Background
In April 2024, UNDP launched a 5-years Green Energy Recovery Programme in Ukraine, which is an integrated initiative designed to diversify the country's energy mix and address the impact of the war on its outdated energy systems. Developed through extensive consultations with the Government of Ukraine, local and regional authorities, the Programme aims to respond urgently to targeted attacks on the energy sector and support its green energy recovery.
The Programme supports the National Energy Strategy of Ukraine, contributing to energy security and independence, promoting a green recovery and transition of the energy sector, and facilitating further synchronization with the EU energy markets. This effort builds on UNDP’s engagement in energy system reconstruction and recovery, leveraging partnerships and lessons learned from the “Winterization Support to Ukraine” project.
Aligned with the UN Ukraine Transitional Framework 2023 and UN Winterization plans, UNDP is providing immediate support to national and local governments to repair energy infrastructure, ensuring critical services to war-affected populations. The Programme focuses on distributing generation sources, decentralizing the power system, and increasing the share of renewable energy sources to reduce reliance on coal generation and reduce CO2 emissions.
The Programme will enhance access to energy from decentralized renewable sources, foster economic empowerment, and improve public governance in the energy sector. These outputs will contribute to Ukraine’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs) towards the Paris Agreement, aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.
Sustainable energy solutions will be introduced through pilot projects, aligned with the UNDP nexus approach to risk reduction and resilience enhancement in war-affected communities. By boosting energy supply and decentralizing the energy system, the Programme aims to reduce reliance on humanitarian aid for essential services in these areas.
To this end, UNDP seeks a qualified Operations Specialist to manage, oversee and coordinate programme operations functions, including procurement, finance, human resources, and general administration services for CO’s multi-sectoral integrated recovery and resilience programmes.
The incumbent will lead the operation unit of the programme team and supervise the staff under the operation unit while coordinating with relevant operation staff in other programmes/projects and pillars as well as the CO.
Duties and Responsibilities
1. Finance:
• Manage and coordinate proper planning, expenditure tracking and audit of financial resources of the relevant programmes in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations;
• Lead preparation of financial reports and forecasts of the relevant programmes, including monthly and quarterly disbursement reports and financial reports for donors; ensure the reports are prepared in an accurate manner;
• Ensure quality assurance on budget modifications and revisions by providing supervision of Project Associate/ Project Budgeting Analyst/Financial Analyst;
• Regularly monitor the use of programme funds and other resources and inform respective programme managers if any abnormalities are observed and recommend possible solutions;
• Ensuring that all financial actions for project are properly reviewed and made on a timely basis, as well as ensuring that payment information is properly recorded into the Quantum system on a timely basis;
• Timely response to requests to resolve financial data issues, timely accounts closure;
• Follow-up with partners on any financial issues and resolve them in proper and timely manner;
2. Procurement:
• Lead and oversee the planning of the overall procurement strategy of the relevant programmes/projects for proper project implementation in collaboration with project team and CO;
• Manage and coordinate the procurement processes related to the implementation of project to ensure that it is fair, competitive, transparent, ethical and provides best value for money;
• Establish a programme procurement business process and ensure coordination of all relevant staff/units along the process, including contract management, logistics, and payments, with full compliance of procurement activities with UN/UNDP rules, regulations, policies and strategies;
• Establish and manage a monitoring system of procurement cases under the relevant programme to ensure timely follow-up and problem-solving.
• Develop and management of the rosters of suppliers, collection of quotes, elaboration of supplier selection and evaluation, quality and performance measurement;
• Organize and ensure efficient collaboration with relevant counterparts in identifying standard services and/or standard equipment, their costs and potential vendors; advise on the most effective procurement services to resolve the cases;
3. Human Resources:
• Prepare and manage the recruitment strategy for the relevant programme team;
• Manage and coordinate the recruitment processes of the programme personnel in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations, appropriate use of different contractual modalities, and serve as the leave monitor;
• Manage the preparation of required documents to initiate recruitments, processing of the competitive selection processes and administration of service contracts as per UNDP rules;
• Act as a focal point for the on-boarding schedule; ensures staff are provided with all office tools to facilitate rapid start up of their work, including requests for staff registration in the HR system, coded UNDSS CO passes provided, IT access established (including Quantum and Sharepoint), workstation, laptop, email address and phone access and other administration needs are provided for; communicates and follows up on timelines for colleagues to implement their part of the on-boarding process.
4. Others:
• Manage the assets and equipment of the premises of the relevant programme;
• Ensure effective management of transportation logistics for the relevant programme staff, including supervising Logistics Analysts and Drivers;
• Manage the operation team of the relevant programmes with ensure effective coordination and enabling working relations with relevant internal and external clients and partners, including final beneficiaries/government counterparts, donors and other project stakeholders;
• Participate in relevant meetings and share information with project team and project stakeholders as the focal point of programme operations, where needed;
• Synthesis of lessons learned and best practices in operations areas;
• Organise and deliver training to new project staff within operations-related areas;
• The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.
Institutional Arrangement
Under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager and in collaboration with the Energy and Environment portfolio Lead and the Operation Units in the CO, the Operations Specialist provides overall strategic administrative, finance and human resources management, efficient procurement and logistical guidance, ensuring high-quality and accuracy of work for the assigned programmes/projects.
Competencies Core Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making
People Management
UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site. Cross-Functional & Technical competencies Thematic Area Name Definition Business Direction & Strategy System Thinking
Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system. Finance Financial planning and budgeting Ability to create and manage processes to achieve UNDP's long and short-term financial goals, including through planning, budgeting, forecasting, analysing and reporting Legal Knowledge of applicable legal framework Understanding of the legal norms as applied to the United Nations in general, and to UNDP in particular. This includes an understanding of the structure, functioning and operations of UNDP within the broader UN system and the application of international treaties, including the UN Charter, GA resolutions, the relevant basic country assistance agreement and UN system-wide legal instruments, as well as an understanding of the internal legal framework (financial regulations and rules, policies, and procedures) of UNDP. Finance Budget management Ability to support budgetary aspects of work planning process, drawing and management of team budgets Finance Financial reporting and analysis Understands changes in regulatory, legal and ethical frameworks and standards for financial reporting in the public sector. Ability to extract, evaluate financial data, derive relevant findings and present them in a meaningful and coherent manner to facilitate effective decision making and performance monitoring. Understands the benefits of integrated reporting, including non-financial resources such as human, social and intellectual capital, and environmental and governance performance HR -People strategy and planning Workforce planning Knowledge of theories, mechanisms and tools to analyse the current workforce, determine future workforce needs, as they align to the needs of the business, identify the gap between the present capabilities in the workforce and the organizations needs, and design and implement talent acquisition and development solutions so that an organization can have the required capacity to accomplish its mission, goals, and strategic plan Procurement Procurement Management The ability to acquire goods, services or works from an outside external source Gender Gender and EnergyRequired Skills and Experience
Education:
Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Business Administration, Management, Economics, Human Resources, Finance, Accounting, Social Sciences or other related fields is required, or A first-level university degree (Bachelor`s degree) in combination with additional 2 years of relevant experience will be given due consideration in lieu of Master’s degree. CIPS level 4 is highly desirable for this position and candidates holding this level at the time of application will have a distinct advantage. If the desired certification is not available at the time of recruitment, it should be obtained within one year of recruitment. Candidates holding a CIPS certification at any level below at the of application will have a proportionate advantage.Experience:
Minimum 5 years (with Master’s degree) or 7 years with (Bachelor’s degree) of the relevant experience at national or international level in the field of administration, finance, procurement, programme/project coordination or other relevant fields.Required skills:
Excellent analytical and writing skills. Excellent organizational and communication skills.Desired skills in addition to the competencies covered in the Competencies section:
Proficiency in use of office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and advance knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is an advantage. Experience of work in managing programme operations in complex and large-scale crisis response/recovery will be considered as an advantage. Familiarity with UN/UNDP procedures and experience would be an asset. Experience in managing a diversified team preferably in governmental or international organizations.Required Language(s)
Fluency in English and Ukrainian is required.Equal opportunity
As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination.
UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.
Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority
UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles.
Right to select multiple candidates
UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.
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