Travel Assistant - READVERTISED

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world.  Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organisations.  With over 8,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, where they need it.  By implementing around 1,000 projects for our partners at any given time, UNOPS makes significant contributions to results on the ground, often in the most challenging environments.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECR) supports UNOPS offices in the region, providing management and financial/programmatic oversight of Global and Country specific Portfolios, Clusters and Operations Centres including hosting services, fund management, management advisory services, implementing projects, 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 unites and projects across the entire region.

The Travel Assistant is responsible for supporting the administration of travels of the UNOPS Geneva Office under the direct supervision of the Travel Associate and overall supervision of the Head of Support Services. He/she would work in close collaboration with the central management teams, portfolio management teams, hosted entities, programme and project teams in the Geneva Office.

-       Support the preparation of the  Quarterly Travel Plans (QTPs) following the established guidelines and templates for management approval for consolidation at the portfolio and office level and reporting.

-       Maintain Quarterly Travel Plans in coordination with travel assistants of the portfolio management teams.

-       Prepare monthly travel cost report and liaise with finance unit and portfolio management teams for the verification and confirmation of projects GLAs for charging of the UNOPS travel services to projects.

-       Contribute to the mapping of travel unit tasks and preparation of the quarterly and annual workplans.

-       Contribute to the monitoring of the travel unit work-plan and reporting the progress to the management.

-       Supporting the drafting of the monthly travel report focusing on  key activities, achievements and challenges.

-       Participate in travel meetings, prepare minutes and action points as well as track their implementation.

-       Support the review and analysis of travel data and the various elements of costs that include tickets, travel agent services etc and prepare various statistical data including trend of costs and factors impacting.

-       Provide information to staff, consultants and meeting participants on the most direct and economical route, and book itineraries in line with UNOPS travel policies as well as established guidelines and procedures

-       Calculate airfare for staff, consultants, meeting participants, and other travellers and apply UN negotiated fares and other travel related service providers and websites, using AMADEUS for direct reservations.

-       Receive and review Travel Authorisations (TA). As required, verify invoices from service providers and follow through with UNOPS Portfolio teams on payments;

-       Ensure that UN Trip Security Clearances and FAMPI insurance coverage are requested for all trips at time of Travel Authorisation approval for staff/ICA holders (through TRIP system), but also for consultants, meeting participants, and other official travellers.;

-       Ensure visa applications are complete and follow up with service provider (CIBT) for processing and return of the passports with visas.

-       Process travel authorisation in line with travel entitlements for staff, consultants, and meeting participants ensuring that travel arrangement follow the UNOPS rules of most direct and economical route. 

-       Issue travel tickets to travellers inline with the approved travel authorisation and make sure that travel agency fee payment is settled by Finance Unit on timely basis to avoid delayed payment penalties.

-       Follow-up with contracted travel agency to ensure provision of high quality professional service (including back up support) and most competitive prices, including issuance of tickets as per reservations.

-       Process requests for visas for travellers and coordinate with embassies to ensure timely processing of visas.

-       Review travel claims and supporting documentation for completeness, accuracy, reasonableness, validity and conformity with UNOPS rules, and initiate related payment process.

-       Ensure that travellers are well-informed of any changes to their travel and payments made to them.

-       Ensure management and security are kept informed of all incoming and outgoing missions.

-       Ensure that all travellers are well-informed of any changes to their travels (airline schedule changes)

-       Arrange and apply for UN security clearance and insurance coverage when required.

-       Arrange hotel reservations for staff, visiting officials, consultants, and other travellers, as instructed;

-       Arrange for airport pick-up and drop off for new staff, consultants and other travellers, as instructed. 

-       Arrange for and support customs and immigration procedures, when required.  

-       Support knowledge building and sharing with travel teams, portfolio management teams and hosted entities

-       Contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice on travel and administrative functional areas.

-       Preparation of authorisations for service activities for approval of the Supervisor.

-       Processing of travel and expenses according to established procedures and practice.

-       Maintain accurate and complete filing system for travel documentations in line with internal procedures;

-       Perform other related duties as required.

-       Minimum of 5 years of relevant administrative experience in the areas of administration and travel in the United Nations or International Organisation at the international level;

-       Experience in the use of industry standards and systems will be an asset;

-       Experience in planning, analysis and reporting on administrative and travel related task will be an asset

-       Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and experience in handling of web based management systems;

-       Familiarity of UN/ UNOPS travel policy and staff entitlements for official travel will be an asset.

-       Professional knowledge of IATA policies and procedures will be an asset;

-       Fluency in written and spoken English is required. 

-       Working Knowledge of French is desired.

-       Knowledge of any other UN languages is an asset.

[Instructions: Please delete this paragraph and insert relevant information below:

1. Contract type : Individual Contractor Agreement (ICA)
2. Contract level : Local ICA Support Level 5
3. Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance

    For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link:
https://www.unops.org/english/Opportunities/job-opportunities/what-we-offer/Pages/Individual-Contractor-Agreements.aspx 

• 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
• 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 is a local position, therefore only Nationals of the duty station or applicants who are legally entitled (i.e. those with valid residence/work permit) to be employed in the duty station will be considered.
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.