Innovation Manager (WASH), P-4, WASH Hub, Office Of Innovation, Copenhagen, Denmark #121777 (REQ#555343)

Contract

This is a P-4 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 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 163,655 USD and 210,999 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.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, innovation...

The Office of Global Innovation (OoI) works to catalyze UNICEF's and all its partners’ expertise and resources against key children-outcomes bottlenecks, with a view to continuously ideate and scale the most effective solutions with transformational potential at scale to achieve the child-related SDGs.

The office is doing this by continuously exploring new ways of accelerating results for children, investing across a range of early stage solutions, and harnessing internal and external expertise towards continuously iterating and fine-tuning the most promising solutions for children through a systematic portfolio management approach, and leveraging all stakeholders’ innovation energy, know-how and resources from intergovernmental, multilateral, private sector and non-governmental fora (think tank, academia).

The Office of Global Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

How can you make a difference?

The Innovation Manager will work under the supervision of the P5 Chief of the Sustainable WASH Innovation Hub. The incumbent will work closely in partnership with the Portfolio Culture and Scale Team at the Office of Innovation. The Innovation Manager will be responsible for injecting creativity and drive into the day-to-day management of the UNICEF climate resilient Global WASH Innovation Portfolio and in building a sustainable pipeline of climate resilient WASH innovations to accelerate results for children and young people in line with the UNICEF’s strategic plan and WASH global sector strategies. This new position will evolve, requiring adaptability, flexibility, and the ability to creatively respond to rapidly changing innovation landscapes.

Key functions, accountabilities, and related duties/tasks:

1. Under the supervision of the Chief of the Hub, work in close partnership with relevant thematic team in Programme Group, relevant WASH technical specialists in the Hub, and any other identified OOI focal points to:

• Commission and/or maintain a current understanding of the external landscape within which the portfolio and their innovation solutions are situated, ensuring UNICEF is positioned to add unique value to the global ecosystem, best utilizing its strengths, resources and networks and avoiding duplication
• Actively manage and evolve the problem statements that focus solving and scaling within the portfolio
• Manage the Stage Gate process for intake, review and exit of projects from the portfolio
• Collaborate, consult, and have smooth flow of information sharing with key part of the organization on an ongoing basis to support alignment of innovation and results for children

2. In line with the parameters agreed by the Innovation Portfolio Steering Committee (IPSC), actively manage the climate resilient WASH innovation portfolio, focusing time and resource on the innovation projects with greatest transformative potential. Key activities to achieve this include:

• Develop and implement appropriate sourcing and partnership tactics for the portfolio, taking into account factors such as the degree of effectiveness for solving for each specific problem statement.
• Manage the intake of innovative solutions for the portfolio in line with agreed global governance processes.
• Devise strategies to build a sustainable pipeline of portfolio solutions (both internal and external)
• Provide, broker and source support for projects within the portfolios, enabling them to accelerate new approaches to solving.
• Develop internal processes, as needed, to simplify the flow of intake of internal innovation projects from the within UNICEF
• Commission and/or develop opportune scaling deployment model to portfolio solutions with evidence of impact to scale across multiple geographies

3. Identify solutions and opportunities for the Partnerships team to explore for resource mobilization

• On a recurring basis, identify portfolio solutions with the highest potential for scale and produce concise solutions briefings for the OoI Partnerships team to explore resource mobilization and partnership opportunities
• Scope out potential partnership opportunities for the overall portfolio or for specific portfolio solutions to be explored and pursued by the OoI Partnerships team

4. Identify portfolio solutions and opportunities for the Communications team to enable them to select content, plan for, communicate and regularly showcase the portfolios and their projects across a range of opportunities to raise profile, positioning and engagement and support for these and the Office of Innovation, through opportunities such as stories, media, social media, events, briefings etc.

5. Actively liaise with the P4 Performance & Evidence Manager to scope and support evidence generation and learning opportunities for the portfolio.

6. Under the guidance of the P4 Performance & Evidence Manager and in timely responses to requests from the OOI P2 Planning Officer, undertake performance management, monitoring, and reporting functions for the innovation portfolio.

7. In collaboration with the P3 Innovation Specialist (Knowledge Management and Capacity Building), support innovators in climate resilient WASH across UNICEF by:

• Ensuring INVENT and SharePoint content is up to date in relation to the portfolios
• Capture and distill learning and share these widely through mechanisms such as recorded webinars, documentation, videos and other assets, developmental reflections etc.
• Connect and engage the external and internal parts of the ecosystem through bringing external experiences into UNICEF as well as showcasing internal best practice.
• Facilitating south-south and triangular sharing of best practices

8. Commission and manage external contractors to undertake technical studies in respect to deploying and scaling climate resilient WASH innovation solutions.

9. Management of Hub’s technical staff who will be supporting the testing, deployment and scale-up of portfolio solutions.

10. Provide management support to Chief of the Hub in respect to managing grants in support of portfolio solutions.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the following fields is required: Environmental Science, Sustainability or related fields, Innovation-related field, International Relations, Water & Sanitation or another relevant field.
• A first degree plus an additional 2 years’ experience, may be accepted in lieu of a master’s degree.
• A minimum of eight (8) years of relevant professional experience is required at national and international levels in the areas of innovation, sustainability, water & sanitation, climate change, development and cooperation.
• Understanding of climate resilient WASH / CEED innovations and programming within the UNICEF context.
• Demonstrated experience in innovation practice, spanning start-up to scaling innovations in relevant sector(s).
• Demonstrated knowledge in UNICEF’s processes and procedures is considered an asset.
• Demonstrate experience in developing scaling deployment models for innovative solutions.
• Experience of working in a UNICEF programme country is considered an asset.
• Experience of designing and managing innovation portfolios is desirable.
• Experience in managing innovation challenges and other portfolio sourcing techniques is desirable.
• Experience in developing and authoring communication materials for internal and external publication is desirable.
• Experience in managing grants as well as commissioning and managing contractors is desirable
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability (CRITA) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

Core Competencies:

• Nurtures, leads and manages people (2)
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (2)
• Works collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and maintains partnership (2)
• Innovates and embraces change (2)
• Thinks and acts strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve results for impact (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.