Senior 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.

Sudan

General Background

The Senior Project Manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project and provides services to the different donors, partners and beneficiaries.  He/she is expected to meet and exceed the organizations performance and delivery goals.

The main donor for this project is the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID). The project is to provide technical assistance, capacity building and institutional reform initiatives to the Red Sea Water Corporation  (RSWC) in Port Sudan with the aim of improving water management and distribution.  The project manager will be working with other stakeholders such as the African Development Bank (AFDB), the World Bank (WB), and the Sudan Ministry of Water Resources, Irrigation, and Electricity.

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

The Senior Project Manager is responsible to produce/update the project initiation documents (PID), legal agreements and have a thorough understanding of the terms, conditions, and the respective roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders to ensure the project products are capable of meeting the business cases for both UNOPS, DFID and RSWC. Success of the project will be based on the success criteria of UNOPS engagements which are linked to the below responsibilities. The Senior Project Manager at this level is expected to successfully manage this complex project by leading his/her team effectively. The project would rely on a number of external suppliers for its successful delivery and would be working with firm deadlines. The Senior Project Manager is responsible for all aspects of the project life cycle. S/he must be able to apply, independently, the below duties and responsibilities of the project success criteria:

Stakeholder Management:

●        Establish solid working relationship with the project board (Executive, Senior Users and Senior Suppliers), DFID, RSWC and all the other key stakeholders

●        Manage communications and ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are in a position to accept handover products

●        Advise DFID and RSWC on issues that may impact the achievement of their outcomes (including issues of sustainability and post project requirements such as maintenance)

●        Manage the information flows between the Project Board / RSWC Director and the project. The PM will be also coordinating and facilitating the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) meetings, keeping them informed, prepare agenda for the meeting and keeping records of meeting minutes, etc.

Delivery and Performance:

●        Develop and maintain project plans

●        Implement 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 project life cycle.

●        Manage the production of the required deliverables in terms of capacity building and technical assistance., Taking responsibility for overall progress and use of resources and initiating corrective action where necessary

●        Liaise with the external suppliers, the SWC Heads of departments and DFID representatives

●        Authorize Work Packages and monitor the embedded UNOPS team and the Project Progress

●        Advise the Project Board and the SWC Head of any deviations from the plan

●        Identify and manage risks so that maximum benefit to client and stakeholders is achieved

●        Manage and review product quality and ensure products are accepted

●        Monitor and evaluate performance of the rest of UNOPS Team and service providers

●        Identify and report threats to UNOPS internal business case to supervisor

●        Advise IMC on required strategies and or Government policies to support streamline the SWC work

Procedures:

●        Follow the Project Management Cycle Instructions and ensure that all organizational policy is complied with (Organizational Directives and Administrative Instructions)

●        Prepare/adapt the following plans for approval by the Project Board:  I. Project Initiation Documentation; II. Stage/Exception Plans and relevant Product Descriptions

●        Prepare the following reports:

                                i.            Highlight Reports

                               ii.            End Stage Reports

                             iii.            Operational Closure Checklist

                             iv.            End Project Report

                               v.            Handover Report

●        Maintain the following: i. Electronic Blue File; ii. Procurement, HR and Finance files as required by those practices as per OD12.

●        Ensure that all expenditure comply with UNOPS Financial Rules and Regulations (FRR).

●        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 the UN and budget appropriately for personnel

●        Manage and remain accountable for expenditures against the budget (based on accurate financial reports)

●        Where the Project Manager has no delegation as a committing officer, s/he retains these responsibilities and will monitor and instruct/request others to carry out the relevant commitments and disbursements.

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 OC Director

●        Have a thorough understanding of UNOPS personnel contract modalities (including ICA and Staff)

●        Select, recruit and train team as required by project plans

●        Perform the Team Manager role, unless appointed to another person(s)

●        Perform Project Support role, unless appointed to another person or corporate/programme function

●        Ensure safety and security for all personnel and comply with UNDSS standards

Core Values and Principles:

●        Understand and respect UNOPS sustainability principles

                                I.            Look for ways to embed UNOPS sustainability principles in day to day project management

                              II.            Seek opportunities to champion gender equality at the workplace

                            III.            Champion and communicate project’s sustainability aspects with key stakeholders

●        Understand and Respect National ownership and capacity

                                i.            Understand the principles of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness and mainstream them into the project plans

                               ii.            Seek opportunities to recruit qualified local staff

                             iii.            Look for ways to build capacity of local counterparts

●        Partnerships and Coordination

                                i.            Understand the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and UNOPS, the project’s place in the UN system

                               ii.            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

                                i.            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 to a supervisor

●        Excellence

                                i.            Contribute to innovation and the adaptation of best practice standards of sustainability and quality.

Additional Requirements: Engineering Project Management

●        Civil Engineering (Hydraulics, Hydrology, Hydrogeology, etc...)

●        Water treatment and water distribution process

●        Institutional and Capacity Building

●        Administration and Finance

3. Monitoring and Progress Controls

Ensure that the project produces the required products within the specified tolerance of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. The Project Manager is also responsible for the project producing a result capable of achieving the benefits defined in the Business Case. Contribute to the overall business targets and needs.

More specifically, the Project Manager shall:

●        Monitor the team member and assure that their tasks are successfully executed

●        Conduct the performance evaluation of the members team

●        Produce periodic progress reports and measure the actual progress of the project against the baseline

A.  Education

●        Advanced University Degree in Project Management, Business Administration and/or Civil Engineering or other relevant discipline.

●        University Degree (bachelor’s degree / first level) with a combination of 2 additional years of relevant professional experience in Project Management, Business Administration, and/or Engineering, or other relevant discipline, may be accepted in lieu of the advance university degree

●        PRINCE 2 Practitioner Certification – an advantage

●        A relevant combination of academic credentials and/or industry certifications and qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the university education.                                                  

B. Work Experience

●        Seven years (or more based on academic credentials) of progressive experience in managing water utilities, water resource management or with civil engineering/infrastructure projects related to water supply management and distribution

●        3 years’ work experience in the field of institutional reform and capacity building

●        Experience in the MENA region is an asset

●        Experience in the management of any water utility or corporation is a strong asset

●        Additional Requirements:

• Fluency in English language is required.
• Knowledge of Arabic language is a strong asset.

Contract type: ICA Contract level: I-ICA 3
Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.’

• Please note that Port Sudan is a Non-Family Duty Station
• 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.
• 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.