates for reporting and provides operational guidelines to implementing partners.       
• Leads coordination of UN Global Team meetings, including agenda preparation, documentation, action tracking, and follow-up with relevant team members.
• Leads management and maintenance of the overall GFCR mission calendar. 

Programme operations 

• Contributes to the assessment of programme/project budgets..      
• Guides the recipient UN and Non-UN Organizations on operational processes requirements in relation to the GFCR EB requirements.            
• Supports identifying and monitoring operational risks and updates to risk registries in liaison with all relevant team members. 

Reporting and filing

• Supports the development of annual work plans for the Secretariat.       
• Supports the development of Fund annual and other reports that compile impact assessments, reports, and lessons learned from implementing partners into a single cohesive document with summaries and recommendations.       
• Leads the development and maintenance of online tools for files organization and management.       
• Manages contacts database and mailing lists for Executive Boards/Steering Committees and other governance bodies.       
• Contributes and may lead the drafting of documentation, operational and technical notes, speeches, and similar documents as required.    

Required

• An advanced university degree (a master’s degree or equivalent) in management, economy, international relations, or related areas, is required. 
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas mentioned above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree. 

Required:

• A minimum of five (5) years of experience in progressively more responsible positions in governance management, preferably in the environment/climate change area with result-oriented objectives; or on performance-based grants or a related area.       
• Proven experience in donors, board and grant recipients’ relations.

Desired:

• Experience in writing reports, research and/or other materials is desirable.        
• Proven cross-cultural communication, able to function effectively in an international, multicultural environment and interacting with a team consisting of multiple nationalities.        
• Strong general IT skills, including the ability to work regularly with MS Office Suite.       
• Experience in developing partnerships

• UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes. 
• UNOPS will at no stage of the recruitment process request candidates to make payments of any kind.
• Applications to vacancies must be received before midnight Copenhagen time (CET) on the closing date of the announcement. Applications received after the closing date will not be considered. 
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the selection process, which may include various assessments. 
• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of a wide range of nationalities, cultures, languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. We strive to sustain and strengthen this diversity, fostering an inclusive working environment where all personnel are treated with respect and have equal access to opportunities.
• UNOPS evaluates all applications based on the skills, qualifications and experience outlined in the vacancy announcement. We are committed to a fair and transparent selection process and welcome diverse perspectives, including those of women, indigenous and racialized communities, individuals of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations, and persons with disabilities.
• We are committed to enabling all candidates to perform at their best during the assessment process. If you are shortlisted and require support or reasonable accommodation to complete any assessment, please inform our human resources team upon receiving your invitation.
• UNOPS has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment, and other forms of abusive conduct, including discrimination, abuse of authority, and harassment. To uphold these standards, background checks are conducted for all final candidates to help ensure that individuals with a history of such conduct are not hired. By applying for a position with UNOPS, candidates acknowledge and consent to these verification processes.
  

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few mandatory courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. For more information on a retainer contract here. 
• For more details about the contract types, please click here.
• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda. 
• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.