Director, Ethics Office

Contract

This is a D-1 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 15 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 231,544 USD and 292,185 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

Background Information - Job-specific

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 5,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

Role of the Ethics Office

UNOPS is committed to fostering an organizational culture of ethics and a harmonious and inclusive work environment, anchored in the values of integrity, accountability, transparency, respect and professionalism. The Ethics Office is integral to this effort, and it has an overall mandate to act as an independent organ pursuant to SGB (2007/11).

The role of the Ethics Office is to strengthen and nurture a culture of ethics, integrity and accountability, and thereby enhance the trust in, and the credibility of, the organization, both internally and externally.. Ethics at UNOPS is fundamental to us achieving our mission. It isn't just what we do that matters but how we do it. As part of the United Nations, we have a responsibility to adhere to the highest ethical standards in our work.

The Ethics Office serves all personnel in UNOPS, wherever they are in the world. The Office provides a secure, confidential environment where personnel can consult on ethical issues and seek protection against retaliation for reporting misconduct.

Other core areas for the Office include developing standards and consistently applying these in line with other members of the Ethics Panel of the United Nations, leading training and education on ethics issues, and conducting ethics outreach; safeguarding personnel by providing protection against retaliation, and administering the Organization’s Financial Disclosure Programme.

Role of the Director, Ethics Office

As an independent and influential leader in UNOPS, the Director, Ethics Office reports to the Executive Director, with functional guidance from the Chairperson of the Ethics Panel of the United Nations (EPUN).

The purpose of the role is to cultivate and nurture a culture of ethics, integrity and accountability, and thereby enhance the trust in, and the credibility of UNOPS, both internally and externally. The role serves as a key internally independent adviser to UNOPS senior management, with respect to conflicts of interest and other ethical implications of the organization’s major decisions, strategies and transactions.

In coordination with UNOPS internal stakeholders as well as the UN Ethics Panel, the role is responsible for systemizing ethics practices, ensuring that the UNOPS rules, policies, procedures and practices reinforce and promote the standards of integrity called for under the Charter of the United Nations.

The Director, Ethics Office works independently when it comes to the ethics activities and may consult with the Ethics Panel of the UN on technical ethics issues

N.B.: The Director of the Ethics Office’s tenure will be for a four-year term, renewable once. Given the unique role of the Director of the Ethics Office, the selected candidate will be ineligible to apply for future posts within UNOPS.

Functional Responsibilities

Summary of functions:

1. Ethics Office Leadership and operational management
2. Strategic advisory
3. Promoting ethics culture
4. Representation and networking
5. Knowledge management and innovation

Ethics Office Leadership and operational management - In collaboration with the team, establish annual objectives and targets, performance measurements, standards and results expected. - Recommend and/or determine priorities and supervise the implementation of work plans to manage the strategic and operational risks. - Monitor implementation, oversee progress toward annual objectives and take decisions to ensure the delivery of results as planned. - Operate within the defined limits of authority on matters of Finance, Procurement and Human Resources and subject to any limits or conditions that may be imposed as per delegated authority. - Plan, recruit, manage and develop a flexible workforce with the skills and competencies needed to ensure optimum performance, and ensure gender and geographical diversity. - Foster a positive work environment, respectful of both men and women, and ensure that the highest standards of conduct are observed.

Strategic advisory - Act as an independent strategic advisor to the Executive Office on ethics related matters for UNOPS. - Ensure the Executive Director and senior leadership are kept informed of risks, issues, trends, and changes which are relevant to ethics, preventing institutional conflicts of interest and mitigating reputational risks. - Providing independent, impartial and confidential ethics advice to individuals and management. - Provide an independent annual report to the Executive Board (Ethics) after review by the Ethics Panel of the UN. - Contribute to the formulation of UNOPS overall strategies and policies, as appropriate, through independent advisory services and participation in an observer capacity in senior management consultation on current and future business operations and strategy development and planning.

Promoting ethics culture - Promote ethical standards for UNOPS in accordance with the integrity called for under the Charter of the United Nations, the Standards of conduct for the international civil service as well as UNOPS-specific values. - Encourage highest standards of conduct across the Organization and with external partners (including clients, vendors and other external entities) through the provision of independent advice, leadership , ensuring the correct interpretation of ethics strategies, programs and policies. - Proactively and independently engage with policy holders, to achieve clarity around ethics and integrity standards, and to identify and manage functional and institutional conflicts of interest in the UNOPS policies and governance. - Advise UNOPS personnel on the ethical standards of the Organization, providing guidance on ethics-related issues, personal conflicts of interest and any relevant matters. - Ensure there are appropriate mechanisms for a coherent application of the ethics standards, driving the culture of integrity, accountability, transparency, respect and professionalism. - Evaluate highly sensitive/complex ethics matters, acting as an independent and impartial adviser. - Development of effective/state of the art ethics training and personnel awareness initiatives on standards of conduct and other ethics topics in coordination with the relevant administered organizational functions (e.g. Legal, Internal Audit, HR, Regions) as well as the Ethics Panel of the UN, to ensure an appropriate alignment with UN-wide standards. - Ensure there are appropriate mechanisms in place for undertaking the responsibilities assigned to the Ethics Office in accordance with the policy for the protection of staff against retaliation for reporting misconduct and cooperating with duly authorized audits and investigations, providing confidential advice on ethical issues to all personnel, as well as administering the financial disclosure programme. - Provide an independent annual report to the Executive Board, appropriately availing of the impartial advice of the Audit Advisory Committee and consulting with the Staff Council on pertinent matters. - Ensure a proper and timely interpretation of changes to the legislation affecting the UNOPS operations.

Representation and networking - Represent UNOPS externally on matters relating to ethics management. - Establish effective relationships at leadership levels with external organizations and other UN agencies, through the Ethics Panel of the UN and the Ethics Network of Multilateral Organizations, to enable an effective exchange of best practice and lessons learnt.

Knowledge management and innovation - Contribute to the implementation of programs and activities that are part of UNOPS knowledge management strategy. - Ensure appropriate tools and evaluation mechanisms are in place to provide regular feedback on the existing ethics practices, to ensure their continual relevance to day-to-day operations, also in the light of external benchmarking and recent thought leadership in the subject. - Drive development and implementation of best practice and innovative ethics management approaches.

Impact of Results

• The effective and successful achievement of results by the Director Ethics Office directly impacts on the perceptions of UNOPS, by enhancing the trust in and building the overall credibility of UNOPS, both internally and externally. It also has a direct impact on the UNOPS ability to accurately identify and address ethical risks and issues in real time.

Competencies

Develops and implements sustainable business strategies, thinks long term and externally in order to positively shape the organization. Anticipates and perceives the impact and implications of future decisions and activities on other parts of the organization. Treats all individuals with respect; responds sensitively to differences and encourages others to do the same. Upholds organizational and ethical norms. Maintains high standards of trustworthiness. Role model for diversity and inclusion.

Acts as a positive role model contributing to the team spirit. Collaborates and supports the development of others. For people managers only: Acts as positive leadership role model, motivates, directs and inspires others to succeed, utilizing appropriate leadership styles. Demonstrates understanding of the impact of own role on all partners and always puts the end beneficiary first. Builds and maintains strong external relationships and is a competent partner for others (if relevant to the role). Efficiently establishes an appropriate course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a goal. Actions lead to total task accomplishment through concern for quality in all areas. Sees opportunities and takes the initiative to act on them. Understands that responsible use of resources maximizes our impact on our beneficiaries. Open to change and flexible in a fast paced environment. Effectively adapts own approach to suit changing circumstances or requirements. Reflects on experiences and modifies own behavior. Performance is consistent, even under pressure. Always pursues continuous improvements. Evaluates data and courses of action to reach logical, pragmatic decisions. Takes an unbiased, rational approach with calculated risks. Applies innovation and creativity to problem-solving. Expresses ideas or facts in a clear, concise and open manner. Communication indicates a consideration for the feelings and needs of others. Actively listens and proactively shares knowledge. Handles conflict effectively, by overcoming differences of opinion and finding common ground.

Education/Experience/Language requirements

Education

• A Master’s degree in a relevant field such as Business Administration, Public Administration, law, or similar area.
• 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.

Experience

• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible leadership experience in ethics management in an international organization.
• Experience in providing conflicts-of-interest advice to employees and senior leadership and provision of independent guidance in respect to the ethical implications of the organizations’ major decisions.
• Experience in ethics strategy/framework development to promote an ethics culture across a diverse workforce, including financial disclosure administration or whistleblower protection and/or ethics training.
• At least 5 years of leadership experience including demonstrated experience of supervising teams is required.

Language Requirements

• Fluency in English
• Proficiency in another UN official language, in particular French or Spanish would be an asset.

Additional Considerations

• 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.
• 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.