Back Management and Oversight Advisor

Background Information - Job-specific

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organizations.

Diversity

With over 5,000 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.

Middle East Region

The Middle East Region (MR) Office is responsible for managing strategic and operational risks, as well as providing technical and strategic leadership, advisory services and operational support to Multi-Country Offices (MCOs), Country Offices (COs) and Project Offices (POs) across its regional portfolio of engagements in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Yemen and Jerusalem, in line with the principles, rules and regulations of UNOPS and in order to support the response to the current needs and priorities of the region.

The Role

The Management and Oversight Advisor reports to the Regional Director who provides broad supervision and guidance. The role is responsible for providing strategic and substantive advice to the Regional Director, with particular focus on business performance, portfolio analysis and corporate results reporting.

Functional Responsibilities

1. Regional strategic advisory

2. Performance improvement

3. Operational performance oversight and coordination

4. Knowledge management and innovation

   Regional Strategic Advisory
   

5. Facilitate the development of regional strategies and policies by advising the Regional Director and senior management, including participating in deliberation on current and future business operations and strategy development and planning.

Keep abreast of organisational changes to make recommendations on regional strategy and approaches to management of regional project portfolio and delivery of results.

With the RD and in collaboration with senior management team and partners, develop a multi year plan and the annual work , including proposing set objectives, performance measurements, standards and results expected to ensure timely and partner oriented services.

Monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Regional Office annual work plan and highlight any areas of risk regarding progress toward anticipated results.

In collaboration with the Regional Director, plan and allocate resources (human, financial and administrative) to achieve goals and ensure the cost effective and appropriate use of resources in accordance with UNOPS standards of ethics, integrity and accountability framework.

Provide additional oversight and assurance to regional strategic partnerships such as WB and KFW, as well as participation in appraisal to ensure adherence to corporate requirements.

Drive and support a world-class performance, organisational excellence and continuous improvement across the region, as well as nurture a high-performance management culture Make recommendations to the Regional Director on structural arrangements within and between entities in the regional structure, including cross-functional integration and coordination within the region.

Develop and implement a performance monitoring system to provide oversight of the regional performance measures and tracking of improvement initiatives required to achieve targets.

Support the review and implementation of partner’s capacity assessment tools and monitor performance of strategic partnerships.

Review and endorse Prepare and propose regional performance targets on recognized value, process excellence, people excellence and financial stewardship.

Assist the Regional Director in managing the resources of the region, ensuring cost recovery, and accurate financial reporting to partners.

Provide advice on goal setting, targets and performance standards and deploy tools for monitoring, evaluation and auditing.

Review and input into the proposed regional and country targets in terms of process excellence, workforce management excellence and financial stewardship.

Monitor and oversee support services across the region, to ensure optimum client service and satisfaction, including liaising with appropriate Headquarters Practice Groups for required support.

Monitor and oversee financial projections, and refer critical issues to the Regional Director and/or other stakeholders for action.

Constantly monitor, analyse and evaluate the operating environment to identify potential risks and take action/refer critical issues for intervention to ensure delivery of results.

Monitor and oversee the performance across the region; provide guidance and support in relation to actions required to achieve targets.

Monitor and oversee the internal controls across the region; provide guidance and support in relation to actions required to achieve sufficient levels of controls.

Oversee the regional performance and execute appropriate controls, with particular focus on cost recovery and attribution of costs, and other high operational risks.

Coordinate with relevant UNOPS HQ units, to ensure prioritisation, alignment and coherent interactions with the region; actively engage with internal stakeholders and HQ units to make sure that country and regional perspectives are reflected in HQ-led initiatives.

As requested by the Regional Director, participate in and report on the relevant coordination meetings, working groups, task-forces, etc.

Coordinate and maintain regular communication with all offices in the region and on their needs and requests for support.

Oversee the successful implementation of corporate policies, standards and tools to effectively manage the regional portfolio to enhance/maintain UNOPS competitive edge as a provider of effective project services for sustainable results.

Contribute to the ongoing research, development and implementation of best practice and innovative approaches to maximise UNOPS’ operational effectiveness while sustaining results.

Actively engage with UNOPS’ Implementation Practices and Standards unit as well as the regional portfolios, to capture and provide a synthesis of best practice, lessons learned and ensure harmonisation of practices across the region.

Facilitate and encourage the sharing of information, knowledge and best practices across the region and globally

Contribute to the planning, implementation and organisation of strategic capacity building of personnel, partners and stakeholders for strategic business development and engagement.

Act as the learning focal point for the region.

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 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. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. 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.