Senior Project Manager

UNOPS South East Asia and Pacific Multi Country Office (EAPMCO) is recruiting for this position: Senior Project Manager based in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

• Duty Station: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. 
• Port Moresby is a hardship family duty station.

UNOPS South East Asia and Pacific Multi Country Office (EAPMCO) supports, develops and oversees the UNOPS portfolio of projects in South East Asia and the Pacific. EAPMCO was established in January 2023 following the merger of the Thailand Multi-Country Office, which covered 20 countries across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific, and the Cambodia Multi-Country Office, which covered 4 countries South East Asia - 3 countries in the Mekong Sub-region (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam) and the Philippines. EAPMCO currently covers 24 countries  across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific. With its head office in Bangkok, the Multi-Country Office comprises nine EAPMCOs: EAPMCO Thailand, EAPMCO Indonesia, EAPMCO Pacific Operations Cluster, EAPMCO Papua New Guinea, EAPMCO China, EAPMCO Vietnam, EAPMCO Mekong, and EAPMCO Philippines.

In 2023, the UNOPS EAPMCO implemented projects worth more than USD 76 million, in the areas of Energy Transition, Digital Transformations, Sustainable Environmental Management, Climate Change, Waste Management, Rule of Law and Access to Justice, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Post Conflict Reintegration, Emergency Relief, Post COVID19 Economic Transformations, and Health, through HR, procurement, construction, contract management, fund and program management services.  

The Multi Country Office head office in Bangkok provides strategic direction, operational support, delivery oversight and assurance of the excellence of business processes and quality standards across all of the entire Multi Country Office locations. It is also responsible for developing, delivering and managing the portfolio of engagements in the country of the MCO location itself.

Local Context: UNOPS in Papua New Guinea

The EAPMCO Papua New Guinea (PNG) was formed in early 2020 to support the implementation of design and construction of infrastructure, sustainable procurement, capacity development to support technical and governance excellence, programme management, and to facilitate access to funding sources in Papua New Guinea.  

As an established office since 2022, EAPMCO PNG is demonstrating significant growth and portfolio diversification potential in a short period of time.  Working with an increasing number of development partners, in 2023 EAPMCO PNG is quickly being recognised as a responsive and quality partner in climate change resilient infrastructure, health infrastructure, sustainable procurement and governance support to the Government of PNG in its service delivery obligations to the people. 

Through this specific vacancy announcement, EAPMCO PNG is seeking a qualified Senior Project Manager to oversee the implementation of critical healthcare infrastructure projects. The successful candidate will play a key role in strengthening healthcare infrastructure and services in the Country. Responsibilities include managing the full project lifecycle for one or more healthcare projects, encompassing needs assessment, design, construction/rehabilitation, and procurement of essential medical equipment and consumables. We require a candidate with a proven track record in project management, healthcare administration, and procurement, along with a passion for improving healthcare outcomes.

Project Background: IMPACT Health Project

The  IMPACT Health project aims to address the quality and efficiency of health services being delivered in health care facilities across the country. During the first and second years of the six year programme, the project will initially be piloted in East New Britain. The plan is to expand the project to cover health services in other provinces by the third year. Part of the project involves trialling innovations for community-level health service delivery in partnership with non-governmental organisations. The project will be implemented in partnership with the National Department of Health (NDOH) and the respective provincial health authorities. 

The IMPACT Health project objectives include strengthening the quality of health services, particularly in rural areas and addressing critical bottlenecks in the PNG health sector by improving the delivery of services on the ground (medicine, equipment and expertise). The focus will be on level 2 (community health posts), level 3 (health centres) and level 4 (district hospitals) health care facilities.

The East New Britain (ENB) part of the IMPACT Health project is to be developed over three phases.

Component 1: Detailed scoping mission of Government owned (including PHAs) health facilities (levels 2 to 4) to ascertain the condition, functionality needs and constraints. 

Component 2: Design, Procurement and Implementation of component 1 approved recommendations

Component 3: Detailed scoping mission of NDOH and PHA procurement systems and capacities.

The scope of work set out in this document covers Component 1 work for East New Britain Province. The outputs from the health facility assessments will inform the development of the terms of reference and scope of work for Component 2. In particular plans for refurbishment, retrofitting and the supply of medical equipment and supplies. The scoping mission for Component 3 will be implemented parallel to Component 1 as the assessment and recommendations of medical supplies storage is part of the overall functionality analysis.

The Role:

Reporting to the Senior Project Manager, the incumbent will be responsible for UNOPS programmatic, operational and technical backstopping through ensuring that projects outputs are delivered within the specific project tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. The incumbent will establish, promote and assure quality in all the work performed by the team and for applying best practices and methodologies for the successful delivery of the program, with a focus on good financial management adhering to strict compliance guidelines and operational management of all project components.

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

• Develop, complete and update implementation plan(s) (If applicable)

• Implement 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 the production 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 or account managers

• 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. (If applicable)

• Lead contract management duties including supplier performance evaluation. (If applicable)

• Act as the Employer’s Representative within the FIDIC works contracts. (If applicable)

• Identify, and anticipate in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advises mitigating measures to 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

• Comply with all organizational policy and specifically the Project Management Manual

• Prepare/adapt all relevant plans for approval by the Project Board.

• Manage the reporting obligations defined in the Legal Agreement(s) and in the Implementation Plan

• Draft the requirements definitions for procurement processes. Approving requisitions and requests for non-purchase order payments; Evaluating submissions received, if appointed to the evaluation team. (if applicable)

• Ensure maintenance of the project files and lessons learned are recorded

• Ensure the development and implementation of project financial management guidelines and control mechanisms, in conformity with UNOPS rules and regulations. (if applicable)

• Manage budgets, cash flow and obligations to ensure that deliverables are met and payments to contractors and personnel are received on time.

• Understand and manage UNOPS overheads, allocable charges, and related corporate charges as they apply to the project

• Understand the unique structures of the UN and budget appropriately for personnel

• Manage expenditures against the budget (based on accurate financial reports)

• Where the Project Manager has no delegation as a committing officer, s/he retains these responsibilities and will monitor and instruct/request others to carry out the relevant commitments and disbursements.

• For project closure purposes, provide a formal handover of the project to the closure manager

• Support project audit activities, including planning, preparation and coordination during the audits and follow up on audit observations/recommendations

• Prepare and issue regular project and/or financial reports in accordance with Partner and UNOPS requirements for reporting.

• Regularly review project status, evaluating performance criteria (scope, cost, schedule and quality).

• Maintain diaries and progress reports as required by the organization’s standard procedures.

• Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery data within the dashboard system.

• Ensure all project team members track and regularly update milestones and targets for the duration of projects' life span

• Develop stakeholder profiles and facilitate the formulation of stakeholder engagement strategies

• Establish solid working relationships with the Project Board (Executive, Senior Users and Senior Suppliers), client and key stakeholders

• Enable the formulation of project communications plans. Coordinate internal project communications. Monitor the effectiveness of project communications

• Coordinate stakeholder engagement and communication, ensuring effective timing and interdependency management of communications. Ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are in a position to accept handover outputs

• Work with internal stakeholders to ensure projects comply with audit requirements

• Work with procurement/purchasing staff to ensure effective interface with suppliers' quality systems

• Coordinate quality reviews of project documents and deliverables

• Provide quality control for management outputs (project documents, reports, etc.)

• Encourage routine and effective capacity building activities are conducted in order to build the long-term and sustainable capacity of staff.

• Actively interact with other Project Managers and the wider PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices 

• Contribute to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely and appropriate manner. Participate in the relevant Communities of Practice

• Research and logging of lessons learned throughout the project life span.

• Provide feedback to Practice Groups on policy, supporting guidance with an aim towards continuous improvement of UNOPS policies

• Lead and motivate the project management team

• Ensure that behavioural expectations of team members are established 

• Ensure that performance reviews are conducted fairly, accurately and timely

• Select, recruit and train team as required and take into account gender parity and diversity objectives.

• Ensure safety and security for all project personnel and comply with UNDSS standards

• Create, foster and role model a culture of respect and zero tolerance for discrimination, abuse of authority, harrasement, sexual harrasement and sexual exploitation and abuse. Ensure accountability for actions and perform duties in accordance with protection mechanisms and action plans, as expected by UNOPS policies, standards and commitments.

Impacts of results

The Senior Project Manager directly impacts on achievement of project results by adhering to project management methods and strategies, reducing risks, cutting costs and improving success rates.  This consequently reinforces the visibility and image of  UNOPS as an effective service provider in project services and management and strengthens its competitive position as a partner of choice in sustainable development and project services.

• An Advanced University Degree is required, preferably in Civil Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Medical Equipment Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Structural Engineering, Architecture, Health Service Planning, or related fields.
• A combination of a Bachelor's Degree with an additional two (2) years of relevant work experience will be accepted in lieu of the education requirements outlined above.

• Certification in Project Management (PRINCE2, PMI, etc.) is an asset.
• Professional certification from an accredited institution ( PEng., CEng. , etc) is an asset

 Work Experience

• A minimum of seven (7) years of experience in implementing and managing projects in the health sector (infrastructure and/or equipment and/or technical assistance) is required.
• Experience in contract management is an asset.
• Knowledge of FIDIC contracts is an asset.
• Experience in planning and applying Health & Safety procedures is an asset.
• Experience in developing Procurement strategies is an asset.
• Experience in risk management for infrastructure implementation projects is an asset.
• Prior experience in program oversight including coordination with the relevant stakeholders is an advantage.
• Experience in writing reports, performing data analysis, and writing technical documents is an asset.
• Knowledge of quality assurance methodologies is an asset.
• Prior experience working in international organizations, international development, post-disaster and/or emergency contexts would also be an advantage.
• Experience in developing countries or post-conflict environments is an asset.
• Experience in Southeast Asia and/ or Papua New Guinea is a strong asset.
• Experience working in multicultural teams is an asset.
• Experience in managing teams is an asset.
• Strong analytical capabilities with the ability to manage tasks associated with the development of projects is an asset.
• Knowledge of Google Suite applications is required. 
• Experience using ERP systems is an added advantage.

Languages

• Full Working knowledge of the English language is required.

• Contract type: International Individual Contract Agreement (IICA)

• Contract level: ICS-11/IICA-3

• Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.'

https://www.unops.org/english/Opportunities/job-opportunities/what-we-offer/Pages/Individual-Contractor-Agreements.aspx 



Disclaimer:  If the selected candidate is a national of the duty station, a Local Individual Contractor Agreement (LICA) will be issued.

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

• Duty Station: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. 

• Port Moresby is a hardship family duty station.

Terms and Conditions 

• 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 (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. For more information on a retainer contract here.

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.