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 - 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 - Pakistan

UNOPS Pakistan (Project Office) is part of the Bangladesh Multi Country Office in the Asia Region. UNOPS commenced operations in Pakistan in 1999 and significantly up-scaled activities from 2005 onwards to support populations affected by and vulnerable to earthquakes. In 2010, UNOPS opened a permanent office in Islamabad to support the Government of Pakistan and other partners to undertake humanitarian and reconstruction services, following the most devastating flood in the nation’s history.

UNOPS Pakistan has been implementing projects in the areas of early recovery and reconstruction of community infrastructure, project management, monitoring and evaluation, community development, fund management, human resources management, procurement and infrastructure design and implementation.

Supported strategically by a regional operational hub and UNOPS headquarters in Copenhagen and within the overarching framework of the ONE UN Programme, UNOPS Pakistan continues to deliver projects across the country under its core delivery practices of sustainable infrastructure, sustainable procurement, and sustainable project management.

With a steady growth of the project portfolio in recent years and a new strategic direction, UNOPS Pakistan is looking to strengthen the relationships with existing partners as well as build new alliances and diversify the portfolio of work, in line with UNOPS strategic and Asia regional objectives.

Background Information - Job-specific

The position is for an upcoming donor funded project which is likely to start in Early Aug 2021 in 2 Provinces of Pakistan.

The project will contribute to addressing the lack of clean water in communities in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces through the upgrading of water-quality testing laboratories, the procurement and installation of laboratory equipment, and the rollout of a Management Information System (MIS) to strengthen coordination and water quality data management.

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Pakistan Country Manager, the Project Manager (PM) will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project(s) and provide services to the different donors, partners and beneficiaries. The PM acts on behalf of the Project Board to manage the project on an ongoing basis during the Implementation Stage. The main responsibility of a PM is to ensure that the project outputs are delivered within the specified project tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. S/he is expected to meet the organization’s performance and delivery goals.

The PM has the authority to assign, as per the Project Plan, work packages to Team Managers and approve deliverables produced by them. The PM 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 PM will be based on the defined Success Criteria.

The PM will be based in Islamabad, Pakistan and will conduct regular field visits.

Functional Responsibilities

The specific tasks might include but will not be limited to:

1. Project Delivery and Performance - Ensure the preparation and delivery of all the project’s elements and activities mentioned in the project document/ legal agreement. - Ensure timely planning and implementation of the project’s activities, ensuring that the project’s goals and objectives are accomplished within the prescribed scope of work, timeframe (schedule) and the agreed funding parameters (budget). - Study and/ or prepare the scope of works, budgets, terms of reference, contracts and all technical requirements of the engineering design and rehabilitation/ renovation phases; - Prepare and analyse all project documents, and ensure compliance with specifications in accordance with relevant codes and national standards as well as good engineering practices. - Review project designs (building architecture, structural, external works and electro-mechanical works) in terms of accuracy, suitability to overall design requirements, including identifying improvements in the designs and being able to propose practical solutions and alternatives. Also, the PM is responsible to submit the final designs to the Design Review team at UNOPS HQ and obtain the Design Review Certificate. - Review, guide and approve plans/drawings presented by consultant/ contractor during implementation phases (design and rehabilitation/ renovation), and present a methodology to control the scope and reflect the impact of any changes on the project objectives. - Follow up with the design engineering consultants’ and rehabilitation contractors’ obligations on site including inspections, testing, quantity surveying, etc. - Review and approve monthly progress reports submitted by consultant/ contractor to also include detail the work accomplished, materials used, and total hours/days worked per the beneficiary. - Develop, complete and update implementation plan(s) on a monthly/ quarterly basis, as applicable. - Implement and control 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 and oversee 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. - Ensure Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) measures are implemented within the project, and as per the country PSEA action plan, and that project stakeholders are aware of the UNOPS PSEA policy and how to report concerns. - Liaise with any external suppliers/contractors/partners as well as with all internal units of UNOPS Hub for timely planning and execution of project activities. - 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/contractors. - Lead contract management duties including supplier performance evaluation. - Identify, and anticipate in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advise mitigating measures to the 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. - 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 gender aspects are mainstreamed throughout the project life cycle. This includes, but is not limited to, preparation, implementing, monitoring and reporting on actions related to the project gender action plan (GAP) as needed as well as updating the GAP as required. - Maintain proper maintenance of equipment, compliance with all codes and adherence to Health, Safety, Security, and Environmental (HSSE) regulations as per UNOPS requirements. - 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), donor and key stakeholders including the beneficiaries and other project partners, but not only limited to the Ministry of Climate Change, and all other relevant ministries and stakeholders. - Advise the Project Board (which will consist of UNOPS, Donor, local authorities, and other relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries who can be invited as observers) on issues that may impact the achievement of outcomes and deliverables including issues of sustainability and post project requirements such as maintenance. - 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. - Represent UNOPS at the relevant coordination and working group meetings to ensure the coordination of project activities on a national level with all relevant partners.

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. - Participate in the relevant UNOPS Currents. - 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 team. - Ensure that behavioral 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 The 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.

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.(for levels IICA-2, IICA-3, LICA Specialist- 10, LICA Specialist-11, NOC, NOD, P3, P4 and above) 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 is required, preferably in Water and Sanitation Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Hydrology, Water Management, or equivalent. - A Master in Project Management or other relevant Master’s Degrees (e.g. in other Engineering fields) may be considered as well if combined with relevant experience in WASH. - A Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field such as Water and Sanitation Engineering, Civil Engineering, or equivalent with an additional two (2) years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree

Certification: - International Project Manager Association (IPMA Level B) or Project Management Professional (PMP - PMI) or PRINCE2 Foundation is desired.

Experience: - Minimum of 5 years (or more depending on academic credentials) of progressive experience in Programme/ Project Management, with at least 3 years of experience as a Project Manager of WASH related projects is required; - Previous experience in handling procurement activities is desired; - Demonstrated competence in all aspects of project planning, monitoring, implementation, and management, including application of all aspects of results-based management/project cycle management; - Proven capacity to interact with a variety of stakeholders, including non-governmental partners, UN agencies and international donors is desirable; - Previous experience with international organization/s and/or UN is desired; - High proficiency with software/ platforms related to the position's field of expertise. Good experience in working with the G-Suite platform including, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides is desired.

Language Requirements: - Full working knowledge of English is essential; - Fluency in Urdu is required; - Fluency in one or more additional local languages is an advantage.

Contract type, level and duration

• Contract type: Individual Contractor Agreement (ICA)

• Contract level: Local ICA Specialist (LICA 10

• Contract duration: 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
• 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.