Infrastructure Specialist

UNOPS in South Asia

UNOPS in Sri Lanka provides technical, operational and administrative support to 5 countries in the South Asia region: Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. UNOPS’ work in this region focuses on the construction and operation of high quality sustainable infrastructure and sustainable procurement, project management, timely provision of services, and the use of most relevant technologies. One of the main focuses on UNOPS work in South Asia is to reduce the vulnerability of population to unsafe infrastructure, maximise the impact of public investments in infrastructure, and improve the effectiveness and financial viability of the public services delivered out of key public infrastructures. Such projects provide social and economic benefits to vulnerable populations across the region, and contribute to poverty eradication. Projects target a range of sectors such as education, health, urban development, environmental services, climate change mitigation, as well as a range of “soft” support in Capacity Building, operations and maintenance of public assets, local governance, etc.

Recently, the UNOPS, UN Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women developed the joint programme in Bangladesh which aims to sustain the resilience of human and economic development in Bangladesh through inclusive, gender responsive disaster management and risk informed environment.  This joint programme focuses on developing national capacities in the areas of:  risk-informed and render-responsive development planning, capacities to address mega disasters in gender responsive manner, improved capacities of selected public institutions to achieve resilient institutions through risk-informed, gender-responsive infrastructure systems, enhance women’s leadership disaster response and management; and finally, to strengthen community-level preparedness, response and recovery capacities.

Under the Joint Programme, UNOPS in particular is providing technical assistance to Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) and other public institutions to achieve resilience outcomes through designing and constructing risk-informed, gender responsive infrastructure systems and lay the foundations for long-term resilience actions in socially inclusive infrastructure systems in Bangladesh. In particular, UNOPS will contribute to the achievement of the over-all programme by:

• Strengthening LGED asset management system and decision making capacities for determining priorities associated with new development, maintenance and/or retrofitting of existing assets;
• Strengthening project evaluation criteria and capacities within LGED and other divisions, improve coordination and reduce duplication;
• Creating an applied understanding and capacity to introduce the concept of failure analysis to enhance build-back-better in reconstruction;
• Strengthening LGED professional capacities for Junior and mid-level engineers in the areas of design, construction and management/maintenance of resilient infrastructure;

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

The overall purpose of the assignment is to contribute to a strong technical guidance, capacity building and improved organizational effectiveness of LGED in the development and piloting of frame works, methodologies for resilience building in infrastructure.  This post will entail technical thought leadership in resilient infrastructure and strong bias towards capacity building and knowledge transfer. The objective is to work closely with counterparts in LGED and other experts to increase knowledge and applied understanding of resilience in the context of government department.

The Infrastructure Specialist will support the Chief Technical Advisor/Team Leader in working closely with international and local experts towards the development of manuals and capacity building tools on resilient infrastructures.  He/She will be the technical link between LGED and all other experts for developing/mainstreaming resilience within LGED’s policies and standards. In addition, he/she will support the CTA/Team Leader in strengthening of strategic partnerships with UNOPS, LGED and Donors.

The Infrastructure Specialist will also be expected to act as technical resource person in the conduct of capacity building training and workshops for to LGED Engineers and other partners in the aspects related to infrastructure planning, design, implementation and standards.

Contribute to development and piloting of frameworks, tools and methodologies for resilience building in infrastructure systems of LGED

• Provide the local context/ local specific applications/ customizations of the UNOPS tools on -resilience building infrastructure (asset management, failure analysis, build-back-better approaches)
• Work closely with the international experts in the development, implementation and roll out of the different approaches and methodologies
• Lead in the advisory technical link and coordination between international experts and LGED, ensuring pilot frameworks, tools and methodologies are relevant, applicable, customized while ensuring it follows international best practice and standards;

Support the development of manuals and other capacity building tools for increasing knowledge and applied understanding of resilience;

• Facilitate the technical consultations, reviews and workshops together with international experts on standardizing policies related to designs, compliance, quality assurance and project implementation on gender sensitive resilient infrastructure
• Ensure customization, co-development, ownership and capacity transfer in the development related manuals, processes and tools
•  Provides content reviews and advise on the tools, processes and standards developed;
• Coordinate with Team Leader and experts on the all technical training, workshops content designs, approach and program.

Support the development and implementation of professional program for LGED junior and mid-level engineers

• Provide technical input to the team in developing the professional program curriculum of LGED Engineers
• Lead in the review and provide input on the technical aspect of the professional program for engineers
• Support technical content delivery related as maybe agreed and required

Provide advisory and technical support in strengthening strategic partnerships of UNOPS among key stakeholders

• Provide technical support to the Team Lead in identification of needs and opportunities for partnership where UNOPS can engage to be able to support resilient national infrastructure development
• Identify needs and opportunities for partnership where UNOPS can engage to be able to support resilient national infrastructure development,
• Create concepts and ideas (thought leadership) which can be shared with donors for funding; 
• Support the design of new projects and the initial phases of new projects.
• Represent the CTA/Team Leader in infrastructure related meetings/conferences/joint UN Programs in Bangladesh as maybe requested

Education

• Master’s/Advanced degree in Civil Engineering or other relevant discipline is required.
• Additional years of experience with a Bachelor's degree may be accepted in lieu of an advanced degree.

Work Experience

• A minimum of five years (or more depending on educational qualification) of relevant experience in civil engineering and organizational capacity development in large infrastructure organizations/institutions, including at a strategic level, is required.
• Experience in working on projects along themes: resilient infrastructure, Climate Change, DRR and Risk Management
• Extensive experience in providing high-level advisory services to government institutions in Bangladesh;
• Extensive experience in engaging and negotiating with government in developing countries;
• Excellent understanding of building codes and quality standards in the construction of public infrastructure from various countries, and of implementation/enforcement challenges;
• International organisations experience is desired;
• Experience facilitation, development and delivery of technical trainings and workshops
• Excellent understanding of participatory processes and national capacity building approach, desired.

Languages

• Fluency in English is required;
• Fluency in the officially recognized native languages of  Bangladesh is required

• 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.
• 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
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS. 
• This post is only open for candidates who are nationals of Bangladesh
   

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 supports the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Working in some of the world’s most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners’ expectations.

With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it.

A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale.