Senior Project Manager

United Nations Office for Project Services

Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Background Information - Job-specific

  • The Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has initiated the "Programme d'Appui au Développement Rural Inclusif et Résilient (PADRIR)" for a total amount of US$130 million with financial support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Fund for International Development and the World Bank.
  • PADRIR covers Kasai Central, Kasai Oriental, Lomami and Maniema provinces and is expected to target 330,800 people corresponding to 56,800 households, in the provinces of Kasai Central, Lomami and Maniema.
  • IFAD's funding is intended, among other things, to rehabilitate rural roads and to improve the quality of life of the population.
  • The main aim of this project is rural poverty alleviation and the improvement of the incomes of small producers (particularly youth and women), food and nutritional security and resilience to climate change.

Specifically, the project aims to improve socio-economic conditions through:

  • the rehabilitation of main roads and rural
  • support for the development of agricultural value chains (production and processing)
  • market access and basic social services (drinking water, health, education).

The UNOPS Senior Project Manager and his/her team will lead some of the main infrastructure project activities related to the rehabilitation of rural roads in the targeted areas. Detailed designs must be carried out by Design companies then tenders will be launched to engaged local companies to carry out the various construction works. UNOPS will lead and supervise all these activities in close collaboration with the project stakeholders. Meanwhile social and environment safeguards must be considered throughout the project lifecycle. 

Background information - DR Congo

Located in Kinshasa, DRC the UNOPS Hub in Central Africa covers eleven countries, including DRC. The office has developed strong working relations with international partners, UN agencies including UN Missions and Governments across Central Africa over the years. It provides technical support and capacity building in strategic development areas including infrastructure rehabilitation and development across health, education, public works, governance/public administration sectors; procurement, project management and sectoral advisory services; peace and security, environmental preservation and protection among others.

Functional Responsibilities

  • Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Head of Programme, the responsibilities of the Senior Programme Manager include:
  • Project Delivery and Performance 
  • Develop, complete and update implementation plan(s) (If applicable)
  • 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. (If applicable)
  • 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 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. 
  • 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. (if applicable)
  • 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 Senior 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/

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  if applicable  

  • Lead and motivate the project management team
  • Ensure that behavioral expectations of team members are established 
  • Ensure that performance reviews are conducted fairly, accurately and timely
  • Select, recruit and train a 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, harassment, sexual harassment 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) in Architecture, Engineering, Project Management, or other relevant discipline is required;
  • University Degree (bachelor’s degree / first level) with a combination of two (2) additional years of relevant professional experience in Architecture, Engineering, Project Management or other relevant discipline, may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

  • A minimum of seven (7) years of project management in the area of construction and/or civil/rural engineering management is required
  • Experience in stabilization, transition, post –conflict environments is an asset
  • Experience with management of operations in remote locations is an asset.
  • Experience with government and/or private sector infrastructure development is an asset

Language:

  • Fluent French and Intermediate working knowledge of English are required.

Source: https://jobs.unops.org/pages/viewvacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=25561#3