Special Assistant to the Regional Director

Background Information Asia Regional Office

The AR-ORD helps ensuring that programmes and projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between projects across the entire region.

Under the guidance and supervision of the Regional Director, the duties of the Special Assistant to the Regional Director include:

Provide substantive support to the Regional Director:

• Conduct research, substantive review and critical analysis of information and documents for the Regional Director.
• Synthesize and summarize information for the Regional Director to facilitate decision-making.
• Prepare and/or coordinate preparation of briefing papers, speeches and detailed presentations and other materials as needed for the Regional Director’s internal and external use.
• Provide strategic advice and support on a range of issues related to the Regional Director’s priorities.
• Facilitate the flow of communication between AR Senior Management team, field offices and the Offices of the Regional Director.
• Contribute to aligning business processes and make suggestions for rationalization of workflows where needed.
• Advise the Regional Director on strategic communications, reputation and crisis management.
• Coordinate planning of high level visit and meetings.

Manage the Regional Director’s relations with internal and external partners:

• Prepare the Regional Director for the relevant internal and external meetings by undertaking research, coordinating and compiling inputs, and talking points.
• Support the planning of the Regional Director’s missions.
• Serve as the key interlocutor for the Regional Director with the offices of high-level officials in the UN System and external partners.

• Prioritize and coordinate travel plans for the Regional Director and oversee meeting arrangements.
• Use sound judgment to sort through issues requiring the Regional Director’s attention as well as other demands on the Director’s time, to prioritize decision-making by the Regional Director.
• Act as first line ‘information filter’, helping manage information flow to and from the Regional Director.
• Develop and maintain a tracking system to assist the Regional Director in following up on pending issues.
• Draft and/or assist in the drafting of correspondence at the request of the Regional Director.
• Staff key meetings at the request of the Regional Director and prepare notes for the file.
• Serve as the chief aide and liaison to the Regional Director and as the primary focal point to manage of his/her daily agenda.

Lead Special Projects

• Initiate, plan and manage special assignments/projects for the Regional Director and serve as his/her representative at meetings with other managers for planning and coordination purposes.

Knowledge management and innovation

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

Perform other related duties as required. 

Education:

• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Political Science, International Relations or related fields.  A bachelor's degree with a combination of 2 additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the master's degree.

Experience:

• 5 years’ relevant work experience at the national or international level in executive/management-level support, or delivery of development advisory services, partnerships and representation, in the United Nations system, NGOs, or public-sector organizations.
• Proven knowledge of the UN system and procedures, with prior work experience in a country office or regional office is an asset.
• Good knowledge of the UN system.
• Computer literate, in particular MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Language requirements:

• Excellent spoken and written English required.
• Knowledge of another second UN official languages is an advantage.

Certifications:

• PRINCE2 certification desirable.

Functional competencies:

• Political Acumen
• Coordination
• Communication
• Planning
• Developing of Standard Operating Procedures
• Project Management
• Dealing with bilateral and multilateral funding sources

Contract type: International ICA
Contract level:  IICA2
Contract duration: 4 months initially, renewable subject to satisfactory performance and funding availability'

• 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.
• 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
• 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.

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.