Bid Protest Senior Analyst

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.

Within UNOPS, Implementation Practices and Standards (IPS) is responsible for the UNOPS delivery practices. IPS provides thought leadership, standards and oversight as support to the successful delivery of programmes and projects within UNOPS service lines (infrastructure, procurement, project management, human resources and financial management services). IPS is comprised of the Infrastructure and Project Management Group and the Procurement Group which aims to reduce organizational risks, improve project performance, and promote excellence across UNOPS projects through the Standards Management Framework; and provides organisational oversight on the application of standards. These Groups also support the positioning of UNOPS in the UN system and development sector in Infrastructure, Project Management and Procurement. IPSO also includes the Office of IPS (IPSO), that includes work streams on organizational excellence, knowledge management and the review of bid protests. As well as the Portfolio support unit, that aims at supporting the organisational readiness of UNOPS and provides support services to the Implementation Practices and Standards function.

In July 2021, UNOPS revised its procurement policies and the changes included the creation of a Registrar function for bid protests and the expansion of the role of the Vendor Review Committee (VRC) as well as the possibility of establishing additional specialised VRCs. The main focus of the newly created position of Bid Protest Senior Analyst is in respect of bid protests with a further workstream regarding a specialised VRC. The position reports to the Senior Legal Advisor who is the Registrar for all bid protests and the chairperson of VRC for cases in respect of certain projects or regions. 

Bid protests

Suppliers that believe that they have been unjustly treated in connection with a UNOPS procurement process may lodge a bid protest. After completion of the review of the bid protest, the Registrar sends a recommendation to the Director, IPS. Suppliers may make a bid protest in English, French or Spanish and the reply from the Director, IPS is generally sent in the corresponding language. 88 bid protests were received in 2021, the majority of which were in the Spanish language.  

The creation of this new position coincides with the review of bid protests being moved from the Legal Group to the Implementation Practices and Standards function. In 2022, the process of reviewing bid protests is being strengthened, notably by the appointment of a sole Registrar, a greater emphasis on identifying trends and areas for improvement and the creation of a more formalised pool of experts across UNOPS who will be asked to provide specialist advice as needed in respect of the review of a bid protest.

VRC

The VRC is an internal administrative body which makes recommendations to the Director, IPS regarding (i) sanctions against vendors that have been found to have engaged in fraud or collusion or other Proscribed Practices in a UNOPS process, and (ii) suspension of vendors from doing business with UNOPS for other reasons such as where compelling information indicates that they lack business integrity or their ability to satisfactorily perform a contract may be compromised.

The majority of VRC cases are managed by the main VRC which has an experienced VRC Secretary. All VRCs have English as the working language. 

Working in the Office of the Implementation Practices and Standards (IPSO), the successful incumbent will carry out the following duties under the guidance and supervision of the Senior Legal Advisor: 

Bid protests:

• monitoring the Bid Protest mailbox

• co-ordinating the expansion and consultation of the pool of subject matter experts

• collating information to assist the Senior Legal Advisor in making determinations regarding receivability

• carrying out research at the direction of the Senior Legal Advisor, including checking for consistency across evaluation reports for the same tender

• carrying out the substantive review of less complex bid protests, including liaison  with the relevant office and preparing a draft response to the bid protestor

• assisting in the review of bid protests, such as through collating relevant information

VRC:

Carrying out the role of VRC Secretary in respect of cases reviewed by the specialised VRC chaired by the Senior Legal Advisor, including:

• establishing a positive working relationship with the main VRC Secretary

• setting up and attending meetings and drafting minutes and recommendations

• preparing notices of administrative action and other notices to be sent to vendors under review by the specialised VRC 

• contributing to the annual report prepared by the VRC Secretary in respect of all VRC activities 

Knowledge management:

• organising data and information in the Bid Protest mailbox and the shared drive in a rational way

• organising information regarding authoritative interpretation of procurement policies by the Director, Procurement Group 

• creating a searchable database of prior bid protest determinations in respect of related or multi-lot procurement exercises giving rise to multiple protests

• collating statistics for the annual report on bid protests

• assisting in the preparation of training and communication materials in respect of lessons learned and trends identified from reviewing bid protests

Education 

• An Advanced University Degree (Master's Degree) in law, finance, accounting, audit, economics, business management, commerce or related fields is required;

• A first-level University degree (Bachelor's degree or equivalent) in a related field of study with 2 additional years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of Master's Degree requirement.

Work Experience 

Required:

• A minimum of two years’ experience of legal work (commercial or international) or of audit or investigations work or similar work where close attention to detail and respect of confidentiality are required. 

• Experience in a position requiring the ability to draft accurately, clearly and concisely under time pressure is required (the ability to do so will be tested during the written assessment for this position). 

Desired / Asset:

• Experience in a multicultural environment is highly desirable. 

• Experience in the application of regulations and rules, policies, procedure and decision-making processes of an international organisation is highly desired.

• Knowledge of Google Workspace, preferably Google sheet, Google doc, Google slides and Google drive, is an asset.

• Experience in conducting or advising on issues relating to public procurement is desired.

• Experience in reviewing bid protests is desirable.

• Experience in the pharmaceutical sector is an asset

Languages 

• Fluency in English and Spanish (reading, writing and speaking) is required. 

• Fluency in French (reading, writing and speaking) is desired. 

• 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 and candidates from the Global South 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.

• Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

• This recruitment process may be used to fill other vacancies including short-term placements and retainer contracts.

Work environment

IPS offers a unique work environment in UNOPS headquarters, in Copenhagen, Denmark, located in the UN City building, one of Copenhagen’s landmarks. UNOPS HQ offers a safe, family-friendly lifestyle environment with multiple opportunities for networking and active lifestyle, in a city known for its excellent urban design and planning.

The IPS team is a diverse team in terms of age, nationalities and family situations. IPS is keen on strengthening diversity in the team with a current focus on gender equality and geographic diversity. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. IPS is very dynamic and welcomes agility, autonomy and self-drive. The work of IPS is oriented towards exciting opportunities which have a corporate, global impact and is in touch with the whole of UNOPS. 

UNOPS has a hosting agreement with the Government of Denmark, and as such both national and international candidates are eligible for HQ-based positions. UNOPS officials are exempt from Danish taxes on UN incomes. EU citizens may opt to be registered with the Danish State Administration as EU migrant worker and keep the rights associated with that status or register through UNOPS with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. EU Citizens may apply for the public Danish health insurance or special health card depending on their choice of registration, while the non-EU citizens will be registered by UNOPS under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.