Project Support Officer (Internal Candidates only)

THIS IS AN INTERNAL VACANCY FOR WHICH ONLY CURRENT UNOPS PERSONNEL ARE ELIGIBLE FOR CONSIDERATION. 

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.

Background Information 

Since 2010, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement has inspired a new way of working collaboratively to end malnutrition, in all its forms. With the governments of SUN Countries in the lead, it unites people—from civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses and researchers—in a collective effort to improve nutrition. The SUN Strategy 2021–2025 (SUN 3.0) prioritises country leadership and focuses on supporting systemic change at the country level. It seeks to capture the ambition of SUN countries and guide the work of all actors at all levels aligning concerted action behind and responding to commonly agreed national priorities set out by governments in SUN countries. 

To support the efforts of the SUN Movement Secretariat, a Portfolio Management Team has been established within the UNOPS Geneva Office. The Project Support Officer reports to the  Portfolio Manager and will be a key member of the SUN Portfolio Management Team that provides a range of implementation support services to ensure rapid and compliant delivery of all aspects of the programme, to include administration, procurement, grants, human resources, and finance. In particular, the Project Support Officer will provide support on project management, procurement, administrative, and HR processes for SUN Secretariat.

Role of the Project Support Officer

The Project Support Officer is part of the SUN Movement PMT and is responsible for ensuring effective provision of support service for the Secretariat across all aspects of operations (Finance, HR, Procurement, Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE), Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Administration) to ensure achievement of results, whilst driving compliance with corporate strategies, UNOPS rules, regulations, policies, and standards of accountability, ethics and integrity.  

The Project Support Officer reports to the Portfolio Manager and provides a range of implementation support services to ensure rapid and compliant delivery of all aspects of the operations, including administration, procurement, grants, human resources, and finance. 

He/she works in close collaboration with teams across the SMS as well as interfacing with the Support Services function of the UNOPS Geneva Office, UNOPS HQ and other key stakeholders for successful service delivery.

The specific responsibilities of the Portfolio Officer include:

• Support in the design and formulation of the workplan and budget for the SMS, including setting goals, targets and performance standards.

• Assist the Portfolio Manager in engagement management by regularly updating project and implementation plans, drafting funding agreements, determination of required revisions, and support with project closure. 

• Assist in drafting of TORs for subcontractors and consultants; proposals of suitable firms or institutions and individual consultants; evaluation of proposals received; recommendations for contract awards; negotiations with successful bidders, for the Portfolio Manager’s approval.

• Support in drafting of contract documents and letters of agreement with institutions or individuals and UN agencies; administration of contracts and agreements and processing amendments, if required, for Portfolio Manager’s approval.

• Monitor compliance of procurement activities with UNOPS rules, regulations, policies and strategies; implementation of the effective internal control, analysis of parameters in support of proper design and functioning of a client-oriented procurement management system.

• Within delegated responsibility perform financial and substantive monitoring and evaluation of the projects, identification of operational and financial problems, development of solutions.

• Monitoring and evaluation of performance of service providers, suitable firms or institutions

• Supervision, certification and approval of service payments, purchase orders and other disbursements for the projects under his/her management (to be certified by the Portfolio Manager and Finance)

• Support the assessment of expenditure in administration (office premises, assets, travel, etc.) for previous years; estimate new requirements and prepare budget plans for the review of the Portfolio Manager.

• Maintain archive of project documentation and ensure access to institutional memory and technical information on related components of the project.

• Follow up on audit recommendations and observations. All exceptions are timely reported.

• Aggregate reports regularly prepared on activities, outputs and outcomes. Preparation of donor reports.

• Identification of sources of information related to policy-driven issues. Identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learnt directly linked to programme/project management.

• Contribution to organization and client capacity-building of high performance delivery through coaching and mentoring of internal clients and partners.

• Participation in the organization and conduct of training for the operations/ projects personnel.

• Contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice

• Focus on clients’ services, keeping them informed of the status of project activities. Oral and written periodic reports.

• Active interaction with clients to solicit feedback and gauge client satisfaction.

• Interaction with internal clients and regional portfolio managers to integrate and harmonize approaches.

• Demonstration of professional and personal ethics, transparency and openness to encourage respect and similar behaviour from colleagues.

• Perform other related duties as instructed by supervisors.

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in a relevant field such as finance, business, public administration or other relevant related field is required.

• A Bachelor's degree with a combination of two additional years of relevant experience may be accepted  in lieu of the master's degree.

• Minimum of two years of relevant work experience in administration, procurement, support services, human resources development, project/programme management, or similar fields.

• Relevant experience at the national or international level in providing project management and transactional services.

• Experience in knowledge management and innovation.

• Only serving UNOPS personnel will be considered for this position.
• Please note, this position is based in Geneva, Switzerland and therefore, the selected incumbent will have to register with the Swiss authorities and comply with local regulations, including but not limited to - Taxation and Social Security. Additionally, the incumbent will have to purchase a Swiss based insurance (LaMal) within the first three months on contract. UNOPS may help subsidize the cost of this insurance, upon show of proof. 
• 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
• 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.

Contract type: International Individual Contractor Agreement (IICA)

Contract level: IICA-1 (ICS-8)

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.