Regional Occupational Health and Safety Specialist

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. 

UNOPS supports partners to build a better future by providing services that increase the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of peace building, humanitarian and development projects.  Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organizations.

As part of its duty of care, UNOPS commits to ensuring that people do not fall sick or sustain injuries when the organisation carries out its operations. In line with its Health and Safety improvement initiative, UNOPS has introduced a Zero tolerance approach to poor health and safety performance and is recruiting a Health and Safety Specialist to support the implementation of the UNOPS health and safety system and requirements. The person hired will support the country teams under the regional office to develop technical competence, effectively monitor implementation and address the absence of adequate health and safety controls in workplaces. The duties of the Health and Safety Specialist will include extensive travel from site to site from one country to another as necessary to review and correct poor practices in countries where UNOPS has significant infrastructure operations. This position reports to the Regional Director, with a secondary reporting line to the Regional Infrastructure Advisor.

Technical Advisory Support

• Supporting the head of office in establishing effective performance monitoring of Health and Safety (HS) for the projects and the office;

• Support heads of programmes, project managers and project teams in implementing Health and Safety requirements;

• Evaluate practices and procedures at UNOPS premises and construction sites  in the region to assess risk and adherence to UNOPS Health, Safety, Social and Environmental (HSSE) requirements;

• Review HSSE plans to ensure project implementation is fully aligned to UNOPS HSSE guidelines 

• Review risk assessments, inspections, incident investigations and other reports and offer advice to field teams to ensure that good practices are upheld; 

• Assist field teams to correct deviations from health and safety requirements including managing breaches of requirements and poor performance by personnel and contractors;

Monitoring performance and addressing incidents

• Carry out inspections and system reviews to ensure that UNOPS operations are complying with HSSE requirements;

• Carry out incident investigations;

• Follow up on actions to address non-conformities or issues raised in incident investigations, inspections and audits to ensure that the issues have been effectively addressed and lessons learned shared;

• Carry out actions to improve the effectiveness of health and safety critical controls in the field offices;

• Use trend analysis of monitoring data from field offices for the purposes of addressing poor performance;

• Carry out initiatives to support the improvement of health and safety culture including ensuring that actions in the organisation’s safety improvement plan are carried out;

• Facilitate and monitor monthly reporting and incident reporting in alignment with UNOPS requirements

• Update the Asia Regional Standard Operating Procedures for HSSE

Training and Knowledge Management

• Develop and implement training programmes to improve the capacity of UNOPS personnel, contractors and partners in implementing UNOPS health and safety requirements; 

• Facilitate practical training for contractors and project teams so that they ‘learn by doing’ and ensure continuous safe operations during project execution

• Be the focal point for health and safety knowledge building and knowledge sharing across the region with a focus on context-specific good practices;

• Support the development and implementation of other HSSE initiatives as assigned by the regional office. 

• Coordinate dissemination of knowledge and updates from HSSE team in UNOPS headquarters

Education:

• An advanced university degree (Master's or equivalent) in a relevant field and 5 years of experience; OR; 

• A first-level university degree (Bachelor's or equivalent), in a relevant  field and 7 years of relevant experience OR 

• A tertiary education diploma (Technical/Professional Diploma or equivalent), in a relevant  field and  9 years of relevant experience.

Experience:

• Required relevant experience is defined as progressively responsible experience in Health, Safety, Social and Environmental (HSSE) management; 

• Experience in HS (Health and Safety) risk assessments, inspections, incident investigation, and/or training facilitation is required;

• Minimum of 2 years in managing and implementing projects’ related health and safety matters is an asset;

• Field experience in developing countries is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Full working knowledge of English.

• Knowledge of Asia regional languages is an asset.

Contract type: International Individual Contractor Agreement (IICA)

• 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
• 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.

Thai Nationals are highly encouraged to apply.