Travel Assistant

Based in Geneva, the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECR) supports UNOPS offices throughout the region through: management, financial and programmatic oversight of global and country-specific portfolios, clusters and operations centres, including hosting services; fund and management advisory services; project implementation; procuring goods and services; and managing human resources.

ECR ensures that projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between business units and projects across the entire region.

ECR operates global portfolios from offices in Geneva, Brussels and New York, and country-specific programmes from its operations and project centres located in Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries.

The Travel Assistant is responsible for supporting the administration of travel  of UN portfolio of the UNOPS Geneva office. He/she would work in close collaboration with the operations, programmes and projects teams in the Geneva Office.

• Support the portfolio in collecting, compiling and/or reviewing the travel plans of all staff and consultants for projects under the portfolio, ensuring their timely submission to necessary stakeholders;
• Liaise with the UNOPS travel agency in Geneva to deliver travel products (quotation, tickets, per diems, travel claims, etc.) in the most flexible, cost-efficient manner;
• Prepare and/or review Travel Authorizations (TA) and ascertain that travel claims are fully documented. As required, verify invoices from travel agent(s) and follow through with UNOPS Portfolio team on payments;
• Calculate airfare and other travel entitlements such as Daily Subsistence Allowances (DSA), terminal expenses etc. for staff, consultants, meeting participants, and other official travellers;
• Process Travel Authorization in line with travel entitlements for staff, consultants, and meeting participants ensuring that travel arrangement follow the UNOPS applicable travel rules;
• Process Travel Expense Claims (TEC) and payments to travellers and airlines;
• Advise on and ensure standard security clearances are completed for staff/ICA holders (through TRIP system), but also for consultants, meeting participants, and other official travellers.;
• Process requests for visas for all travellers and coordinate with Travel Agent and/or national missions to ensure timely processing of visas.  Ensure visa support letters are on the established templates and register them;
• Arrange and apply for UN travel insurance for meetings participants (FAMPI) as applicable and  when required;
• Maintain an accurate and complete filing system for all travel arrangements in line with internal policy and procedures;
• Advise admin/support personnel on creating the purchase orders for payment of traveller and or / contractors with the view of ensuring accurate accounting and budget planning;
• Perform other related duties as required.

Minimum 3 years of relevant professional experience in travel management, event management or general administration is required.

A Bachelor with 1 year of experience in travel management, event management or general administration may be accepted in lieu of the required years of relevant experience.

Fluency in written and spoken English is required. 

Working Knowledge of French is desired.

Knowledge of any other UN languages is an asset.

• 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. 
• 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.

This position is based in Switzerland and the contract fee is not exempt from Swiss laws, including but not limited to laws regarding taxation, social security, accident and health insurance.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

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

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.