Design Review Coordinator

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.

Within UNOPS, Implementation Practices and Standards (IPS) is responsible for the UNOPS delivery practices. IPS provides thought leadership, standards and oversight as support to the successful delivery of programmes and projects within UNOPS service lines (infrastructure, procurement, project management, human resources and financial management services). 

IPS is comprised of the Infrastructure and Project Management Group (IPMG) and the Procurement Group (PG) which aims to reduce organizational risks, improve project performance, and promote excellence across UNOPS projects through the Standards Management Framework; and provides organisational oversight on the application of standards. These Groups also support the positioning of UNOPS in the UN system and development sector in Infrastructure, Project Management and Procurement. In addition, the Portfolio Support (PS) unit aims at building up and managing aspects of the organisational readiness of UNOPS. Last, the IPS is hosting the corporate Knowledge Management initiative.

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Design Review Manager, the successful candidate will be responsible for a variety of tasks to support;

 1. the daily operation of design review and;

 2. the progressive development of design review processes. 

Qualified applicants will be highly organized and detail-oriented and have demonstrated the ability to be effective under the pressure of competing priorities. The role requires coordination, budget management, and reporting and analysis skills, as well as effective communication and stakeholder management. An infrastructure background is welcome but not required.

Functional Responsibilities

Coordinate and administer the daily operation of Design Review:

• Lead daily meetings to coordinate reviews of design submissions and facilitate responses to and other technical requests from project teams 

• Track and coordinate design review-related tasks between the core team, technical reviewers, and project teams

• Log and track passage of infrastructure designs through review and maintain updated records

• Support the coordination of necessary procurement activities such as the arrangement of Call-Off orders (COOs) for coordination of engineering Design Review services with our evaluation partners

• Serve as primary focal point for guidance to UNOPS project offices on Design Review process and related documentation 

Design Review Database Management and Performance Reporting

Regularly evaluate and update Design Review performance monitoring and reporting databases including: 

• Design Review project submissions platform for project office infrastructure designs (JIRA)

• Design Review infrastructure design development monitoring and reporting systems for the global portfolio and project offices

• Design Review cost recovery databases for technical support services to UNOPS project offices

• Lead regular data coordination, analysis, and reporting on fundamental Design Review and UNOPS project office performance indicators, risk analysis, escalation and mitigation strategies, and overall programmatic growth and development indicators including quarterly and ad-hoc analysis 

Support infrastructure Design Review reporting to internal and external partners

• Coordinate with other corporate units to deliver on design review objectives, meet reporting and policy requirements, and respond to requests

• Support the development of  Design Review standard operating procedures (SOPs), intranet updates, UNOPS Design  Planning Manuals and other guidance materials

• Support the implementation of Design Review policy changes and agreed actions from steering committee’s and other management initiatives 

Lead coordination of Design Review metrics

• Ensure timely processing of payments for engineering Design Review services provided by retainer and corporate partners

• Track Design Review expenses and recovery to ensure accurate and timely financial recording and reporting 

• Coordinate with project teams and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that costs incurred by retainer and corporate partners  are fully recovered 

Other support

• Support to Engagement Assurance and IPMG work packages, as required. 

• Support training/Web-Ex event initiatives within IPMG as required.

Education  

• A Master’s Degree or higher in a relevant field, including but not limited to: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Project Management, Business Administration, Public Administration is required.
• A first-level University degree (Bachelor's or equivalent) in combination with additional 2 years of  experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Candidates with educational background in Engineering, Architecture, or Planning are preferred, as are candidates with international development/volunteering experience.
  
  
  

• A minimum 2 years of experience in international settings in a) project management/management support, and/or b) Infrastructure engineering is a requirement. 
• Expertise with spreadsheets, presentation, and word processing software is a requirement
• Work experience that includes stakeholder analysis/management would be considered an asset
• Experience working in large, global organizations or national institutions following public procurement rules and regulations would be considered an asset.
• Knowledge of public procurement rules would be considered an asset
• Experience in multicultural environments, including in developing countries would be considered an asset.
• Knowledge of/experience with Google Suite, including Data Studio and BigQuery would be considered an asset. 

Languages 

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of French and/or Spanish would be considered an asset

Contract type: International ICA
Contract level: IICA-1
Contract duration: open-ended

For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link:

• 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.

Work environment

IPS offers a unique work environment in UNOPS headquarters, in Copenhagen, Denmark, located in the UN City building, one of Copenhagen’s landmarks. UNOPS HQ offers a safe, family-friendly lifestyle environment with multiple opportunities for networking and and active lifestyle, in a city known for its excellent urban design and planning.

The IPS team is a diverse team in terms of age, nationalities and family situations. The team is inclusive and values social and athletic activities like team breakfast, Friday evening networking or sports such as sailing, climbing, running and squash. IPS is very dynamic and welcomes agility, autonomy and self-drive. The work of IPS is oriented towards exciting opportunities which have a corporate, global impact and is in touch with the whole of UNOPS. UNOPS has a hosting agreement with the Government of Denmark, and as such both national and international candidates are eligible for HQ-based positions. UNOPS officials are exempt from Danish taxes on UN incomes. EU citizens may opt to be registered with the Danish State Administration as EU migrant worker and keep the rights associated with that status or register through UNOPS with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. EU Citizens may apply for the public Danish health insurance or special health card depending on their choice of registration, while the non-EU citizens will be registered by UNOPS under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

IPS is very respectful of the UNOPS policy on work life balance. IPS is keen on strengthening diversity in the team with a current focus on gender equality and geographic diversity.