Project Manager

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.

Background Information – UNOPS Hub in Amman:

The UNOPS Hub in Amman implements projects in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen, in partnership with bilateral donors, national governments, and other UN agencies.  With an established presence across the region, the office runs operations including large-scale procurement, project development, and technical management, and provides financial, human resources, and infrastructure-related services. The functional objective of UNOPS Hub in Amman is to deliver its projects in an efficient and effective manner and in line with the principles, rules and regulations of UNOPS, in order to support the response to the current needs and national priorities in the region.

The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.

UNOPS is committed to achieving a fully diverse workforce.

UNOPS is implementing a project for the restoration of access to critical urban services in Iraqi liberated areas, through an integrated approach to selecting and implementing activities in order to maximize cost effectiveness and to ensure complementarity across sectors.

Damage assessments indicate a high degree of inter-dependence amongst the following affected sectors: tertiary municipal services and solid waste management, urban water and sanitation, and urban roads and energy. Therefore, restoring access to critical urban services in liberated areas, where most of the conflict-related damage has occurred, in now essential in order to allow the return of the displaced population and to ensure that they are provided with decent living conditions.

Under the overall guidance of the Director Amman Operational Hub, and under direct supervision of the Head of Programme; the Project Manager (PM) will be responsible for all aspects of the project life-cycle in accordance with the Project Document, the legal agreement between UNOPS and the donor, and in compliance with Organizational Directives and Administrative Instructions on Project Management.

S/he must be able to apply, with some degree of autonomy, the below duties and responsibilities of the project success criteria.

Stakeholder Management:

• Establish solid working relationship with the project board, partners, and key stakeholders
• Manage communications and ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are in a position to accept handover products
• Lead on the development of relations with key government and humanitarian partners - including but not limited to: clusters, the Inter-cluster Coordination Group (ICCG), the Humanitarian Country Team, and bi-lateral partners, to establish and maintain accurate and timely two-way information flow, and document impact of information sharing and improved collective accountability
• Manage the information flows between the Project Board/OC Director and the project;
• Advise the Project Board on issues that may impact the achievement of project deliverables,
• Ensure timely preparation of the progress reports as required by the donor;
• Ensure donor visibility as stipulated in the approved project document/ legal agreement;
• Identify and report any potential partnership development opportunities for UNOPS to Head of Programme and/ or the Partnerships Team.

Delivery and Performance:

• Develop and maintain project plans and review/ update those on a monthly/ quarterly basis, as applicable;
• Implement and control approved project plans (including the establishment of milestones) within tolerances set by the Project Board;
• Embed sustainability dimensions including social and gender inclusion, environmental and economic aspects into the project life cycle;
• Manage the production of the required products and deliverables, taking responsibility for overall progress and use of resources and initiating corrective actions as needed;

• Review and certify the submitted payment certificates;
• Follow up and approve submittals and advice on suitable alterations;
• Liaise with external suppliers, as well as with all internal units of UNOPS Amman Hub for timely planning and execution of project activities;
• Authorize Work Packages;
• Advise the Project Board and the Head of Programme of any deviations from the plan;
• Implement approved project plans (including the establishment of milestones) within tolerances set by the Project Board;
• Manage and review product quality and ensure products are accepted;
• Monitor and evaluate performance of service providers;
• Identify and report threats to the project and any UNOPS internal business case to the Head of Programme.

Project Management Procedures:

• Ensure compliance with UNOPS Project Management Manual (PMM) while fully adhering to the relevant Organizational Directives and Administrative Instructions;
• Prepare and follow up the following reports (including but not limited to):

             - Highlight Reports,              - End Stage Reports,
             - Operational Closure Checklist,
             - End Project Report,
             - Closure Report.

• Maintain the following: i. Electronic Blue File; ii. Procurement, HR and Finance files as required;
• Being fully informative with Project Management Practices;
• Ensure that all expenditure comply with UNOPS Financial Rules and Regulations;
• Manage budgets, cash flow and obligations to ensure that deliverables are met and payments to contractors and personnel are received on time;
• Understand and manage UNOPS overheads, allocable charges, and related corporate charges as they apply to the project;
• Understand the unique structures of  UNOPS and budget appropriately for personnel,
• Manage and remain accountable for expenditures against the budget (based on accurate financial reports), and ensure project delivery in accordance with the forecast based on work planning.

Knowledge Management:

• Participate in the relevant Communities of Practice;
• Actively interact with other PMs and the PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practice on the Knowledge System;
• Provide feedback to Practice Leads on policy, supporting guidance with an aim towards continuous improvement of UNOPS policies;
• Complete lessons learned as per reporting format;
• Incorporate lessons learned from others as per planning format.

Personnel Management:

• Lead and motivate the project management team;
• Ensure that behavioural expectations of team members are established;
• Ensure that performance reviews are conducted;
• Identify outstanding staff and bring them to the attention of the Head of Porgramme;
• Have a thorough understanding of UNOPS personnel contract modalities (including ICA and Staff);
• Select, recruit and train existing and/ or new team members as required by project plans;
• Ensure safety and security for all personnel and comply with UNDSS standards.

 Core Values and Principles:

• Understand and respect UNOPS sustainability principles;
• Look for ways to embed UNOPS sustainability principles in day to day project management;
• Seek opportunities to champion gender equality at work place;
• Champion and communicate project’s sustainability aspects with key stakeholder;
• Understand and Respect National ownership and capacity
• Understand the principles of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness and mainstream them into the project plans
• Seek opportunities to recruit qualified local staff
• Look for ways to build capacity of local counterparts

Partnerships and Coordination:

• Understand the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and UNOPS, the project’s place in the UN system;
• Strive to build strong partnerships and effective coordination among relevant project actors (e.g. United Nations, governments, and non-governmental organizations or other relevant partners);
• Accountability for results and the use of resources;
• Ensure that the project management processes are designed to deliver maximum accountability, transparency and results. If a project or processes is not in line with this, it is the responsibility of the PM to raise the issue with the supervisor;
• Contribute to innovation and the adaptation of best practice standards of sustainability and quality.

• Master Degree in Civil Engineering.
• Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering with a combination of 2 additional years of relevant professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advance university degree.
• Certified Senior Project Manager - International Project Manager Association (IPMA Level B) or Project Management Professional (PMP - PMI) or PRINCE2 foundation/ Practitioner is an asset.

• Seven years (or more based on academic credentials) of progressive experience in project management, stakeholder management and coordination in either public or private sector organizations is required;
• Previous experience with international organization/s and/or UN in a humanitarian and/ or conflict/post-conflict settings is required;
• Experience in rehabilitation and construction projects in conflict/ post conflict setting is required;
• Experience in the Middle East Region is required while experience in Iraq is highly desirable.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic is required.
• Fluency in Kurdish is an asset.

Other requirements

• Ability to develop clear goals, independently plan and prioritize own work, work well under tight deadlines and handle multiple concurrent activities;
• Positive attitude and strong analytical, interpersonal and communication skills;
• Good report writing and oral presentation skills;
• Commitment, efficiency, flexibility and willingness to work in a highly motivated team of professionals;
• Ability to adapt to difficult working environment, under pressure and with limited timeframes, and to exercise initiative and resourcefulness necessary for prioritizing multiple tasks;
• Ability to travel to and within Iraq’s governorates.

Contract type: International ICA  Contract level: I-ICA 2
Contract duration: Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.

• 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.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• 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
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• 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.