Project Manager

United Nations Office for Project Services

Vienna, Austria

UNOPS has been engaged to provide legal and operational services in support of IATI for the next five years.

Functional Responsibilities:

Role of the Project Manager:

The UNOPS WEC Portfolio provides support to the IATI Secretariat in particular in financial management and implementation support services - including HR, procurement, collecting contributions, disbursing resources to partners and contract management, in accordance with and adaptive to the IATI strategic priorities and periodic workplans.The UNOPS project team will be based in Vienna and carry out activities as the Legal and Operational support to IATI in coordination with the Policy & Technology Host. 

The Project Manager will be responsible for the overall management of the project, its activities, budget, operations and personnel. The Project Manager  will work to ensure timely, quality and cost-effective implementation in line with UNOPS rules and regulations, as well as international best practices. The PM will lead in management of emerging issues and risks, coordination within Policy and Technology Host, as well as with other UNOPS units and personnel. 

The PM will manage the client relationship including internal and external communication of the initiative, the preparation of progress reports and the arrangement of Project Board meetings. PM will have a direct reporting line to the UNOPS Senior Portfolio Manager, and a technical reporting line to the Executive Director on the UNOPS led project activities. 

Summary of functions:

Project Delivery and Performance:

  • Develop, complete and update implementation plans.
  • Implement the approved plan (including the establishment of milestones) within tolerances set by the Project Board. 
  • Embed sustainability dimensions including social and gender inclusion, environmental and economic aspects into project life span. 
  • Manage the production of the required outputs, taking responsibility for overall progress and use of resources and initiating corrective action where necessary.
  • Ensure that quality of work packages and deliverables complies with the quality requirements defined in the Implementation Plan.
  • Liaise with any external suppliers or account managers.
  • Manage acceptance and delivery of work packages.
  • Monitor project progress ensuring that work packages are being executed properly

Control project and work packages changes:

  • Accept goods, services or works delivered by suppliers.
  • Lead contract management duties including supplier performance evaluation. 
  • Identify, and anticipate in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advises mitigating measures to senior management/ Project Board so that maximum benefit to partner(s) and other stakeholders is achieved
  • Identify and report to the supervisor potential business opportunities for UNOPS.

Procedures :

  • Comply with all organizational policy and specifically the UNOPS Project Management Manual.
  • Prepare/adapt all relevant plans for approval by the Project Board.
  • Manage the reporting obligations defined in the Legal Agreement(s) and in the Implementation Plan.
  • Draft the requirements definitions for procurement processes. Approving requisitions and requests for non-purchase order payments; Evaluating submissions received, if appointed to the evaluation team. (if applicable)
  • Ensure maintenance of the project files and lessons learned are recorded
  • Ensure the development and implementation of project financial management guidelines and control mechanisms, in conformity with UNOPS rules and regulations.
  • Manage budgets, cash flow and obligations to ensure that deliverables are met and payments to contractors and personnel are received on time.
  • Understand and manage UNOPS overheads, allocable charges, and related corporate charges as they apply to the project
  • Understand the unique structures of the UN and budget appropriately for personnel
  • Manage expenditures against the budget (based on accurate financial reports)
  • Where the Project Manager has no delegation as a committing officer, s/he retains these responsibilities and will monitor and instruct/request others to carry out the relevant commitments and disbursements.
  • For project closure purposes, provide a formal handover of the project to the closure manager
  • Support project audit activities, including planning, preparation and coordination during the audits and follow up on audit observations/recommendations

Monitoring and reporting:

  • Prepare and issue regular project and/or financial reports in accordance with Partner and UNOPS requirements for reporting.
  • Regularly review project status, evaluating performance criteria (scope, cost, schedule and quality).
  • Maintain diaries and progress reports as required by the organization’s standard procedures.
  • Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery data within the dashboard system.
  • Ensure all project team members track and regularly update milestones and targets for the duration of projects' life span

Stakeholder engagement:

  • Develop stakeholder profiles and facilitate the formulation of stakeholder engagement strategies.
  • Establish solid working relationships with the Project Board (Executive, Senior Users and Senior Suppliers), client and key stakeholders
  • Enable the formulation of project communications plans. Coordinate internal project communications. Monitor the effectiveness of project communications
  • Coordinate stakeholder engagement and communication, ensuring effective timing and interdependency management of communications. Ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are in a position to accept handover outputs

Quality assurance:

  • Work with internal stakeholders to ensure projects comply with audit requirements
  • Work with procurement/purchasing staff to ensure effective interface with suppliers' quality systems
  • Coordinate quality reviews of project documents and deliverables
  • Provide quality control for management outputs (project documents, reports, etc.)

Knowledge management and innovation:

  • Encourage routine and effective capacity building activities are conducted in order to build the long-term and sustainable capacity of staff.
  • Actively interact with other Project Managers and the wider PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices 
  • Contribute to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely and appropriate manner. Participate in the relevant Communities of Practice
  • Research and logging of lessons learned throughout the project life span.
  • Provide feedback to Practice Groups on policy, supporting guidance with an aim towards continuous improvement of UNOPS policies

Personnel Management  :

  • Lead and motivate the project management team
  • Ensure that behavioural expectations of team members are established 
  • Ensure that performance reviews are conducted fairly, accurately and timely
  • Select, recruit and train team as required and take into account gender parity and diversity objectives.
  • Ensure safety and security for all project personnel and comply with UNDSS standards
  • Create, foster and role model a culture of respect and zero tolerance for discrimination, abuse of authority, harrasement, sexual harrasement and sexual exploitation and abuse. Ensure accountability for actions and perform duties in accordance with protection mechanisms and action plans, as expected by UNOPS policies, standards and commitments.

Education/Experience/Language requirements:

Education:

  • Advanced University Degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Finance, Economics, Human Resources, Business, Supply Chain management, Project Management, International Relations or Social Sciences.
  • First-level University degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent) combined with two additional years of relevant professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the master’s degree.

Experience:

  • At least five (5) years of relevant working experience. Relevant experience is defined as progressive experience in programme/project development or management related to the international development sector in either public or private sector organizations;
  • A minimum of 2 years working experience in implementing and delivering projects for international organisations.
  • Experience with coordinating multiple stakeholders, ideally in an international setting is an advantage;
  • Certification in project management is an asset (PRINCE2, PMI, etc)

Languages:

  • Fluency in English is required for this position.
  • Working knowledge of another UN language (Arabic/Chinese/French/Spanish/Russian) is desirable.

Source: https://jobs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=26219#2