Job HighlightSupporting project success through analytical and administrative expertise across the entire project lifecycle.
Role Purpose
The incumbent directly impacts the achievement of project results by assisting the Head of PMO to implement effective project management methods and strategies, reduce risks, cut costs, and improve success rates.
The incumbent, on behalf of the PMO, will support the improvement of the maturity of project management within the MCO.
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.
Functions / Key Results Expected
Summary of functions:
- 1. Development and planning
- 2. Set-up and closure
- 3. Monitoring and reporting
- 4. Oversight and quality assurance
- 5. Knowledge management and innovation
- 6. Data management
- Development and planning
Provide appropriate levels of project management support during engagement development ensuring the implementation of appropriate standards, tools and best practices in line with UNOPS policies and procedures.
- Ensure that proper project governance is put in place inline with the PMM, including timely establishment of Project Boards
- Assist project planning ensuring that realistic timeline is established, covering DNP for Infra projects, with adequate floating time factored in
- Follow up and ensure that handovers from Business Development team to Project team are carried out as per the Guide
- Support the development of high-level PMO Unit plans
- Set-up and closure
- Support Project Managers with setup of new projects in oneUNOPSprojects, including project classification, advancing projects to operational stage, project structure, developing expenditure forecasts, and other requirements.
- Coordinate the development of various implementation plans required for projects
- Monitor timely submission and implementation of closure plans by PMs
- Guide project teams on the timely completion of project closure activities.
- If assigned, act as Closure Manager and lead project closure activities.
- Monitoring and reporting
- Ensure regular review of project status against key performance criteria such as scope, cost, schedule and quality.
- Develop standard tracking systems and tools to facilitate monitoring of project progress and performance.
- Provide periodic analysis of delivery data and share it with the Project team and Management as appropriate
- Support the Head of the PMO (and relevant Country Managers) with necessary project analysis reports and information to support areas relevant to the project management team
- Monitor timely submission of client reports, exception reports and internal reports
- Coordinate and complete internal UNOPS reporting (MCO, Regional Office, Corporate) and external UN reporting (UNINFO, UNCT, etc.)
- Support with tracking, and reporting of country strategies
- Support and coordinate the implementation of requests or initiatives relevant to project management from the Regional Office, IPAS, and HQ Teams, as required.
- Oversight and quality assurance
- Complete regular quality assurance activities for assigned projects, including ensuring compliance with UNOPS-defined standards for programme/project management.
- Coordinate quality reviews of programme/project documents and financial and programmatic deliverables.
- Provide quality control for management products (project documents, reports, etc.).
- Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery data within the dashboard system, using the UNOPS ERP system as required.
- Identify, and anticipate potential risks and issues and advise mitigating measures to the Head of PMO in a timely manner.
- Support PMs and project teams with UNOPS tools, templates, and systems as required.
- Support key stakeholders to continuously identify and improve operational processes relevant to project implementation.
- Knowledge management and innovation
- Contribute to the design and delivery of capacity building initiatives, while focusing on UNOPS project management standards and requirements
- Organize periodic lessons learnt workshops and disseminate learnings across the MCO
- 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.
- Contribute to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learned are shared in a timely and appropriate manner.
- Data management
- Support the PMO in developing concise, audience-appropriate, data-driven reports and dashboards to guide management decisions.
- Support the PMO with data collection, structuring, quality management, analysis and presentation, in relation to policies, processes and project implementation
- Work with Project Managers to identify data analysis and visualization needs to develop tailored processes and tools to address the data quality and integrity needs
- Design, conduct, document and present analyses on complex and connected data to support better project and financial management, project performance analysis, and support PMO and MCO management in making informed decisions
- Other related technical and analysis support as required
Education Requirements
Required
- Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in Project Management, Finance, Business Administration, Architecture, Engineering, International Relations, or related field with 4 years of relevant experience OR
- Master's degree (or equivalent) in any field mentioned above with 2 years of relevant experience is required.
Desired
- PRINCE2® Foundations or Practitioner certification is an asset.
Requirements
Experience Requirements
Required:
- Relevant experience is work in the field of Engineering, Construction, Construction Management, Project Management, Project Support, financial management, or Project Implementation Support
- Knowledge of Google Suite applications is required.
- Demonstrated experience with data analysis, management or project reporting, and project management tools is required.
Desired:
- Experience within a PMO environment or in roles with an oversight function of projects/programmes is an asset
- Previous experience working in an Engineering and/or Construction Management role is an asset OR experience working in the field of Infrastructure Project Management in a developing country is an asset
- Experience in project assurance is an advantage
- Experience with project scheduling and/or drafting and reviewing project plans is an advantage
- Experience using ERP systems is an asset.
- Demonstrated experience with project management tools and information management systems is an asset.
- Experience in dealing with large financial systems with budgets is an asset.
- Experience managing projects in the international development context is an asset.
- Knowledge of the UN system and familiarity with UNOPS procedures is considered an asset.
- Professional experience in the Asia Pacific region is an asset