Project Manager

Contract

This is a LICA Specialist-10 contract. This kind of contract is known as Local Individual Contractor Agreements. It is normally only for nationals. It's an external contract. It usually requires 5 years of experience, depending on education. More about LICA Specialist-10 contracts.

Background Information - Job-specific

Background Information - Ghana Multi Country Office (GMCO)

UNOPS Ghana Multi Country Office (GMCO), located in Accra, spans across West Africa, covering Ghana, Gambia,Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

GMCO is responsible for managing strategic and operational risks associated with a subset of the regional portfolio of engagements, developing and ​ delivering​ cost effective services contributing to partners’ sustainable results and achievements of UNOPS management results.

The core functions of the Operational Hub are to:

● Liaise and develop engagements, and deliver services responding to partner needs. ● Leverage advice and integrate delivery modalities of the three Delivery Practices and the Global Partner Service Office. ● Maintain appropriate arrangements and capacity for direct transactional support for delivery of the sub-regional portfolio. Background Information – Country Specific

The Nigeria Duty Stations are managed by the Nigeria Country Office based in Abuja, Nigeria.

Nigeria is considered a key player in the West African region, with an estimated population of 200 million and accounts for about 47% of the total population of West Africa. Nigeria is considered a High Priority Country for UNOPS GMCO; being a fragile country with a complex development profile and possessing a high risk of humanitarian emergencies and disasters. Likewise with high donor interest and demand for implementation support, Nigeria is viewed as a country in which UNOPS can add value and scale-up efforts by its partners to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the Government of Nigeria.

The last donor-funded project implemented by UNOPS ended in June 2018. The office was reopened in April 2019 and high-level efforts are ongoing to secure donor funded projects. Our objective for 2021 is to consolidate the implementation of our Strategy 2018-2021 - to become Known, Recognized and a Resource for our development partners on the ground, delivering on our mandate of infrastructure, procurement and project management.

Building on our global experience successfully delivering projects in complex operating environments, a healthy pipeline of engagements are at various stages of discussion with our priority partners including international financial institutions, UN agencies, bilateral and multilateral donors focusing on the North East region. The North-East region of Nigeria (NE) is currently in a complex protracted crisis with considerable humanitarian and developmental needs along with extensive damages to social and physical infrastructure. Likewise, the unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic has further impaired the already fragile health system.

The capacity of the entire country's health system to address the possible impact of the pandemic remains limited. Critical resources such as trained health workers and medical supplies are being diverted to respond to the pandemic, thus leaving other essential services heavily under-resourced and dysfunctional

Background Information – Job Specific The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is looking for an experienced Project Manager to work with our team in our Nigeria Country Office to deliver a project to Strengthen the health system of conflict- affected and hard-to-reach areas of Borno State.

The Project Manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project(s) and provides services to the different donors, partners and beneficiaries. Project Manager acts on behalf of the Project Board to manage the project on an ongoing basis during the Implementation Stage. The main responsibility of a Project Manager is to ensure that the project outputs are delivered within the specified project tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. He/she is expected to meet the organization’s performance and delivery goals. The incumbent is responsible for creating the Implementation Plan, using the Project Initiation Document (PID), Legal Agreement and having a thorough understanding of the terms, conditions, and the respective roles and responsibilities of the partners/stakeholders, to ensure the project(s) outputs are capable of meeting the business cases for both UNOPS and the partner(s). Success of the project(s) and hence of the Project Manager will be based on the defined Success Criteria.

Functional Responsibilities

The Project Manager will be responsible for the following summary of functions:

1. Project Delivery and Performance
2. Procedures
3. Monitoring and reporting
4. Stakeholder engagement
5. Quality assurance
6. Knowledge management and innovation
7. Personnel management

1. Project Delivery and Performance

• Develop, complete and update implementation plan(s)

• Implement the approved plan (including the establishment of milestones) within tolerances set by the Project Board.

• Embed sustainability dimensions including social and gender inclusion, environmental and economic aspects into project life span.
• Manage the production of the required outputs, taking responsibility for overall progress and use of resources and initiating corrective action where necessary.
• Ensure that quality of work packages and deliverables complies with the quality requirements defined in the Implementation Plan.
• Liaise with any external suppliers or account managers
• Manage acceptance and delivery of work packages
• Monitor project progress ensuring that work packages are being executed properly
• Control project and work packages changes
• Accept goods, services or works delivered by suppliers.
• Lead contract management duties including supplier performance evaluation.
• Act as the Employer’s Representative within the FIDIC works contracts.
• Identify, and anticipate in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advises mitigating measures to senior management/ Project Board so that maximum benefit to partner(s) and other stakeholders is achieved

• Identify and report to the supervisor potential business opportunities for UNOPS

  2. Procedures

• Comply with all organizational policy and specifically the Project Management Manual

• Prepare/adapt all relevant plans for approval by the Project Board.
• Manage the reporting obligations defined in the Legal Agreement(s) and in the Implementation Plan
• Draft the requirements definitions for procurement processes. Approving requisitions and requests for non-purchase order payments; Evaluating submissions received, if appointed to the evaluation team.
• Ensure maintenance of the project files and lessons learned are recorded
• Ensure the development and implementation of project financial management guidelines and control mechanisms, in conformity with UNOPS rules and regulations.
• Manage budgets, cash flow and obligations to ensure that deliverables are met and payments to contractors and personnel are received on time.
• Understand and manage UNOPS overheads, allocable charges, and related corporate charges as they apply to the project
• Understand the unique structures of the UN and budget appropriately for personnel
• Manage expenditures against the budget (based on accurate financial reports)
• Where the Project Manager has no delegation as a committing officer, s/he retains these responsibilities and will monitor and instruct/request others to carry out the relevant commitments and disbursements.
• For project closure purposes, provide a formal handover of the project to the closure manager

• Support project audit activities, including planning, preparation and coordination during the audits and follow up on audit observations/recommendations

  3. Monitoring and Reporting

• Prepare and issue regular project and/or financial reports in accordance with Partner and UNOPS requirements for reporting.

• Regularly review project status, evaluating performance criteria (scope, cost, schedule and quality).
• Maintain diaries and progress reports as required by the organization’s standard procedures.
• Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery data within the dashboard system.

• Ensure all project team members track and regularly update milestones and targets for the duration of projects' life span

  4. Stakeholder Engagement

• Develop stakeholder profiles and facilitate the formulation of stakeholder engagement strategies

• Establish solid working relationships with the Project Board (Executive, Senior Users and Senior Suppliers), client and key stakeholders
• Enable the formulation of project communications plans. Coordinate internal project communications. Monitor the effectiveness of project communications

• Coordinate stakeholder engagement and communication, ensuring effective timing and interdependency management of communications. Ensure stakeholders are aware of project activities, progress, exceptions and are in a position to accept handover outputs

  5. Quality Assurance

• Work with internal stakeholders to ensure projects comply with audit requirements

• Work with procurement/purchasing staff to ensure effective interface with suppliers' quality systems
• Coordinate quality reviews of project documents and deliverables

• Provide quality control for management outputs (project documents, reports, etc.)

  6. Knowledge Management and Innovation

• Encourage routine and effective capacity building activities are conducted in order to build the long-term and sustainable capacity of staff.

• Actively interact with other Project Managers and the wider PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices
• Contribute to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely and appropriate manner. Participate in the relevant Communities of Practice
• Research and logging of lessons learned throughout the project life span.

• Provide feedback to Practice Groups on policy, supporting guidance with an aim towards continuous improvement of UNOPS policies

  7. Personnel Management

• Lead and motivate the project management team

• Ensure that behavioural expectations of team members are established
• Ensure that performance reviews are conducted fairly, accurately and timely
• Select, recruit and train the team as required and take into account gender parity and diversity objectives.
• Ensure safety and security for all project personnel and comply with UNDSS standards
• Create, foster and role model a culture of respect and zero tolerance for discrimination, abuse of authority, harrasement, sexual harrasement and sexual exploitation and abuse. Ensure accountability for actions and perform duties in accordance with protection mechanisms and action plans, as expected by UNOPS policies, standards and commitments.

Impact Of Results Project Manager directly impacts on achievement of project results by adhering to project management methods and strategies, reducing risks, cutting costs and improving success rates. This consequently reinforces the visibility and image of 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.

Education/Experience/Language requirements

A. Education

• Advanced University Degree (Masters Degree) in Project Management, Engineering, Law, Business Administration, International Relations, Political/Security/Development Studies, or other relevant discipline

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

B. Work Experience

• A minimum of 5 years progressive demonstrated experience in a Project Management role in the delivery of development projects is required;

• Demonstrated experience managing multidisciplinary teams is required;

• Demonstrated experience with infrastructure projects is required;

• Past experience with procurement of goods/services/ works is a distinct advantage;

• Previous experience working in Northeast Nigeria will be considered an advantage;

• Past experience in health sector projects is an asset;

• Knowledge of the UN system and familiarity with UNOPS procedures is an advantage;

• Demonstrated experience working with Government MDAs on donor funded projects is an asset

C. Language Requirement

● Full working knowledge of English is required

● Knowledge of another official UNOPS language is an asset

D. Certification

• Prince 2 Foundation or equivalent is an advantage
• Prince 2 Practitioner or equivalent is an advantage

Contract type, level and duration

• Contract type: Local Individual Contract Agreement (LICA)
• Contract level: LICA 10/ ICS 10
• 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 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
• Maiduguri is a Non-Family duty station
• 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.

Background Information - UNOPS

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 4,000 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.

Background information - AFR

Africa Region

Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Africa Region supports UNOPS country offices in the region, providing financial oversight of projects, procuring goods and services and managing human resources. AFR helps ensure that projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between projects across the entire region.

Additional information