Management Specialist

Background Information - Job Specific

The Office of Finance and Administration (F&A) covers several key units in UNOPS headquarters, such as People and Change (HR); Finance; IT, Risk, Corporate Strategy and the Shared Service Centre (SSC). The Director of F&A is a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and in this capacity, also serves as the focal point for UN Reforms. 

The Office of F&A is now looking for a Management Specialist to support the Director in the planning and coordination of activities within F&A and across other teams within the organisation. 
 
Under the supervision of the Director F&A, the Management Specialist is responsible for driving communication, collaboration, and alignment. The Management Specialist is responsible for day-to-day management and business operations coordination, including management of the CFO agenda, communication with senior stakeholders, documents analysis, events coordination, and support to operating procedures. The Management Specialist serves as a coordinator of executive-level decision-making, drives the internal communications strategy for the Director of F&A and supports project execution. 

The incumbent will be working under the supervision of the Director of F&A. He/She is expected to work and liaise closely with the different teams and units within HQ and Regions.

Support to Business Planning & Delivery:

• Support the Director of F&A in the implementation of UNOPS strategic planning and business planning processes, including supporting monitoring of progress to ensure visibility for the Director of F&A.

• Identify and oversee quantitative and qualitative analytical analysis required to support the design, development and roll out of strategic initiatives and/or recommendations.

• Attend meetings, working groups, and task forces. 

• Identify potential risk/issues, assist in troubleshooting.

• Support the Director of F&A in monitoring and following up on the various initiatives under the responsibility of the Office of the CFO.  

Communications & Coordination:

• Be responsible for the internal communication strategy for the Director of F&A. Actively liaise with the Communication Group and F&A directors to develop an effective  yearly internal communication plan that will state F&A objectives, mission and values, inform personnel on current initiatives and events and future plan, as well as on responsibilities and processes.  

• Prepare relevant briefings notes and information material for meetings and events, including SLT meetings; internal meetings with Regions/HQ directors, meetings at UN level (such as Comptrollers meetings, BIG meetings, and UN Reform related groups), meetings with Member States and others as relevant.

• Draft talking points as appropriate on behalf of Director F&A, ensuring consistency and alignment of positioning in the various management, governance and external fora, as well as briefing papers and inputs to speeches as requested. 

• Support planning and delivery of events and workshops

• Support the coordination of corporate cross-functional initiatives within the office of Director of F&A.

• Establish solid working relationships with senior managers and other key stakeholders.

• Develop and manage the Director of F&A  calendar to provide appropriate overview of events and meetings.

Knowledge Management:

• Facilitate and coordinate collaboration, knowledge and best practice sharing across UNOPS.

• Leverages external benchmarking to propose ideas of improvement for internal processes. 

• Contribute to knowledge management initiatives.

Education requirements:

• Master's degree in business administration, political science, international relations, Communications or related fields. A bachelor's degree with 2 additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of a master's degree.

Experience requirements:

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in similar roles is required

• Within these 5 years, at least one year of experience in Communications is required.  

• Experience in project management including project planning, stakeholder management, risk analysis, monitoring and evaluation is desirable.

• Experience with strategic planning  methods and tools is an advantage.

• Capacity to analyse and synthesise highly complex documentation is required. 

• Previous experience working in a global or international organisation is an asset.

• Experience working in a developing country, conflict and/or post-conflict project management environment is an asset.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.

• Fluency in French or Spanish is highly desirable.

Contract type: ICA
Contract level: I-ICA 2
Contract duration: Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.

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 5,000 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.

• 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
• 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.