Regional Project Management Specialist

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.

UNOPS Regional Office for the Middle East region performs oversight and programme support to UNOPS offices in Jerusalem, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon  and Yemen.  UNOPS field offices in the Middle East region implement projects on behalf and in support of national governments and authorities, UN partners, and bilateral donors in its three mandate areas of infrastructure, procurement, and project management.  UNOPS delivers its projects in an efficient, effective, and sustainable manner, in line with the highest project management standards.

UNOPS strategic focus places increased emphasis on national capacity development and sustainable approaches to project management, procurement and infrastructure services.  A key objective is to be recognized as an organization that delivers world-class infrastructure and project management, which is both economically and socially sustainable, even in the most challenging environments

Working with the Middle East Region, the successful incumbent can be expected to be responsible for providing Project/Programme Management Specialist services for various projects across the Middle East Region, within the offices which UNOPS operates.

This role will provide regional support in quality assurance, implementation of project management best practices and guidance.  The incumbents will support the business development agenda in their region through their project/programme management expertise.

The Regional Project Management Specialist will play an integral role in Capacity Building, Training and Knowledge Management. The successful incumbent will advise project staff on the application, interpretation and adoption of corporate policy, guidance and best practice; provide expertise and support in implementation of PRINCE2® and UNOPS PM Methodology.  This role will also be involved in the support of training and internal consulting in project and programme management.  This role is aimed at providing a surge capacity for special initiatives and requests from the region assigned. Key to this role, the successful candidate will also contribute to the community of practice, make recommendations on policy and tools to HQ Groups. Provide necessary advice and support during the “formulation/kick off phase” of new initiatives with focus on quality assurance and quality control of project documents and progress reports.

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

1.      Implementation Support

• The incumbent will provide support to Programme Managers/Project Managers/Team Managers in the planning and implementation of projects and programmes throughout their whole life cycle within the region.
• S/he will be responsible for providing advice to projects or programmes that may need support in an effort to be brought back to stability.
• Required to undertake missions to country offices and project sites to report on progress and identify and solve operational problems, both within and beyond the region.
• S/he will drive and support world-class performance, organizational excellence and continuous improvement.
• Participate in the review of proposals for project management in the region, via the corporate Engagement system and providing advice to the relevant authority;

2.      Technical Advice and Quality Assurance

• Provide support and advice to Head of Programmes, Programme Managers, Project Managers and Heads of PMOs on how to embed best practices of project and programme governance, risk management, project and programme management in their Country Offices.
• Provide expertise/support in the implementation of UNOPS Project and Programme Management methodologies and the new Project Management Manual (PMM) , which are based on best practices as recommended by PMI and PRINCE2®.
• UNOPS is fully committed to the Paris Agenda on national capacity building; the Regional Project Management Specialist will play a crucial role in advising UNOPS Programme and Project Managers on measures to strengthen national capacity building with regards to sustainable project management best practices, as well as other cross cutting issues, and support a stronger focus on benefit management of projects.

3.         Partnership Development

• Support the Partnership development agenda in the region through his/her expertise, regional contacts and ability to demonstrate a depth of experience in the project management field.
• Provide strategic advice and support to  opportunities/engagements of high value and/or risk to the region and/or Country Office, supporting Engagement Authorities in strengthening project governance engagement structures and processes to enable the achievement of high standards and consistent UNOPS defined project success criteria.

4.      Training and Development

• Develop and deliver project management training to UNOPS and its partners, and liaise with other relevant industry leaders and UN agencies in training and project management initiatives.
• Providing capacity development within the region for PM Standards, processes and tools, including the Project Management Manual (PMM).

5.      General Support

• S/he will advise Country Offices’ personnel, programme and project management practitioners on the application, interpretation and adoption of corporate policies, guidance, tools and best practices.

Monitoring and Progress Controls

• Setting standard, personal and development objectives in Performance Evaluation Review
• Ongoing assessment of task completion, which meets quality expectations
• Successfully meeting deadlines based on workplan
• Completing progress reports as required
• Enrolled to the UNOPS Project Management Foundation Course

• Minimum of five (5) years of progressive experience in Programme/ Project Management and Operations is required, with at least three (3) years demonstrated experience in managing projects in the international development context.
• Experience within the UN,bilateral or multilateral institutions is an asset.
• Experience of working in the Middle East region and contextual understanding of the region is highly desirable.
• Experience in a consultancy role is an asset
• Experience in post-conflict project management is highly desired.
• Experience in Infrastructure, Construction management is considered an advantage.
• Background in Engineering is an advantage

• Fluency in English is required
• Fluency in Arabic is highly desired

Certification in PRINCE2® Practitioner is an asset.
Certification in MSP®, P3O® and PMP is highly desired.

• Contract type : International Individual Contractual Agreement (IICA)
• Contract level : I-ICA 2
• Contract duration: Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance

• 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.
• Amman is a Family Duty Station.
• 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
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• 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.  

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.