Senior Project Manager

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.

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world.  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 organisations.  With over 6,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, where they need it.  By implementing around 1,000 projects for our partners at any given time, UNOPS makes significant contributions to results on the ground, often in the most challenging environments.

Project Information:

UNOPS is undertaking a three-year project that aims to improve basic living conditions for returnees in the liberated rural areas of Al-Anbar governorate through the rehabilitation of up to 1,000 housing units and restoration of decentralized services. The decentralized services component will entail the provision of solar street lighting, the rehabilitation of selected community roads, and of water and sanitation networks and/or stations. When feasible, the rehabilitated housing units will be connected to the restored decentralized services taking into consideration the whole neighborhood. The rehabilitation of housing and basic services will be guided by a needs-based approach.

Local Context: 

The UNOPS Hub in Amman implements projects in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, in partnership with bilateral donors, national governments, and other UN agencies. With an established presence across the region, the office runs operations including large-scale procurement, project development, and technical management, and provides financial, human resources, and infrastructure-related services. The functional objective of UNOPS Hub in Amman is to deliver its projects in an efficient and effective manner and in line with the principles, rules and regulations of UNOPS, in order to support the response to the current needs and national priorities in the region.

UNOPS has been active in Iraq since 2004, delivering close to 50 projects worth over USD 260 million. UNOPS has a very strong relationship with the key counterparts at both central and regional government levels in Iraq. UNOPS operates from its Operational Hub in Amman and supports its country office in Baghdad and its sub-office in Erbil.

The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.

UNOPS is committed to achieving a fully diverse workforce.

Senior Project Manager  is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project(s) and provides services to the different donors, partners and beneficiaries. Senior Project Manager acts on behalf of the Project Board to manage the project on an ongoing basis during the Implementation Stage. The main responsibility of a Senior Project Manager  is to ensure that the project outputs are delivered within the specified project tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. He/she is expected to meet the organization’s performance and delivery goals.

Senior Project Manager  has the authority to assign, as per the Project Plan, work packages to Team Managers and approve deliverables produced by them.

Under the overall guidance of the Director Amman Operational Hub, and the direct supervision of the Head of Programme, and in close coordination with the Programme Advisor in Iraq, the Regional Infrastructure Advisor, and the Hub Infrastructure Specialist (Senior Quality Engineer), the Senior Project Manager (PM) will be responsible for all aspects of the project life-cycle in accordance with the Project Document, the legal agreement between UNOPS and the donor, and in compliance with Project Management Manual (PMM) as well as the Organizational Directives and Administrative Instructions on Project Management.

The Senior PM must be able to undertake independently, the following tasks:

Summary of functions:

1.      Project Delivery and Performance

2.      Procedures

3.      Monitoring and reporting

4.      Stakeholder engagement

5.      Quality assurance

6.      Knowledge management and innovation

7.    Personnel management

 Project Delivery and Performance

•  Review project designs in terms of accuracy, suitability to overall design requirements, including identifying improvements in the designs and being able to propose practical solutions and alternatives. Also, the PM is responsible to submit the final designs to the Design Review team at UNOPS HQ and obtain the Design Review Certificate.
• Develop, complete and update implementation plan(s) on a monthly/ quarterly basis, as applicable.
• Implement and control the approved plan (including the establishment of milestones) within tolerances set by the Project Board.
• Embed sustainability dimensions including social and gender inclusion, environmental and economic aspects into project life span.
• Manage and oversee the implementation of the rehabilitation works and delivery of the required outputs, taking responsibility for overall progress and use of resources and initiating corrective action where necessary.
•  Ensure that quality of work packages and deliverables complies with the quality requirements defined in the Implementation Plan.
• Liaise with any external suppliers/contractors/partners.
• Manage acceptance and delivery of work packages.
• Monitor project progress ensuring that work packages are being executed properly.
• Control project and work packages changes.
• Accept goods, services or works delivered by suppliers/contractors.
• Lead contract management duties including supplier performance evaluation.
• Identify, and anticipate in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advise mitigating measures to the senior management/ Project Board so that maximum benefit to partner(s) and other stakeholders is achieved.
• Identify and report to the supervisor potential business opportunities for UNOPS.

Procedures

• A Master’s Degree in a relevant technical discipline is required,  in Civil Engineering, and/or Construction Management. .
• A Bachelor's Degree, in the above mentioned areas or relevant field combination with 2 additional years of relevant experience will be accepted in lieu of a Master's Degree

• Minimum of  7 years (or more depending on academic credentials) of progressive experience in programme/ project management of rehabilitation and/or construction related projects, with at least 3 years of experience as a Project Manager of multi-sector infrastructure rehabilitation projects is required.
• Demonstrated competence in all aspects of project planning, monitoring, implementation, and management, including application of all aspects of results-based management/project cycle management is required;
• capacity to successfully interact with a variety of stakeholders, including non-governmental partners, and other UN agencies and international donors is desirable;
• Previous experience with international organization/s and/or UN in a humanitarian and/ or conflict/post-conflict settings is required;
• Previous experience in Iraq is desirable;
• Previous experience with UNOPS is highly desirable.
• High proficiency with computers, and other software/ platforms related to the position field of expertise. Good experience in working with the G-Suite platform including, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides 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.
• Baghdad is non 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
• 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.