Project Management Office Supervisor

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) vision is a world where people can live full lives supported by appropriate, sustainable and resilient infrastructure and by the efficient, transparent use of public resources in procurement and project management. UNOPS provides advisory, implementation or transactional services to governments, donors and UN organisations and they always have development of the national capacity in focus.

UNOPS was the first organisation in the world that was awarded the four most prestigious accreditations in project management, including PRINCE2 ®,(1) and one of five organisations in the world awarded the Gold Level from the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.  For its approach to project management and consistent quality UNOPS received ISO 9001 certification in 2011.

In Serbia, UNOPS has been active since 2000, became the Project Centre (RSPC) in 2013, and was reclassified, due to a growing portfolio, to Operations Centre (RSOC) at the beginning of 2017. UNOPS has been a reliable partner of the Government to the Republic of Serbia in providing support for demanding socio-economic reforms and facilitating accession to the European Union and is currently expanding its operations to the Western Balkans.

Currently, the RSOC is implementing 11 projects focussed on: sustainable municipal development, recovery from damages incurred by May 2014 floods in Serbia, building climate-resilient infrastructure, creation of more favourable environment for employability, business and infrastructure growth, enhanced social inclusion via durable housing solutions and access to health, education and jobs for the most vulnerable population. All projects have good governance and gender equality as transversal theme.

In 2014 UNOPS Serbia set up a new unit within its structure – the Project Management Office (PMO), reporting to the Head of the RSOC, whose primary role is to provide the Office with the structures, tools and techniques needed to ensure that the project management policies, processes and methods are practiced according to the organisational standards, while acting as the overall quality assurance capacity on behalf of the Head of Office. The key functions and services of the PMO include:

• Strategic Planning/Portfolio Support: Ensuring UNOPS is focussed on doing the right projects by supporting management decision-making. Activities may include preparation of RSOC strategies and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as well as assessments on alignment with those, planning support, tracking of benefits, preparation of management dashboards/reports, and similar.
• Delivery Support: Ensuring UNOPS is doing projects the right way, through the effective delivery of the programme and projects. Activities may include providing expertise for start-up of programmes or projects, planning and closing projects, workshop facilitation, support to the project management teams, and leading the quality assurance processes, end stage reviews, and project health checks. Additionally, and on a case-by-case basis only, the PMO may provide temporary capacity and resources for surge purposes in selected projects (including external programme and/or project managers for dealing with troubled projects, advising and mentoring, and covering any gaps in key project based personnel)
• Best Practices: Applying UNOPS standards in project management, encouraging consistent working practices and ensuring their application. Activities may include training (tools, systems, and processes), capturing and presenting lessons learned and other knowledge processes, identifying innovations and preparing case studies, and coordinating with the Infrastructure Project Management Practice Group (IPMG) for tailoring best practices to meet the RSOC specific needs.

Under the supervision of the Head of Office, the PMO Supervisor will as part of the management team support strategic planning, contribute to development of new programmes and projects, support project delivery, and ensure consistent application of UNOPS project management standards

The PMO itself is established to facilitate a decision-enabling and delivery-support framework to the RSOC and supports the management team in ensuring consistent high level design and delivery of projects and programmes.

The following tasks/duties are involved:

1.     Development and Planning

The practice management role. Leads and assures the standardization of the project methodology, tools and processes that will be/are applied in all RSOC’s programmes and projects; the same standards and metrics are incorporated, applied and tracked.

• Directly contribute to strategic oversight, advice and direction on programme and project management activities in line with service agreements and project documents.
• Provides project management support to the senior management team, project managers and other internal stakeholders regarding implementing standards and best practices in line with UNOPS policies and procedures
• Leads in preparation of, or updates of the RSOC strategies and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) related to project management, to ensure alignment with the corporate directives, instructions and methodologies
• Supports and monitors individual project and programme managers (PMs) in the project/programme planning process, ensuring synergies across the RSOC


2.     Set-up and Closure


The Technical Support role – provide support in planning processes, project/programme quality assurances processes and risk management; provide support to the Organization’s decision makers to optimize existing portfolio and prepare/manage strategic changes in organisation.

• Provides support in preparing new programme documents, from the point of  the UNOPS rules and regulations
• Facilitates development of high-level programme/project plans, including the collation of lower-level plans into programme/project-level milestones

• Develops, tracks and maintains dependencies across RSOC portfolio
• Ensures the project closure checklist is completed and all project related files are archived in UNOPS ERP system (oneUNOPS)
• Supports the Operations team in oversight and coordination of all project closure activities, in particular related to timely and effective final reporting

3.     Monitoring and Reporting

• Ensures  effective and timely dissemination of reports, in line with project documentation and clients' expectations
• Develops and maintains resource tracking systems for use within the PMO, complementary to UNOPS' online tools, to ensure effective oversight, planning, forecasting and tracking of delivery across the RSOC 

• Performs routine maintenance and implementation of effective monitoring and evaluation systems of programme and project activities, in line with logical frameworks
• Manages information flows, reviews change controls, risk registers, and contributes on all internal issue management issues
• Identifies and anticipates potential risks and issues specific to delivery 
forecasts, and advises mitigating measures to the Head of Office
• Coordinates and oversees the implementation of requests or initiatives relevant to project management from the Regional Office, IPAS, and HQ Teams, as required.

4.     Stakeholder Engagement

• Supports communications teams and project managers in the development of stakeholder profiles, influence and interest and preparation of stakeholder engagement strategies
• Supports development of stakeholder satisfaction survey as a technique for measuring stakeholder perception of project/programme performance as well as formulation of corrective measures if needed

5.     Quality Assurance


The Organization’s Knowledge Base Management role – provide support to all PMs in applying the adopted project management methodology; provide additional training and mentoring to the PMs, if need be, for advancing their knowledge and PM practices and equalizing the PM processes in implementation

• Provides quality control of programme/project/management documents and deliverables to ensure compliance with UNOPS defined standards for programme/project management
• Leads in scheduling the internal quarterly assurance meetings, prepares and files the minutes of the meetings, and supports the PMs in online engagement assurances, acting as reviewer (upon the Head of Office request).

6.     Knowledge Management and Innovation

• Ensures RSOC’s applied knowledge and experiences/best practices from the portfolio are recorded and shared between different programmes; programme/project governance is designed/adapted to meet the specificities of each programme, if need be, while keeping essential governance rules and procedures
• Acts as a focal point for the RSOC maturity enhancement initiatives and contributes to planning and implementation of specific in-house processes and activities aiming at raising the existing organisational maturity level
• Ensures routine and effective capacity assessment and development activities are conducted in order to build the long-term and sustainable capacity   in project management of relevant personnel
• Participates in relevant Communities of Practice
• Actively interacts with PMs and the wider PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices in the Knowledge System
• Provides feedback to Practice Leads on policy and supporting guidance working to achieve continuous improvement of UNOPS policies
• Contributes to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely manner
• Focuses on collecting and maintaining best practice data with the aim of improving planning and delivery of processes.

7.     Personnel Management

• Promote and support a learning culture by empowering individuals and teams to identify critical learning needs and plan/provide easy access to learning opportunities to maintain personnel competency and flexibility
• Foster a positive work environment, respectful of both men and women, and ensure that the highest standards of conduct are observed.

Perform other duties as may be reasonably required and in line with the incumbent’s scope of services above.

• Advanced University Degree preferably project management, business administration, international relations, or related field is required.
• University Degree (bachelor’s degree / first level) with a combination of two additional years of relevant professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advance university degree.

Work Experience

• A minimum of two years of relevant experience, specifically in the field of Project Management with experience of successful implementation and/or oversight of programmes and projects is required
• Previous experience of working within a PMO environment is an advantage
• Experience with the EU or the UN, or another international organisation is an asset

Language Requirements

•  Fluency in Serbian and English is required

Driving License

• Driving license is preferred

• PRINCE2 Practitioner Certification is highly desirable
• MSP Certification, Foundation and/or Practitioner, is an advantage

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.