Project Management Support Associate

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 organizations. With over 6,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical, and management knowledge they need, where they need it.

UNOPS provides its partners with advisory, implementation, and transactional services, with projects ranging from building schools and hospitals, to procuring goods and services and training local personnel. UNOPS works closely with governments and communities to ensure increased economic, social, and environmental sustainability for the projects we support, with a focus on developing national capacity. 

UNOPS Georgia was established in mid-2018 to support, develop and oversee UNOPS’s growing portfolio in the country. The office currently provides implementation services to several projects where UNOPS works closely with development partners and the Government of Georgia, focusing on education, security, and healthcare sectors.

UNOPS Georgia is focused on providing efficient and cost-effective implementation services on behalf of all our partners to support the Government of Georgia achieve its national priorities through citizen-oriented programmes and projects. The UNOPS Georgia office operates under the operational support of the Austrian Multi-Country Office (AUMCO).

The UNOPS office is based in Tbilisi, Georgia with all project sites currently in Tbilisi.

The Eastern Partnership European School Programme

Starting from 2018, UNOPS in Georgia implements the Eastern Partnership European School Project. This flagship project is part of a wider initiative by the European Union (EU) for the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries, and one of the "Eastern Partnership - 20 Deliverables for 2020",  to address the needs of youth, focusing on secondary education.

Through the partnership established with the New School under the Phase 1, the project offers full scholarships to successful high school students from six EaP countries to study on International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma programme and increase their educational and employment opportunities, fostering cooperation, multi-cultural understanding and tolerance, as well as promoting a better understanding of the EU and its engagement in the region.

Under the Phase 2 of the Project UNOPS supports the Government of Georgia in the establishment of a new European standard campus, offering both a national diploma programme as well as an International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB). Moreover, support will be provided to the Government for curriculum development, establishment of a learning academy, and related teachers training. The Project will also provide an IB Diploma programme with a focus on European Studies to up to 90 students over four academic years through a competitive and merit-based Scholarship Programme.

The Project Management Support Associate (hereinafter “Project Associate”) works closely with and under the supervision and guidance of the Senior Project Manager to ensure support to efficient implementation of Projects through a range of actions contributing to planning, management and monitoring of Project activities.

In performing her/his work, the Project Associate promotes a quality and results-oriented approach, and works closely with the Programme and Project’s personnel and Support Services, to exchange information and ensure consistent service delivery.

The Project Associate will undertake the following activities/responsibilities:

Project Monitoring and Reporting

• Support the Project Team in Project planning, implementation and day-to-day activities.
• Provide support in maintenance of the Project filing system and different project registers.
• Supports facilitation of regular project reporting in the system, including for quarterly Quality Assurance exercise.
• Collect, sort, file and send out project files to the Project team and other relevant personnel.
• Supports the Project in monitoring the provision of services by contractors and consultants, including technical outputs as well as progress and final reports submitted.
• Support in donor reporting - prepare initial drafts, collect and sort data from internal and external sources, prepare statistical charts, tables and other; collect and file all the supporting documents.
• Support planning and participate in the project steering committee and other meetings (as required) and prepare respective minutes/protocols of the meetings.
• Support grant management activities and monitor their implementation, collect status reports from the Grantee(s), including financial reports.
• Support administrative, procurement and financial processes, such as Calls for Proposals’ announcements, grant application and evaluation processes, communicating different administrative information to Project team, beneficiaries, and administrative monitoring of the grant contracts.

Project Implementation and Visibility

• Provide support for the Project’s communication and visibility activities in full conformity with the donors’ regulations and guidances.
• Provide event management support, including logistics, preparation of participants’ list, invitations, agenda, presentations, attendance sheets, and other.

Operational and Logistics Support

• Assist in follow up of engagement of project consultants and submission of related time sheets.
• Manage and prepare all supporting documents related to  payments.
• Support procurement related activities.
• Maintain Project inventory list, vehicle log-sheet, fuel consumption, and other.
• Provides support in translation of documents. Interprets during meetings if/as required.
• Support Project staff and consultants with the travel-related processes/procedures.
• Perform other duties as required and in line with the incumbent’s scope of services above.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree is required
• Degree in Business Management/Administration, Social Sciences, Humanities or related field will be considered as advantage
• Master's Degree in the mentioned fields will be considered as an asset.

Work Experience

• Minimum four years of experience in performing administrative, organizational and/or project support activities
• Experience in grant monitoring activities will be considered as an asset
• Experience with education development projects will be considered as an asset
• Experience with international organizations is desirable
• Experience with UN and/or UNOPS administrative management systems will be considered as an asset

Language Requirements

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required
• Fluency in written and spoken Georgian is required

• 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
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• 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.