Programme Specialist (Portfolio Strategist, Innovation Fund), P3, TA, office of Innovation, Stockholm, Sweden (2 posts, )

Contract

This is a P-3 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 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 74,649 USD and 97,747 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, hope

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

The UNICEF Innovation Fund has been specifically designed to finance early stage, open-source technology that can benefit children. The core motivation of the Innovation Fund is to identify "clusters" or portfolios of initiatives around emerging technology - so that UNICEF can both shape markets and also learn about and guide these technologies to benefit children. We invest in solutions that can impact the lives of the most vulnerable children. We find these solutions clustered around $100 billion industries in frontier technology spaces, such as: UAVs, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, nano-satellites, and human dynamics. With $35M (+ 2267 ETH + 8 BTC) raised to date, the Innovation Fund is scaling its investment portfolio with the aim of investing in 20 start-ups every year, and provides funding to CO-led projects. The current portfolio of companies consists of several cohorts developing and piloting solutions in virtual and augmented reality, data science and artificial intelligence, blockchain, UAVs, IoT, and in assistive technology.

How can you make a difference?

1. Developing and executing the overall portfolio management strategy, including necessary systems, partnerships, and technical assistance, for companies receiving bridge and acceleration funding

• Assessment of current portfolio management system and recommendations for adaptation
• Providing inputs for partnership approach covering needs for technical assistance, follow-on investment and management of companies
• Mapping out needs assessment and engagement process for bridge and growth funding

2. Maintaining portfolio management systems and processes, including tracking of milestones and companies’ performance through metrics, and applying data to guide portfolio management strategy

• Managing system for regular monitoring of companies in line with contractual requirements
• Identifying additional metrics required to effectively monitor companies
• Monitoring and collecting metrics for performance monitoring (business and product development) and ROI for specific cohorts, and applying insights from metrics data to guide portfolio management strategy
• Supporting development of regular external communication products (as per plan with each portfolio company)

3. Based on a robust needs assessment process, developing a technical assistance strategies for each portfolio company (including through external partnerships, a network of mentors, engagement of technical leads) in seed and growth portfolios

• Developing needs assessment
• Coordinating and managing individual mentors
• Coordinating the engagement of Ventures’ tech leads, DPG Alliance and advisers with portfolio companies
• Identifying new partnership engagement opportunities and asks

4. Identifying and managing growth strategies for portfolio companies

• Developing a system for linking companies to follow-on investment including documentation, regular communication and sharing of results
• Coordinating with team to identify opportunities for portfolio company growth across UNICEF country office and programmatic divisions
• Engaging in partnership and collaboration discussions with relevant stakeholders
• Keeping the mapping of potential partnerships and follow-on investments up to date

5. Advising on sourcing and selection of companies, and leading on selection and contractual process of companies receiving bridge and acceleration funding

• Advise on sourcing strategies for specific calls for proposals, develop terms of reference
• Update list of relevant stakeholders
• Provide inputs to assessment criteria and process
• Liaise with operations, UNICEF supply division and the startup companies to coordinate necessary inputs to contracting processes, including TORs, NFRs, RFPs, etc.
• Identify opportunities and facilitate collaborations with prospective portfolio companies and other local stakeholders

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in finance, entrepreneurship, business administration or relevant field *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in relevant field. Seven years of experience in lieu of an advanced degree.
• Demonstrated management-level experience in managing portfolios of investments ideally in venture capital, at seed and early growth stages, and in UNICEF programme regions required.
• Demonstrated experience in developing partnerships and entrepreneurial strategies.
• Demonstrated knowledge of specific challenges faced by seed stage companies and approaches to address them.
• Experience in coordinating and monitoring complex projects, product development, business growth and ROI metrics required- specifically for solutions leveraging frontier tech and open source licensing desired.
• Experience in coordinating teams to reach ambitious goals.
• Understanding of open source and frontier technologies, and their applications to UNICEF strategic priorities required.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills required, including external representation and presentations, facilitation of networks of communities.
• Experience of managing networks and portfolios of consultants and technical advisors to deliver against agree objective required.
• Ability to synthesize technical information and translate it into accessible products and systems.
• A strong understanding of UNICEF programmes, goals and principles, and experience in a UNICEF programme country desired.
• 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 values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are

• Builds and maintains partnerships (2)
• Drive to achieve results for impact (2)
• Thinks and acts strategically (3)

To view our competency framework, please visit 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.

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:

This position is not considered an elevated risk role. However, UNICEF reserves the right to conduct further vetting/assessment within the scope of child safeguarding as appropriate.

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/

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

The VA is open to all (internal and external) candidates.