Project Officer (NO-B), FT, SQM, UNICEF Global Shared Services Centre, Budapest, Hungary

Contract

This is a NO-2 contract. This kind of contract is known as National Professional Officers. It is normally only for nationals. It's a staff contract. More about NO-2 contracts.

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, results.

The UNICEF Global Shared Services Centre (GSSC) was created with the purpose of being a center of excellence for the global delivery of efficient services within a culture of customer service, continuous business improvement, knowledge-sharing and innovation to support the effective achievement of UNICEF’s program results worldwide. The UNICEF GSSC currently manages transactions for the organization in four main line of service globally to all staff: HR Administration, Payroll, Finance and Customer Care.

In this context, GSSC often partners with other divisions, in joint projects as part of the continuous process improvement to streamline processes and gain efficiency. Most of these projects are either “end-users facing” to gain efficiency for our customers and/or “back-end” solutions to improve internal processes for our processors and business partners.

To ensure successful implementation of identified projects, a Project Management function is instrumental to the center’s objectives.

How can you make a difference?

The Project Officer will oversee the successful implementation of all major GSSC projects in line with the Office management plan and the wider strategic plan drivers, coordinate with all involved stakeholders (internal or external to GSSC) and keep the Management team at GSSC aware of progress, risks and needed intervention during the life cycle of the projects. The Project Officer supports the GSSC strategic agenda and the continuous business improvement to gain effectiveness and efficiency in existing end-to-end processes.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Project Management

• Streamline the project management process across the GSSC through the establishment of proper project management procedures, roles, tools and systems that are agreed upon by all parties involved.
• Oversee the successful implementation of all major GSSC projects in line with the Strategic plan and Office Management Plan (OMP)
• Coordinate with all stakeholders (internal or external to GSSC) and keep the GSSC Management team aware of progress, risks and needed intervention during the life cycle of the projects.
• Responsible for working with all involved technical, business teams and end-users to finalize projects scope; to gather business requirements; to manage vendor relationship (when needed); and oversee the over-all implementation of projects.
• Create a collaborative environment guiding process owners, end-users and stakeholders to translate business requirements into feasible functional requirements.
• Ensure that implemented projects meet agreed cost, timelines and deliverables as set in each project.
• Ensure all project artifacts are created and maintained for each project e.g.: business case, project plan, status and risk reports, change management plans, communication plans, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), quality checklists, customer deliverable acceptance, benefit realization and lessons learnt.
• Coordinating the development of user manuals, training materials, and other documents as needed to enable successful implementation and turnover of the processes or system to the clients.
• Develop and maintain the knowledge database for project management information and documents across the GSSC, ensuring their integrity and easy retrieval to authorized parties.

Additional functions:

• Undertake the role of Secretary to the GSSC Change/Project Review Board and follow up to ensure that decisions and action points from the board meetings are documented and implemented in a timely manner.
• Analyze and/or review benefits realization for completed projects and, track and report efficiency gains – both financial and non-financial - to the relevant stakeholders, including input to the UN efficiency report.
• Support the preparation of the strategic plan, office management plan and the annual workplans together with the related regular reporting to ensure that all projects are ultimately aligned to GSSC’s vision and strategy.
• Support the change management efforts arising from the implementation of projects within GSSC or at country office level.
• Contribute to the annual report inputs by sharing completed initiatives, priorities, impact and lessons learnt.
• Manage performance of supervisees (if any) including any other human resources roles such as recruitment, leave management, capacity development etc.
• Remain up to date with the changes in project management methodologies, systems, tools and technologies within the industry to foster continuous improvement in the GSSC project management process and capacity development of key players.

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

• A university degree in computer science, information technology management, project management, operations management, business administration or business-related field, human resources, public administration or related social science field is required.
• A minimum of two years of professional experience in project management with a proven track record of interfacing with multiple levels of the organization and successful project completion is required.
• Excellent communication & presentation skills (written & verbal) across multiple audiences with ability to influence others while working in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity is required.
• High motivation, enthusiasm, flexibility and dedication to deliver results within strict timeframes and changing variables.
• Proven experience in project management, change management or programme management is required.
• Certification in project management with excellent understanding of the Project Lifecycle and fluent project manager methodologies (e.g., PMP, PMI Agile or PRINCE2) is an asset.
• Significant experience collaborating across multiple functions and working with operational SMEs or technical resources/ infrastructure and architecture teams is desirable.
• Experience implementing projects in the UN Common system or related international organization is considered an asset.
• High proficiency with Microsoft Office, specifically MS Project, Visio, Excel, and PowerPoint is required.
• Fluency in English (verbal and written) is required.
• Knowledge of Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish is an advantage

National Officer (NO) staff are nationals of the country in which they perform functions of a technical and professional nature. Eligible applicants are nationals of Hungary.

National Officer staff are locally recruited staff and therefore, candidates are personally responsible for any travel and accommodation arrangements. UNICEF does not facilitate MFA accreditation for locally recruited staff.

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…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

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 here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID). 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.

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