Project Management Office (PMO) - Senior Officer

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.

Accordingly, the PMO will ensure that project management policies, processes and methods are followed and practiced according to the organization standards, while acting as the overall Project Assurance capacity within the Albania Office on behalf of the Country Manager. The PMO strongly contributes to moving the Albania Office toward achieving its business goals and objectives.

Development and planning 

• Provide appropriate levels of project management to the projects team 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 assistance on programme and project management activities in line with service agreement and project documents, including supporting the Country Manager, as well as the project team, with the organization of management, team and issue specific meetings. Ensure reports from such meetings are availed and provided in a timely manner.

• Support Country Manager and project team with the establishment, monitoring and delivery of business and programme level strategies, plans, targets, indicators and work plans, verifying budgets against forecasts.

• With the support of Gender Focal Point, develop a Gender Action Plan  

• Facilitate identification, development, launch and inception of projects and initiatives across the Albania Office, as needed and requested by the Country Manager 

• Develop and establish resource tracking systems for use within the PMO, complementary to UNOPS' online tools, to ensure effective planning, forecasting and tracking of delivery across the Albania Office.

• Identifies, and anticipates in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advises mitigating measures to the Country Manager and management team.

• Work closely and support the project team in project setup and closure activities.

• Serve as a focal point and engagement closure manager where assigned to facilitate project closure activities, ensuring appropriate disposal of project assets, timely and effective (operational) reporting,updating of information on the UNOPS ERP systems.

Monitoring and reporting

• Support management to ensure regular project and corporate reports are issued in accordance with donor guidelines and corporate standards.

• Facilitate implementation of corporate standards, initiatives and requirements across Albania Office in coordination with the Country Manager.

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

• Ensure project documents including plans and progress reports are maintained as required by UNOPS standard procedures.

• Coordinate the effective preparation and organization of office, portfolio and project level quality assurance and project board meetings, prepare project reports and minutes and facilitate follow up as required.

• Coordinate organizational risks and issues management at the business unit level and advise Albania Office management on mitigating and remedial actions. Provide risk and issue management support to programmes and project teams.

• Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery and project closure data, supporting the Country Manager in the delivery of quarterly and periodic audit and compliance issues, as well as business unit, operational, and project level issues, risks and lessons learned within the dashboard and other UNOPS systems, as required.

• 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.

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

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

• Capture challenges, good practices and lessons learned related to areas of gender and social inclusion by reporting and sharing with the relevant stakeholders.

• Assist HSSE country coordinator with collection of the datas from the site engineers and preparation of HSSE monthly reports. 

Quality assurance

• Support the operations units and personnel to ensure alignment with programme and project needs/requirements.

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

• Coordinate quality reviews of programme/project documents, plans and reports.

• Provide quality control for management products (project documents, reports, etc.) as and where required.

• Assist the Country Manager in supporting key stakeholders to continuously identify and improve operational processes relevant to project implementation.

• Ensure that good governance concepts and gender equality  principles are incorporated into the activities where applicable in accordance to the project objectives and methodology.

Education 

• A Master’s Degree in Project Management, Business Administration or related field (e.g. International Relations).

• A combination of Bachelor’s degree with an additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the education requirements outlined above.

• PRINCE2, IPMA or PMP-PMI project management certification would be considered an asset.

Work Experience 

• A minimum of least 4 years of relevant and progressive professional experience, specifically in the field of Project or Programme Management with experience of successful implementation and/or oversight of programmes and projects.

• Previous experience of working within a PMO environment is an advantage.

• Knowledge of UNOPS’ project management methodology and tools, UNOPS financial and procurement rules and regulations, and financial management tools, is preferred.

• Strong experience with data analysis, management reporting and project management tools and information management systems is required.

Contract type: Regular, Local Individual Contract Agreement (LICA)

Contract level: ICS-9 / LICA-9

• 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.