Project Management Support - Senior Assistant

UNOPS strategic focus places increased emphasis on national capacity development and sustainable approaches to project management, procurement and infrastructure services. A key objective is to be recognized as an organization that delivers world-class infrastructure and project management, which is both economically and socially sustainable, even in the most challenging environments. To achieve this goal, UNOPS has established the Infrastructure and Project Management Group (IPMG). 

Within UNOPS, it is IPMG’s objective to serve the organization’s personnel and partners by broadening their infrastructure and project management capabilities, while disseminating best practices in both of these areas. Through this work, the group helps facilitate the successful delivery of programs and projects around the world.

To achieve its objectives, IPMG has established six interrelated and interdependent technical streams, namely, Strategic Initiatives, Standards, Engagement Assurance, Gender Equality and Inclusion (GESI), Grant Support and Transformation, that are supported by the Portfolio Support team.

The Portfolio Support (PS) team aims to (a) support aspects of the organizational readiness of UNOPS, and (b) manage IPMG operations.

Organizational Readiness

Organizational readiness is focused primarily on UNOPS mandate in infrastructure, project management and procurement. It aims to cover the ad-hoc resource needs of the Regional Portfolios to implement the corporate strategy and address the needs of donors.

The PS team supports the UNOPS global portfolio by supplementing their existing resources on demand. This support includes administering the Corporate retainer pool and developing/co-managing other agreements and partnerships.

Support for IPMG operations

PS provides timely support to IPMG on operational aspects and takes a coordination function in the areas of human resources (HR), general administration, communication, finance and procurement by working in close relationship with other Headquarter (HQ) units, notably the Shared Services Center (SSC). PS also manages the Project of the Year Award (POTYA). 

Background information - Job specific

The purpose of this Vacancy Announcement is to build a list of endorsed candidates for full-time or retainer opportunities from Q3, 2024 and onwards.
For more information on a retainer contract here.

Under the supervision of the Project Management Support Specialist, the Project Management Support - Senior Assistant is responsible for providing efficient and integrated support to the operations of the Infrastructure Project Management Group (IPMG) and Procurement Group (PG). The operations of both groups are managed together by Portfolio Support. 

Maintaining the highest degree of personal and professional ethics, the Senior Assistant demonstrates a collaborative, client-focused, quality and results-oriented approach. The Senior Assistant is required to work in close collaboration with the Integrated Practice Advice and Support (IPAS) teams, an integrated support services and advisory function of UNOPS, for the provision of efficient support services to IPS, as well as the UNOPS Headquarters Support services team.

Administrative and HR Support 

Administrative Support

• Process incoming and outgoing mail and documentation addressed to/from PS email inbox (and other shared IPMG-PG inboxes as applicable, such as Portfolio Support and IPMG mailboxes); maintain the corresponding email register and distribute as appropriate.

• Ensure correct access to all IPMG-PG email groups and inboxes, as well as any other groups or community platforms as requested.

• Maintain filing systems in IPS, especially the Google Team Drives pertaining to administration, procurement and budget.

• Maintain relevant hard copy and electronic records and files, e.g. commitments and expenditures, contracts, personnel information (if any and treated as confidential).

• Focal point for controlling and tracking of lending of IPMG equipment and assets, as well as IPMG library management, and maintaining records on assets management.

• Act as the focal point for the organization and logistics, including the procurement activities, for the Team Building and other shared activities in IPMG-PG. 

• Provide clerical support, including but not limited to managing team meeting invitations and room bookings, emergency communication tree and organigramme updates, taking meeting minutes, and entering requests in the various UNOPS portals and tools as requested.

• Gather information and provide support in drafting a wide variety of reports, documents, presentations, correspondence and communications as requested.

• Act as the travel focal point for IPMG-PG, including by providing travel related assistance to IPMG-PG personnel and external affiliates as necessary, and booking flights in the UNOPS Travel tool.

• Contribute to the revision and maintenance of the PS Support Services RACI matrix for areas of work.

• Provide ad-hoc support to the drafting of PS Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) documents and how-to guides; support their regular review/update and maintenance.

• Manage the ad-hoc logistical support to workshops and trainings, working in close collaboration with the Headquarters Support services team, the workshop or training coordinator, including but not limited to agenda set-up, room set-up, checklist, printing, budget updates, logistical guidance to the participants.

Onboarding Support

• Ensure that all onboarding and offboarding activities for newly recruited personnel are duly executed.

• Contribute to the update of the IPS induction handbook, including maintenance of hyperlinks.

• Focal point of the buddy program.

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Procurement of IPMG-PG goods and services

• Launch and facilitate the procurement exercises related to IPMG-PG; act as procurement official for IPMG-PG procurement exercises up to 4,999$ and purchases against LTAs/BPAs (inc. drafting requirements, drafting evaluation reports, preparing the request for award documents, call-off orders, purchase orders, shopping notes, etc.).

• For low-value procurement, responsible for preparing the submissions to the necessary internal review and clearance bodies and authorities to finalize awards and contracts (IPAS procurement reviewer, IPAS Legal, UNOPS Enterprise Architecture Application Review Board, Procurement Authority) and communicating the award decision to the bidders.

• Initiate and support all other procurement exercises in coordination with IPAS procurement and IPAS Legal as applicable, including contributing to the drafting of the RFP, RFQ, review of the service-level agreement, researching available LTAs, etc.

• Compile and maintain the IPMG-PG Procurement plan; maintain status reports on procurement activities and work in progress. 

• Coordinate with the IPMG-PG Petty cash custodian for the acquisition of goods online and prepare the Mastercard form or facilitate the use of Petty cash as applicable.

• Follow up with the delivery of goods and ensure physical receipt from the mailroom by the procurement delivery date agreed upon with the supplier.

• In charge of raising purchase orders in the UNOPS ERP system for IPMG-PG’ procurement activities; or coordinating their creation and management through the HQ Support services unit.  

• Initiate payment requests upon receipt of goods/services.

• Manage the IPMG-PG supplier relationship (for goods and services, excluding infrastructure related services), inc. the organization of regular coordination meetings, tracking their performance and use against service level agreements, reporting and identifying performance issues.  

Budget Management Support

• Preparation and submission of budget corrections (GLJE) with complete supporting documentation, follow-up with Finance Group and IPAS Finance.

• Assist in compiling complete supporting documentation to enable payment process; provide guidance to IPMG-PG personnel (inc. retainers) as necessary.

• Assist in preparing the IPMG-PG monthly and ad-hoc financial reports, including extraction of

• financial data from oneUNOPS, maintenance of specific budget monitoring tables (such as for travel, procurement activities or payments to retainers).

• Support the review and monitoring of expenditures against the administrative budgets under the IPMG-PG business unit, bringing to the attention of the supervisor any problem or discrepancy that warrants further review.

• Support the year-end financial closure exercise, including timely payments of all outstanding commitments.

• Ad hoc support on follow-up of retainer payments.

Knowledge building and knowledge sharing

• Contribute to developing and delivering training and learning initiatives for personnel on areas of expertise.

• Provide sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice by synthesizing lessons learnt, creating SOPs and disseminating best practices in his/her area of work.

• Collect feedback, ideas, and internal knowledge about processes and best practices and put to use productively.

• Undertake research on a range of issues related to administration and procurement and provide content for notes/reports including quarterly and year-end reports for monitoring, statistical and review purposes by management.

Monitoring and Progress Controls

• Setting standard, personal and development objectives in PER;

• Ongoing assessment of task completion, which meets quality expectations;

• Successfully meeting deadlines;

• Willing and ability to learn.

Education

• High school diploma is required.

• A Bachelor or master’s degree in accounting, procurement, finance, business administration or related field will be considered a strong asset and may substitute for some of the required years of experience.

Work Experience

Mandatory requirements

• 5 years of experience in general office administration/ financial support functions are required with a high school degree. A BA or a MA degree may substitute for some or all the required years of experience respectively.

• Within the 5 years of experience, 2 years of public procurement experience acting as a procurement official or a procurement authority or procurement reviewer for low-value procurement procedures is required.

Assets

• Working knowledge of Google suite, in particular Google sheet.

• Knowledge of an ERP software.

• Experience in a project management support function.

• Experience in event administration or logistical coordination.

• Public procurement experience for $5,000 and more value procurement procedures.

Certifications

• A certification in public procurement is an asset.

Languages

• Fluency in English required.

• Fluency in French and/or Spanish and/or Arabic is an asset.

• Knowledge of Danish is an asset.

• 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.

Terms and Conditions 

• 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.