Civil Engineer(Retainer)

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.

UNOPS commenced operations in Pakistan in 1999 and significantly up-scaled activities from 2005 onwards to support populations affected by and vulnerable to earthquakes. In 2010, UNOPS opened a permanent office in Islamabad to support the Government of Pakistan and other partners to undertake humanitarian and reconstruction services, following the most devastating flood in the nation’s history.

UNOPS Pakistan has been implementing projects in the areas of early recovery and reconstruction of community infrastructure, project management and related monitoring and verification, community development, fund management, and procurement. Supported strategically by a regional operational hub and UNOPS headquarters in Copenhagen and within the overarching framework of the ONE UN Programme, UNOPS Pakistan continues to deliver projects across the country under its core delivery practices of sustainable infrastructure, sustainable procurement, and sustainable project management. 

In addition, UNOPS is based in Islamabad and has a provincial office in Peshawar. UNOPS is working with different donors and UN agencies to implement infrastructure, procurement, HR Services and other projects in different parts of Pakistan Similarly, UNOPS is also acting as the Local Fund Agent of the Global Fund. In Pakistan, UNOPS monitors a grant portfolio of $600,000,000 by undertaking regular and mandatory field visits across the country including FATA to provide independent monitoring of the activities carried out by the grantees of the Global Fund. 

The Civil Engineer provides technical assistance and expertise with reference to the construction works as well as assessment , Monitoring and field coordination, ensuring high quality and consistency of work, for the a/m construction works . The Civil Engineer promotes a collaborative, client focused, quality and results-oriented approach in the Project Team.

• Plan and coordinate work activities with the Partnership Manager and other PMs.
• Take timely action to prevent potential delays and/or cost overruns that can be avoided.
• Provide supervision of project work progress and quality for on-time project delivery. 
• Monitor contractor presence on the project site, including Bill of Quantities (BoQ) as per approved contract.
• Provide regular updates to and communication with contractors, the PM, Government stakeholders, other team members and UNOPS Procurement, Human Resources, QA/QC and Project Management Office (PMO).
• Ensure that the contractors fully understand and implement the provisions of UNOPS policies and requirements with regard to Health, Safety, Social and Environmental (HSSE) Management
• Ensure that the contractors fully understand and implement the provisions of UNOPS policies and requirements with regard to Gender.
• Provide monthly report to the Project Manager detailing all project matters including quality, health and safety, environmental and financial, as well as any issues relating to possible delays, cost overruns, variations and any other matter as agreed with the Project Manager 

• Complete needs assessment, organize preliminary studies, assesments and monitor/supervising consultants.
• Support the review of requests for new construction and rehabilitation works.
• Carry out assessments and prepare reports with recommendations for follow up actions.
• Assist Partnership Manager to determine budget required for works and other activities which came out of assessments
• Assist the Project Manager in redacting the tender dossier, with particular focus to the technical documents (drawings, BoQ, technical specification and standards).

• Assist the Project Manager & Partnership Manager to outline design requirements (e.g. timeline) to procure design services, including concept, preliminary and final stages where applicable.
• Assist the PM to manage the design plan ensuring deliverables are available on time, and to the required quality.
• Prepare the BoQ, Drawings and Technical specifications for comment and approval by the Project Manager.
• Assist the procurement team with technical assistance in preparation of tender documentation and bid analysis where required.

• As tasked by the PM, supervise construction works and administer works execution as per the contractual provisions and the design specifications.
• Ensure quantity/quality control and time schedule consistency.
• Verify that works are consistent with the project technical specifications and inform promptly of eventual deviations.
• Support the overall management of works implementation to ensure construction works are completed on time, within budget and to quality standards.
• Provide regular supervision of the project work progress and quality for on time delivery. 
• Assist the PM/PMO in the preparation of project/contracts related documentations such as periodic progress reports, site monitoring reports, stakeholder meeting minutes, engineer’s instructions and variation orders, contractor’s bills review reports, certifications, client hand-over documents and contracts close-out reports.
• Oversee surveying works, engineering control of the works etc.
• Carrying out regular visits during DNP period and report back to PMO if there is any discrepancy
• Document and record the lessons learned for improving the delivery of works

• Assist in providing training and technology transfer to national personnel and contractor’s personnel and advice on good construction practices, good environmental management practices, and appropriate health and safety standards during construction
• Contribute to the dissemination and sharing of best practices and lessons learned for development planning and knowledge building.

• A Master’s degree in Civil Engineering or related field is required.
• A combination of a Bachelor's degree with an additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the education requirements outlined above.
• AutoCAD certification is desirable.
• Project Management certification (for example PRINCE2® Foundation is desirable)
• Health and Safety  certification (for example IOSH is desirable) 

• A minimum of 2 years (or more depending on academic credentials) of experience, related to the project requirements, in civil engineering construction management is required.
• Experience in construction management and reporting is required; 
• Work experience in post-conflict/ fragile environments is desirable.
• Some experience in the UN system organizations and/or a developing country is desirable.
• Experience in design and construction is highly desirable; 
• Strong knowledge of principles and techniques of carrying out infrastructure assessments is an asset;
• Knowledge in management of Quick Impact Project would be an asset; 
• High proficiency with computers in particular google workspace, G-suite Applications, AutoCAD, internet, and other programming packages desirable
• Civil Engineer must have a valid registration with Pakistan Engineering council(PEC) 

• Full working knowledge of English is essential.
• Knowledge of a local language is an asset.

Contract type: Individual Contract Agreement- ICA(Retainer contract)

• Retainer Individual Contractor Agreement (ICA): is issued for a period of time during which the services of the individual contractor may be required intermittently. It will specify a unit price (e.g. amount per day actually worked). For budgetary purposes, a monetary limit will be specified at the time the ICA is awarded and issued.

  • UNOPS shall have no obligation to obtain any minimum quantity of Services from the Individual Contractor during the duration of the retainer ICA.

  • Payment will be made only after completion of work (if any) or reaching agreed milestones.

  • A retainer ICA does not accord any exclusivity to the Individual Contractor with respect to the Services listed in the job description. UNOPS shall have no limitation on its right to obtain Services of the same kind from any other source at any time.

  • UNOPS Individual Contractors must comply with the standards of conduct required of a UN civil servant, when carrying out their official UNOPS responsibilities and also all other times. This includes the standards of conduct set forth in the UN Secretary-General’s Bulletin of 9 October 2003 entitled “Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse” (ST/SGB/2003/13) and the UN Secretary-General’s Bulletin of 18 June 2002 entitled "Regulations Governing the Status, Basic Rights and Duties of Officials other than Secretariat Officials, and Experts on Mission" (ST/SGB/2002/9) as they may be amended from time to time.

  • UNOPS Individual Contractors must comply with all applicable UNOPS policies and instructions. This includes the obligation to declare any outside activity that could result in an actual or perceived conflict with the interests of the UN; as well as to refrain from using information gained through the UNOPS Individual Contractor Agreement contract for the Individual Contractor’s own purposes or to help a third party (unless the information is already in the public domain), in particular but not only in relation to procurement of works, goods and services.

  • UNOPS Individual Contractors must abide by UN safety and security policies, instructions, directives, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.

  • The standard terms and conditions of the UNOPS ICA as of the present date can be found at https://content.unops.org/HR-Documents/ICA_contract/Annex-A-ENGLISH.pdf

• 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.