Programme Management Office (PRMO) - Specialist

Located in Dakar, the UNOPS Senegal Multi-country office covers all French-speaking countries in West and North AFrica. It has developed a strong working relation with the Governments and international partners over the years. It provides technical support in strategic development areas including elections; Procurement and related capacity building; Environmental protection, as well as infrastructure rehabilitation and development. It comprises a portfolio of more than 60 on-going projects with half of it dedicated to infrastructure projects, while the rest is composed of transactional projects, procurement, and support in funds, grants or project management.

The primary role of the Programme Management Office (PRMO) - Specialist is to provide Hub with the structures, tools and techniques needed to ensure that it has the right programmes and projects in place, that operational and change priorities are balanced, the governance and decision making is facilitated and it has the resources and capability to deliver them consistently well. 

The functions and services of the Programme Management Office (PRMO) - Specialist include:

• Strategic Planning/Portfolio Support: Ensuring UNOPS is focused on doing the right projects by supporting management decision-making.

• Delivery Support: Ensuring UNOPS is doing projects the right way, through the effective delivery of the programme and projects.

• Best Practices: Applying UNOPS standards in project management, encouraging consistent working practices and ensuring appropriate application.

• In conjunction with the PMO team, provides appropriate levels of programmatic management and administrative support to the Programme Management regarding all ongoing project activities, while maintaining and implementing appropriate standards and best practices in line with UNOPS policies and procedures.

• Directly contribute to strategic oversight, advice and direction on programme and project management activities in line with service agreements and project documents.

• Ensure proper development, implementation and, as and when appropriate, amendments, of project budgets and staffing resources, ensuring synergies across the Hub/PC.

• Develops and establishes resource-tracking systems for use within the PMO, complementary to UNOPS' online tools, to ensure effective planning, forecasting and tracking of delivery across the Hub.

• Identifies, and anticipates in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advises mitigating measures to the Head of Programme.

• Facilitate the development of high-level programme/project plans, including the collation of lower-level plans into programme/project-level milestones.

• Develop, track and maintain dependencies.

• Liaise closely and support the Head of Support Services in all project assets and finance related issues.

• For project closure purposes, acts as (or nominates and supervises) a focal point between the Hub and donors throughout the process.

• Oversee and coordinate all project closure activities, ensuring appropriate disposal of project assets, timely and effective final (operational) reporting, initiation of financial disbursements as appropriate during Defects Liability Periods, updating of information on the UNOPS Management Workspace (MWS), and effective handover of closed projects to UNOPS HQ for financial closure processes

• Prepare and issue regular project reports in accordance with donor guidelines for reporting.

• Regularly review project status, evaluating performance criteria (scope, cost, schedule and quality).

• Maintain diaries and progress reports as required by UNOPS standard procedures.

• Identify and anticipate in a timely manner, potential risks and issues specific to delivery forecasts, and advise mitigating measures to the Head of Programmes.

• Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery data within the dashboard system, using UNOPS ERP system as required.

• Perform routine maintenance and implementation of effective monitoring and evaluation systems of programmes and project activities, in line with logical frameworks.

• Within the context of monitoring and evaluation, ensure all projects submit and regularly update specific milestones and targets for the duration of projects' life-cycles, and track progress, or otherwise, against such information.

• Provide editorial support to programmes and projects, ensuring effective and timely dissemination of reports, in line with project documentation and clients' expectations.

• Provide the Head of Support Services with necessary project analysis reports and information to support areas relevant to the project management team (i.e. Locally Managed Direct Costs projections etc.).

• Coordinate and oversee the implementation of requests or initiatives relevant to project management from the Regional Office, IPAS, and HQ Teams, as required.

• Develop stakeholder profiles and facilitate the formulation of stakeholder engagement strategies.

• Enable the formulation of programmes and project communications plans.

• Coordinate stakeholder engagement and communication, ensuring effective timing and interdependency management of communications across programmes and projects.

• Coordinate internal programmes/projects communications.

• Monitor the effectiveness of programmes/projects communication.

• Work with internal audit and finance to ensure the programme complies with audit requirements.

• Work with procurement/purchasing staff to ensure effective interface with suppliers' quality systems.

• Ensure compliance with UNOPS defined standards for programme/project management.

• Coordinate quality reviews of programme/project documents and deliverables. 

• Provide quality control for management products (project documents, reports, etc.).

• Represent the Head of Programme in supporting key stakeholders to continuously identify and improve operational processes relevant to project implementation.

• Act as a focal point for the Hub maturity enhancement initiatives, using the P3M3 as a baseline.

• Ensure routine and effective capacity building activities are conducted in order to build the long-term and sustainable capacity of national staff.

• Participate in, and advocate Project Managers' participation in, relevant Communities of Practice.

• Actively interact with Project Managers and the wider Project Managers community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices in the Knowledge System.

• Provides feedback to Practice Leads on policy and supporting guidance working to achieve continuous improvement of UNOPS policies.

• Contributes to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely and appropriate manner.

• Exercise control of all staffing issues within the PMO team including recruitment, on boarding and staff performance reviews.

• Directly contributes to the development and maintenance of budget and resource availability tables in conjunction with project managers and relevant project personnel

• Promote and support a learning culture by empowering individuals and teams to identify critical learning needs and plan/provide easy access to learning opportunities to maintain personnel competency and flexibility.

• Foster a positive work environment, respectful of both men and women, and ensure that the highest standards of conduct are observed.

• Advanced University Degree in Civil Engineering, and/or Architecture, and/or Project Management, and/or Business Administration or other relevant discipline is required.

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

Contract type: Individual Contract Agreement (ICA)
Contract level: I-ICA2
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.

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.

Senegal

Located in Dakar, the UNOPS office in Senegal has developed a strong working relation with the Governments of West Africa and international partners over the years. It provides technical support in strategic development areas including elections; procurement and related capacity building; environmental protection, as well as infrastructure rehabilitation and development.

A Partnerships Unit (PU) has been established to support the development of new engagement opportunities in the sub-region and increase CIOH’s project and programme portfolio. The Partnership Unit coordinates, supports and monitors the development of the portfolio. The Unit report directly to the Hub Director serving, as an interface between the project centers and the operational hub. The Partnership Advisor will work within the Partnership Unit.