Portfolio Associate

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 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.

The New York Service Cluster (NYSC) supports the United Nations Secretariat, as well as other New York-based United Nations organizations, bilateral and multilateral partners in the delivery of UNOPS mandate in project management, infrastructure management, and procurement management

The Sustainable Development Cluster (SDC) supports diverse partners with their peacebuilding, humanitarian and development operations. It was formed by combining the following portfolios: Grants Management Services (GMS), UN Technology Support Services (UNTSS), Development and Special Initiatives Portfolio (DSIP) It provides Services to partners' programmes that are designed, structured, and managed with a global perspective and primarily serving partners that are headquartered in New York.  The SDC has a footprint in approximately 125 countries.

UNOPS has signed an agreement with the United Nations Office for Counter Terrorism (UNOCT) to implement the project activities for the Global Programme on Prosecution, Rehabilitation and Reintegration.

The Global Programme on Prosecution, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (PRR)

UNOCT’s Global Programme on PRR is designed to support Member States to meet the requirements from the General Assembly and the Security Council to implement comprehensive PRR strategies for individuals who have reasonable grounds to believe are terrorists, including suspected foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) and their accompanying family members, including spouses and children. To this end, the Global Programme on PRR supports the counter-terrorism efforts of Member States by providing guidance, coordination and capacity building in the prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration of returning foreign terrorist fighters and their families as well as local supporters and affiliates of UN-listed terrorist groups. 

This is a position in UNOPS supporting project(s) under the Development and Special Initiatives portfolio (DSIP). The Portfolio Associate is responsible for providing effective and efficient support in the areas of administration, project management, travel, and procurement to DSIP’s partners and projects. Overall, they will be expected to ensure that the project operations function in line with UNOPS rules and regulations, and its projects are delivered in accordance with their scope, quality requirements, timelines and budgets. 

The incumbent of this position will be a UNOPS personnel and is under its full responsibility.

Project Management/Administration

• Ensure that  implemented activities are aligned with approved project agreements in terms of technical scope, engagement of resources, budget expenditure and agreed timeframe;
• Input and update of accurate data and information to facilitate effective delivery of the operations;
• Provide inputs to the Project’s work, financial, recruitment and procurement plans as required;
• Contribute to development of Project’s reports and analysis related to project activities;
• Establish and maintain project documents/files for easy retrieval of archive related to Project’s activities;
• Contribute to identification, capturing, and assessment of risks/issues and implement mitigation measures in accordance with the Risk Management Strategy;
• Contribute to identification, capturing, and sharing of the Project’s lessons learned and best practices;
• Draft reports as envisaged by the Project Document/legal agreement, while in particular considering progress against the Key Performance Indicators;
• Contribute to efficient and effective use of Project and UNOPS tools for monitoring of the Project’s performance, outputs and benefits;
• Assist with administration and regular monitoring of all budgetary, financial, procurement and routine aspects of project delivery;

• Completion of secondary education (High School diploma) with a minimum of six (6) years of relevant experience is required; or
• First-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent with a minimum of two (2) years of experience is desirable; or
• An advanced university degree (Master’s Degree or equivalent) is desirable. 

Experience:

• Relevant experience is considered experience in one or more of the following areas: operations, project management, programme management, administration. 
• Proficiency in MS Excel and Word or G-sheets and G-Docs is required.  

Language:

• Fluency in written and oral English is required.
• Fluency in Russian or Arabic is an advantage.

• 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.