Programme Management Office (PMO) Team Leader (Readvertisment)

Established in 2009, Ethiopia Multi-country office (ETMCO) sub-region currently consists of an established Operation Centre in Addis Ababa which manages a portfolio of engagements in four (4)  Horn of Africa countries  (Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan and South Sudan).  ETMCO focuses on Infrastructure, Procurement, Project Management, HR and Transactional Services, and Fund Management services across a wide range of sectors including Health, Education, Agriculture, Resilient infrastructure, among others.  

Our goal is to support countries, help people in need and enable our partners through  delivering on our mandate of infrastructure, procurement and project management in the countries in the Horn of Africa. 

The primary role of Programme Management Office (PMO) is to provide the MCO with the structures, tools and techniques needed to ensure that it has the right programmes and projects in place, that operational and change priorities are balanced, the governance and decision making is facilitated and it has the resources and capability to deliver them consistently well. 

The functions and services of the PMO include:

• Strategic Planning/Portfolio Support: Ensuring UNOPS is focused on doing the right projects by supporting management decision-making.

• Delivery Support: Ensuring UNOPS is doing projects the right way, through the effective delivery of the programme and projects.

• Best Practices: Applying UNOPS standards in project management, encouraging consistent working practices and ensuring appropriate application.

Through these functions and services, the PMO ensures that project management policies, processes and methods are followed and practiced according to the organization standards, while acting as the overall Project Assurance capacity within the business unit on behalf of senior management. The PMO strongly contributes to moving the office towards achieving its mission-focused goals and objectives.

The Programme Management Office (PMO) Team Leader will work under the direct supervision of the Head of Programme and in close collaboration with the Country Managers to provide support to the Portfolios, Programmes and Projects implemented by UNOPS in the MCO.  The PMO Team Leader will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies towards delivering projects that contribute to the SDGs, with excellence and to partner satisfaction.  The assignment will also involve travel to all Country Offices in the MCO.

Being located in Addis Ababa, the PMO Team Leader will actively support the Head of Programme in Coordinating the performance of the Delivery Teams in Ethiopia.  The incumbent will provide oversight and direction to Sr Portfolio Managers to ensure projects are delivered to Time, Cost, Quality, Scope, Partner commitments and intended outcomes

1. Leadership and Team Management

2. Development and Planning

3. Set-up and Closure

4. Monitoring and Reporting

5. Stakeholder engagement

6. Quality Assurance

7. Knowledge management and innovation

• Foster a positive work environment, respectful of both men and women, and ensure that the highest standards of conduct are observed.

• Promote and support a learning culture by empowering individuals and teams to identify critical learning needs and plan/provide easy access to learning opportunities to maintain personnel competency and flexibility.

• Develops strategies and approaches that foster a common vision for maturity and harmonization of practices across all country offices in the MCO

• Exercise management of all staffing issues within the PMO team including recruitment, on-boarding and staff performance reviews.

• Directly contributes to the development and maintenance of budget and resource availability tables in conjunction with project managers and relevant project staff.

• Lead the implementation of the Resource Pool Approach for the PMO team.

• Plays the role of Programme Coordinator for the Ethiopia Country Office Portfolio, providing oversight and direction to Sr Portfolio Managers to ensure projects are delivered to Time, Cost, Quality, Scope, Partner commitments and intended outcomes
• Deputizes for the Head of Programme when required

• Provides appropriate levels of programmatic management and administrative support to the Head of Programme regarding all ongoing project activities, while maintaining and implementing appropriate standards and best practices in line with UNOPS policies and procedures.

• Directly contribute to strategic oversight, advice and direction on programme and project management activities in line with service agreements and project documents.

• Ensure proper development, implementation and, as and when appropriate, amendments, of project budgets and staffing resources, ensuring synergies across the Ethiopia Office.

• Develops and establishes resource tracking systems for use within the PMO, complementary to UNOPS' online tools, to ensure effective planning, forecasting and tracking of delivery across the office.

• Identifies, and anticipates in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advises mitigating measures to the Head of Programme.

• Provide expertise for start-up of programmes or projects, planning and closing projects, conducting regular health checks; 

• Facilitate the development of high-level programme/project plans, including the collation of lower-level plans into programme/project-level milestones.

• Develop, track and maintain dependencies.

• Liaise closely and support the Head of Support Services in all operations, finance and assets management issues.

• For project closure purposes, acts as (or nominates and supervises) a focal point between the office and donors throughout the process.

• Oversee and coordinate all project closure activities, ensuring appropriate disposal of project assets, timely and effective final (operational) reporting, initiation of financial disbursements as appropriate during Defects Liability Periods, updating of information on the OneUNOPS and effective handover of closed projects to UNOPS HQ for financial closure processes.

• Monitor and ensure projects prepare and issue regular project reports in accordance with donor guidelines for reporting.

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

• Maintain diaries and progress reports as required by UNOPS standard procedures.

• Identify and anticipates in a timely manner, potential risks and issues specific to delivery forecasts, and advises mitigating measures to the Head of Programme.

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

• Perform routine maintenance and implementation of effective monitoring and evaluation systems of programme and project activities, in line with logical frameworks.

• Within the context of monitoring and evaluation, ensure all projects submit and regularly update specific milestones and targets for the duration of projects' life-cycles, and tracks progress, or otherwise, against such information.

• Provide editorial support to programmes and projects, ensuring effective and timely dissemination of reports, in line with project documentation and clients' expectations.

• Provide the Head of Support Services and Finance Officer with necessary project analysis reports and information to support areas relevant to the project management team (i.e. Resource requirements of projects, Locally Managed Direct Costs projections, etc.).

• Coordinate and oversee the implementation of requests or initiatives relevant to project management from the Regional Office, IPAS, and HQ Teams, as required.

5. Stakeholder Engagement

• Supports development of stakeholder profiles and facilitates the formulation of stakeholder engagement strategies.

• Enable the formulation of programme and project communications plans.

• Facilitate stakeholder engagement and communication, ensuring effective timing and inter-dependency management of communications across programmes and projects.

• Ensure coordination of internal programme/project communications.

• Monitor the effectiveness of programme/project communications.

6. Quality Assurance

• Support Head of Support Services, and work with internal audit and finance to ensure the programme complies with audit requirements.

• Work with procurement personnel to ensure effective interface with suppliers' quality systems.

• Ensure compliance with UNOPS defined standards for programme/project management.

• Coordinate quality reviews of programme/project documents and deliverables.

• Monitor, promote and facilitate high level of data quality across all projects in the data systems

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

• Represent the Head of Programme in supporting key stakeholders to continuously identify and improve operational processes relevant to project implementation.

• Ensures that programme teams have an up to date understanding of the UNOPS Legislative Framework and ETMCO procedures, as it pertains to their roles as PMO Team members.

• Standardize and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of projects;

• Ensure risk registers and issue logs are maintained within all projects; all projects go through a quarterly end stage review, or equivalent; All projects report on time and in accordance with legal agreements; Projects document Centre (PDCs) and share drive are regularly updated and maintained as appropriate; 

• Act as a focal point for the MCO’s maturity enhancement and innovation initiatives

• Lead the development and implementation of common procedures and work flows to improve quality and effectiveness of projects, and monitor their full implementation.

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

• Participate in, and advocate PMs' participation in, relevant Communities of Practice.

• Actively interact with PMs and the wider PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices in the Knowledge System.

• Provides feedback to Practice Leads on policy and supporting guidance working to achieve continuous improvement of UNOPS policies.

• Contributes to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely and appropriate manner.

• Proactively remain abreast of new developments, innovations and tools related to Portfolio, Programme and Project Management (P3M) practices promoting a common approach and frame of reference;

• Coach, mentor, train and otherwise support PMO Team members and Project Teams in fulfillment of their project support functions;

• Act as an advisory resource for other programme personnel

Impact of Results 

The PMO Team Leader directly impacts on achievement of project results by assisting the Head of Programme and other members of the MCO’s Leadership Management Team to implement effective project management methods and strategies, reduce risks, cut costs and improve success rates.  This consequently reinforces the visibility and image of the 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

Education:

• A Master’s Degree preferably in Project /Programme Management, Business Administration, International Relations  or related fields is required.

• A Bachelor's Degree in Project/Programme Management, Business Administration, International Relations  or related fields with a combination of an additional two  (2) years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the education requirements outlined above. 

Certification:

• Prince 2 Foundation Certification or equivalent is highly desirable

• Prince 2 Practitioner Certification or equivalent an advantage

Experience:

• A minimum of  seven (7) years of relevant and progressive professional experience, specifically in the field of Programme/Project Management with experience of successful implementation and/or oversight of portfolios, programmes and projects is required

• A minimum of two (2) years experience leading multidisciplinary, multicultural teams is  required;

• At least  one (1) year experience delivering or facilitating training/ capacity building workshops in project management related topics is required;

• Proven experience working with Management Information Systems (MIS), data analytics and/or reporting is highly desirable;

• Proven experience in planning and implementing organizational and/or process change initiatives his highly desirable;

• Previous experience of working within a Programme Management Office (PMO) environment is an advantage;

• Previous experience in a UN environment is highly desired 

• Previous experience working with UNOPS’ project management tools, financial and procurement rules and regulations, and financial management tools, is an advantage;

• Experience working in Post-Conflict (or active conflict) environments is highly desirable;

• Demonstrated experience working with Government MDAs on Donor-Funded projects is an asset;

• Familiar with web-based applications and Google-Suite products, especially google docs, sheets, slides and forms is an asset;

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written, spoken and reading English is required

• Fluency in written, spoken and reading  Amharic is required.

• Working knowledge of French is an advantage

• Working knowledge of Arabic is an advantage