Partnerships Development Specialist

UN Global Pulse

UN Global Pulse is the Secretary General’s Innovation Lab. We work at the intersection of innovation and the human sciences to inform, inspire, and strengthen the ability of the United Nations family and those it serves to anticipate, respond and adapt to the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Our teams are spread across the world, with hubs in Uganda, Indonesia, Finland and the United States. Drawing on more than a decade of experience with digital innovation in the UN family, UN Global Pulse unites specialists from the digital and social sciences in search of solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, from conflict to climate change.

We aim to reduce the risks that innovation involves and move towards the opportunities. We restore public trust in technology by making it inclusive, accessible and ethical. Our input brings value to the work of the UN and external partners in protecting the vulnerable and defending human rights.

The goals of the UNGP Network are: i) Support efforts to advance innovations ii) Contribute to the development of global frameworks, and iii) Support the transformation of the UN family.

The incumbent of this position will be personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility.

UNGP is the Secretary General’s Innovation Lab, and is mandated to advance UN agendas under 3 objectives:

(1) Advance digital innovations for SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and crisis response.

(2) Facilitate development of global frameworks for digital innovation to minimize risks.

(3) Support the transformation of the UN into a ‘next-generation’ institution.

UNGP has launched a new strategy and complementary partnerships approach to achieve the above and to meet our objectives we require an ecosystem of partners. Our new partnership approach aims to push the boundaries and way the UN does partnerships. In particular, we aim to foster an ecosystem enabling partnerships for innovation.

To achieve its goals, UNGP is recruiting a Partnerships Development Specialist to support the efficient and effective execution of partnerships in the form of projects, programmes, strategic engagements and other. The position will support operationalizing partnerships across all network programmes, projects and capabilities across our offices (Jakarta, Kampala, Helsinki). The Partnerships Development Specialist will support both internal UN partners and external partners, and work across UNGP Regional Hubs.

The Partnerships Development Specialist will provide advice on different forms of legal partnership agreements including amongst others, 1:1 partnerships, multi stakeholder partnerships, pro bono partnerships, partnerships between UN agencies, and partnerships with a diverse set of non UN actors including with the public, private and civil society sector. They will engage as needed with other legal offices in the UN such as UNOPS and OLA.

The Partnerships Development Specialist will also support innovative resource mobilization efforts across the network and regional hubs. They should be highly flexible, adaptable to change and able to work in a fast paced environment with a high level of uncertainty.

The position supports the work of UN Global Pulse under the supervision of the Partnerships Specialist and will be responsible for the following:

• Support UNGP projects with contracts as needed to ensure their success.
• Liaise with the Executive Office and Multi Partner Trust Fund of UNGP, and other legal teams as needed, to execute partnership agreements. Identify bottlenecks and suggest ways to address them as needed.
• Manage internal pipeline discussions on legal partnerships agreements, keep record of all partnership agreements at network level, follow up with teams as needed on changing priorities.
• Provide advice across the UNGP network on the execution of partnerships, including by assisting in the negotiation of partnerships with external partners and developing partnership agreements, with support from relevant legal teams at UNOPS and other UN entities when needed.
• Support the accountability of partnerships, including through early risk assessment and formal due diligence processes. Keep track of the execution of partnership agreements through monitoring, evaluation and learning.

• Support regional hubs and the UNGP network to develop resource mobilization plans.
• Strengthen relations with existing donors and diversify the donor base by developing targeted outreach and engagement strategies matching donors´ interests with UNGP fundraising priorities.
• Leverage funding opportunities within the UN system by proactively identifying UN administered funds and other sources that could be accessed by UNGP.
• Explore and pilot new and innovative approaches to resource mobilization, such as crowdfunding, philanthropy and innovative finance tools amongst others.
• Support strategic engagement with private sector partners aimed at achieving higher levels of corporate giving and other in-kind contributions- focusing on core funding rather than project based funding.
• Organize and participate in targeted events for resource mobilization purposes, and represent UNGP effectively.
• Support collection of relative data on financial contributions, in kind contributions, and other metrics from project teams in coordination with other global services.

Partnership brokering:

• Support the network with new and existing partners and partnerships throughout the partnership cycle; from Scoping & Building → Managing & maintaining → Reviewing & revising → Sustaining outcomes of partnerships.
• Build active collaboration between UNGP members, its partners and other stakeholders, including donors. Represent UNGP as needed in applicable forums and support other colleagues in the network to represent UNGP effectively.
• Encourage and be a role model for good partnering behavior in the network that will help the partnership to function effectively and creatively, while protecting the vision and core principles of value based, innovative partnerships.
• Provide partnership brokering services to the UN family and ecosystem to support the UN 2.0 agenda and transformation.

3. Monitoring and Progress Controls

The Partnerships Development Specialist will meet with the Partnerships Specialist to outline ongoing deliverables, and ensure that projects and engagements have realistic deadlines and workflows. In coordination with the Partnerships Specialist, they will outline long term areas of work as well as support immediate network operational priorities.

The Partnerships Development Specialist is expected to exercise flexibility in the consultancy assignment regarding the potential of dynamically changing delivery requirements. Even though the duty station is indicated as Multiple (New York, Helsinki) consideration may be given to allow the position to be home-based, depending on the incumbent's personal situation. For home-based positions, a location-specific fee scale is applied in determining the contractor's fee. The position may require international travel.

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Terms and Conditions 

• 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 (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. For more information on a retainer contract here.

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and 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 personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.