Project Management Office (PMO) - Senior Officer

Under the direct supervision of Project Management Office (PMO) - Specialist and overall guidance of the Head of Programme (HoP), the PMO Senior Officer will contribute to ensuring that the programme activities are in line with strategic direction, are in compliance with corporate requirements, and fulfil reporting requirements of all stakeholders. The PMO Senior Officer will be responsible for monitoring specific programmatic activities of projects and functional Units. He/She also takes the lead in, preparing and updating of overall risk and issue through regular analysis; and advises HoP and the PMO Specialist for timely decision and action. The PMO Senior Officer strongly contributes to moving the Ethiopia Office toward achieving its business goals and objectives.  

The functions and services of the PMO Senior Officer include:

• Strategic Planning/Portfolio Support: Ensuring UNOPS is focused on doing the right projects by supporting management decision-making.

• Delivery Support: Ensuring UNOPS is doing projects the right way, through the effective delivery of the programme and projects, Best Practices: Applying UNOPS standards in project management, encouraging consistent working practices and ensuring appropriate application.

1.Development and planning

• Provide appropriate levels of project management support to the projects team regarding all ongoing project activities, while maintaining and implementing appropriate standards and best practices in line with UNOPS policies and procedures.
• Support the development of PMO Unit plan and assist in coordinating the development, consolidation and tracking progress of other Units’ plans;
• Support HoP and PMO Specialist with the establishment, monitoring and delivery of business and programme level strategies, plans, targets, indicators and work plans, verifying budgets against forecasts.
• Support and ensure that projects develop a Gender Action Plan; and monitor that the plans are followed through.
• Develop and establish resource tracking systems for use within the PMO, complementary to UNOPS' online tools, to ensure effective planning, forecasting and tracking of delivery across the Ethiopia Office.
• Support project team to identify and anticipate potential risks and issues in a timely manner, and escalate to the HoP and management team as necessary.
• Work closely and support the project team in project setup and closure activities.
• Serve as a focal point and engagement closure manager where assigned to facilitate project closure activities, ensuring appropriate disposal of project assets, timely and effective (operational) reporting, updating of information on the UNOPS ERP systems.

2. Monitoring and reporting

• Support management to ensure regular project and corporate reports are issued in accordance with donor guidelines and corporate standards.
• Facilitate implementation of corporate standards, initiatives and requirements across Ethiopia Office in coordination with the PMO Specialist
• Regularly review project status and monitor progress through output tracking tables.
• Assess projects’s health against key performance indicators(scope, cost, schedule and quality); and escalate issues in a timely manner
• Ensure project documents including plans and progress reports are maintained as required by UNOPS standard procedures.
• Coordinate the effective preparation and organization of office, portfolio and project level quality assurance and project board meetings,
• Coordinate organizational risks and issues management at the business unit level and advise Ethiopia Office management on mitigating and remedial actions. Provide risk and issue management support to programmes and project teams.
• Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery and project closure data, supporting the PMO Specialist in the delivery of quarterly and periodic audit and compliance issues, as well as business unit, operational, and project level issues, risks and lessons learned within the dashboard and other UNOPS systems, as required.
• Within the context of monitoring and evaluation, ensure all projects submit and regularly update specific milestones and targets for the duration of projects' life-cycles, and track progress.
• Provide editorial support to programmes and projects, ensuring effective and timely dissemination of reports, in line with project documentation and clients' expectations.
• Capture challenges, good practices and lessons learned related to areas of gender and social inclusion by reporting and sharing with the relevant stakeholders.
• Assist HSSE country focal person with collection of the data from the site engineers and preparation of HSSE monthly reports; and building capacity of staff on HSSE.
• Monitor and ensure that projects have quality management plans and the plans are properly followed through
• Monitor and review project’s monthly progress reports; and identify cross-cutting issues that requires action and follow up
• Support the automation of processes and data; develop dashboards and facilitate access to real time data on projects’ progress

3. Quality assurance

• Work with internal audit and finance to ensure the programme complies with audit requirements.
• Work with procurement/purchasing staff to ensure effective interface with suppliers' quality systems.
• Support the operations units and personnel to ensure alignment with programme and project needs/requirements.
• Ensure compliance with UNOPS standards for corporate/programme/project management.
• Coordinate quality reviews of programme/project documents, plans and reports.
• Provide quality control for management products (project documents, reports, etc.) as and where required.
• Assist the HoP and PMO Specialist in supporting key stakeholders to continuously identify and improve operational processes relevant to project implementation.
• Ensure that good governance concepts and gender equality principles are incorporated into the activities where applicable in accordance to the project objectives and methodology.
• Assist knowledge management efforts through documentation of best practices, regularly organizing and facilitating lessons learnt and closure workshops
• Implement capacity building activities for project team on identified gaps

Impact of Results 

Education 

• A Master’s Degree in Project Management, Business Administration or related field (e.g. International Relations) is required.

• A combination of a Bachelor's degree with an additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the education requirements outlined above.
  
  

Certification 

• PRINCE2 Practitioner Certification is highly desirable.  MSP certification (Foundation and/or Practitioner) is an advantage.

  
  

Experience

• A minimum of at least 2 years of relevant professional experience, specifically in the field of Project or Programme Management with experience of successful implementation and/or oversight of programmes and projects.

• Strong experience in data analysis, management reporting and project management tools and information management systems is required.

• Previous experience of working within a Project Management Office environment is an advantage.

  
  

Language requirements 

• Full working knowledge of English is essential.

• Fluency in one or more additional official UN languages is an advantage.

  
  

Contract type , level and duration 

• This position is open only for Ethiopian nationals. 

  1. Contract type: Local Individual Contract Agreement _LICA
  2. Contract level: L-ICA9
  3. Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.’
  
  
  For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link:
  https://www.unops.org/english/Opportunities/job-opportunities/what-we-offer/Pages/Individual-Contractor-Agreements.aspx

Additional Consideration

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Open to Ethiopian nationals/locals only.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• 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 (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.