Procurement Senior Analyst (Procurement Assurance)

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 5,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,400 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. 

As a central procurement resource for the United Nations system and its partners, UNOPS emphasizes efficient, transparent, cost-effective and sustainable delivery of goods, services and works, in line with public procurement best practices. On a yearly basis, UNOPS procures over USD 1 Bn worth of goods, services and works on behalf of our partners. These include a broad base of categories, including life-saving pharmaceuticals, mine action equipment, vehicles or road construction services. 

Procurement Group (PG) is part of Implementation Practices and Standards (IPS) and is based at UNOPS HQ in Copenhagen. It leads the organization’s procurement practice and is responsible for: articulating strategy, policy positions and innovative solutions for procurement at UNOPS; enabling the operationalization and managerial oversight of UNOPS procurement activities through appropriate systems and reports; strengthening the knowledge, skills and career development of procurement practitioners; and leading the implementation of sustainable procurement across the organization.

The Procurement Assurance team within PG is responsible for leveraging data to oversee and enhance the procurement function, including through data analytics, risk and performance assessments and capacity development. This includes developing guidance and tools, such as dashboards, to make procurement data accessible across the organization. The team is also responsible for procurement data reporting across UNOPS, including the collation and publication of the Annual Statistical Report on UN Procurement (ASR) on behalf of the UN System (published at www.ungm.org/asr).

Reporting to the Procurement Specialist (Procurement Assurance team), the incumbent will contribute to the assurance of UNOPS procurement operations, undertake procurement analytics projects, and further develop procurement data literacy within the organization.

Tasks include, but are not limited to:

1. Procurement oversight improvement

• Helping find the root causes of underperformance and non-compliance, as well as opportunities for improvement of policies, processes and systems, in collaboration with various HQ and field stakeholders

• Enhancing procurement planning processes within UNOPS, including further systematization of the Corporate Procurement Plan process, in collaboration with field stakeholders. 

• Assisting with procurement capacity assessments of field offices, regional quarterly reviews, focusing on performance against KPIs, compliance, risk, and sustainability, and helping make recommendations for improvement 

• Contributing statistics and insights to assist the development of policies, guidelines, reports and presentations on procurement operations within UNOPS, including sustainable procurement

• Assisting the development and implementation of a methodology for estimating financial savings or value addition generated by UNOPS procurement processes

2. Procurement data analytics

• Analyzing complex and connected data, testing hypotheses, identifying patterns and trends, proposing recommendations and deriving statistics and insights related to procurement. This includes procurement plans, spend information, vendor data, sustainability indicators (including emissions), contract compliance data and benchmarking

• Proposing designs, developing, testing, implementing, maintaining and documenting procurement data tools, including dashboards and reports, including conducting rigorous data quality checks

• Producing regular, periodic and ad hoc data reports to support procurement assurance, including in the context of internal and external audits and in collaborative initiatives with other UN agencies

• Coordinating the production of key procurement publications, for example the Annual Statistical Report on UN Procurement (www.ungm.org/asr) or the report on Joint Procurement Activities and others as required, including through project coordination, data analysis and content writing 

• Other related technical and analysis support as required

3. Procurement data literacy and capacity development

• Supporting the development and delivery of capability development programs and documentation for internal users on data tools, including in their use and ongoing maintenance - including group and 1-to-1 training, tutorials, guidance materials etc.

• Organizing, facilitating and/or delivering training and presentations for UNOPS personnel and occasionally external stakeholders (e.g. UN colleagues, suppliers)

• Implementing knowledge management, communications and training campaigns in various formats, including in-person, remotely/online or via missions in UNOPS country offices

• Fostering collaborative dialogue across key focal points in the regions/ country offices to facilitate continuous improvements 

a. Education      

• Advanced Degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) is required, preferably related either to the subject matter area (i.e. procurement, supply chain) and/or data analysis component (e.g. in the field of Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business Analytics, Business Administration, Economics or equivalent).

• University degree (bachelors/first level) in related fields with additional 2 years of relevant working experience (total: 4 years) may be considered in lieu of a Master’s degree.

• Additional industry certifications (e.g. CIPS certification) will be considered as an advantage. 

b. Professional experience and skills

• Candidates must have a minimum 2 years professional experience where they have demonstrated the following required skills (applicants will need to correctly answer a related screening question in the application form to be considered. Eligible candidates will be invited to submit an assessment related to these skills):

  • Analysing, evaluating and reporting data and/or statistics related to  procurement and/or supply chain management

  • Data communication and visualisation through a variety of media - such as presentations, training, reports, dashboards

  • Advanced expertise in spreadsheet tools (e.g. Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel) 

• PG will consider candidates with a combination of subject-matter knowledge (procurement, supply chain management etc) and relevant technical expertise (i.e. data analysis, dashboard development). Candidates may be stronger in one of these than the other but should be enthusiastic to learn new skills on the job.

• Knowledge of public procurement and reporting practices, particularly those related to UNOPS and the UN, is highly desirable

• The following skills and experience are considered an asset for the role. The ideal candidate will possess one or more of these. Training may be made available to the incumbent to fill any skill gaps.

  • Procurement operations experience, including planning, implementation or evaluation of procurement processes

  • Knowledge of procurement of goods and services relevant to UNOPS activities

  • Experience applying data analytics to measure and improve procurement and supply chain sustainability (such as greenhouse gas emissions) 

  • Building dashboards in Google Data Studio or an equivalent dashboard platform (e.g. Tableau, PowerBI)

  • SQL coding (our team uses Google Cloud Platform (GCP) including Big Query)

• It is highly recommended to submit a concise cover letter outlining how you consider your education and experience align with the requirements of the role

Contract type: ICA

• 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.
• UNOPS embraces diversity and it is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, or disability.
  
• 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 type
• Financial Mobility Support may be offered to international ICA holders and their dependents when relocating to a new duty station as per eligibility.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  
• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.
• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.
• This recruitment process may be used to fill other vacancies including short-term placements and retainer contracts.