PM Specialist

UNOPS strategic focus places increased emphasis on national capacity development and sustainable approaches to project management, procurement and infrastructure services.  A key objective is to be recognized as an organization that delivers world-class infrastructure and project management, which is both economically and socially sustainable, even in the most challenging environments. To achieve this goal, UNOPS has established the Infrastructure and Project Management Group (IPMG).

Within UNOPS, IPMG’s objectives are to serve the organization’s personnel and partners by broadening their infrastructure and project management capabilities, while disseminating best-practices in both of these areas. Through this work, the group helps facilitate the successful delivery of programmes and projects around the world.

To achieve its objectives, IPMG has established three interrelated and interdependent work streams, namely, Strategic Initiatives, Standards, and Engagement Assurance. IPMG is managed overall by the Director of IPMG and supported by a Programme Support Unit.

Engagement Assurance, managed by the Head of Engagement Assurance includes the following units: Organizational Project and Programme Management Office (OPMO), Risk-based Performance Assessment (RBPA), Infrastructure Design Review (Infra DR) and Engagement Acceptance (EA).

The Engagement Assurance team supports the successful development, design and delivery of engagements through a robust system that promotes excellence, consistency and sustainability. The range of expertise in Engagement Assurance includes inter alia Capacity Assessments on Infrastructure and Project Management, Quality Assurance on infrastructure designs, provision of a decision-enabling structure supporting the oversight and management of UNOPS portfolio and implementation of policies and the management of Engagement Assurance processes for all ongoing and closing engagements.

The engagement assurance team works across the aforementioned areas to help reduce organizational risk and improve project performance.

Working within the Infrastructure and Project Management Group (IPMG), the successful incumbent will be responsible for providing technical support to Engagement Assurance and IPMG, with a focus on Risk-based Performance Assessment. The aim is to provide support on information analysis/desk reviews, preparation/participation on associated field missions and support the corresponding post-missions follow up activities.

Under the guidance and supervision of the Risk-based Performance Assessment Team Lead, the PM Specialist will undertake the specific responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Undertake preparatory analysis to understand the context of Country Offices, projects and programmes, supporting the definition of the scope and the preparation of capacity assessments;
• Carried out analysis of data/information and desk reviews for projects and programmes, providing support on assessments of capabilities within established framework/Standards and on classifying the assessed gaps by level of risk and the quantification of resultant exposure.
• Support the analysis on the assimilation and application of organizational of Policies and Standards in UNOPS Country Offices.
• Provision of support on mission preparation and coordination.
• Participate on missions to different UNOPS Country Offices and Project Sites to undertake Risk Based Performance Assessments (RBPA). The Incumbent will be responsible for data/information collection and analysis and provide contributions for mission reports and any other support documentation.
• Carry out post mission’s activities, such as: support on mission follow-up activities, inputs collection/analysis for UNOPS Enterprise Risk Management, provision of inputs to Country Offices/Regions and to Shared Service Centre for their Risk Management activity follow up and support.
• Support the development and participation on trainings.
• Participation on the review of internal technical documents and the Standard Management Framework. 
• Perform other related duties as required by the supervisor or IPMG management.

Education

• Master’s degree in Engineering or Project Management field is required;
•  A Bachelor degree combined with 2 years additional relevant work experience can be accepted in lieu of the Master’s degree.

Work Experience

• Minimum of 5 years of combined experience working in Infrastructure and Project Management is required, when combined with a Master’s Degree. Minimum of 7 years of combined experience working in Infrastructure and Project Management is required, when combined with a Bachelor’s Degree
• A minimum of 3 years of previous experience in civil engineering or working within an infrastructure project team is required
• Previous experience in developing context, as well as, in multicultural environment is desired
• Consulting background dealing with data/information analysis and report drafting is an asset
• Previous experience a on Portfolio/Programme/Project Management maturity is an asset
• Risk Management experience in infrastructure environment is an asset
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel is an asset

Languages

• Fluency in English is required
• A basic understanding of French is preferred
• Fluency in Spanish and/or Arabic is an asset

Certifications

• PRINCE2® Foundation Certification is required
• PMI Project Management Professional Certification is desired
• PRINCE2® Practitioner Certification is desired
• MSP® Foundation Certification is desired

The successful incumbent will be required to complete, PRINCE2® Practitioner within the first 6 months of start date and MSP® Foundation within the first 9 months, if they do not already have the aforementioned certifications.

• 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.