Project Management Officer

The QNS Department sits within the Science Division. The overall mission of the Science Division is to harness the power of science and innovation in a systematic way, by ensuring the excellence, relevance, and efficiency of WHO’s core technical functions, including norms and standards, and research. Within this Division, the specific purpose of QNS is to provide support to the Technical Departments in close consultation with Regional Offices, by ensuring norms and standards are produced to a consistently high standard, in a timely way, driven by what Member States need, and designed and delivered to have a real impact on the health of people. Its mandate is structured around these key roles: Ensure that all N&S products meet WHO highest quality standards by providing tailored, state of the art methodological support and guidance. Support project teams developing N&S products by ensuring the utmost efficiency of the N&S process. Secure maximum country impact by helping to develop fit for purpose N&S products advance and ensure timely, peer-reviewed, and accessible scientific evidence and information, through the WHO Library and Digital Information Outreach, and the WHO Press QNS is made up of 6 teams: Methods Quality, Process Efficiency, Product Impact, the Library and Digital Information Services, the Office of the WHO Publisher, and a Governance and Review Services team. Within QNS, the Process Efficiency team is more specifically dedicated to: Together with the Director, assessing, prioritizing, and managing the overall caseload of N&S projects within available human and financial resources. Coordinating access to key resources involved in the production of N&S, including Methodologists, Product Impact experts, corporate functions, or external specialists grouped in rosters (e.g. methodologists, editors, translators, etc.) Following up on ambitious efficiency KPIs to secure commitment to delivering results on the Department’s mandate Continuously monitoring the overall development status of each N&S product, identifying potential bottlenecks, completing root causes analysis and providing actionable solutions to reduce them providing corporate functions with increased visibility on requests in order to anticipate workload.

Duties: 

Under the overall responsibility of the Unit Head, Process Efficiency (PEF):

• Provide Responsible Technical Officers and Teams with project management and relevant, tailored, end-to-end support to ensure that all WHO products meet defined quality standards and are compliant with requirements for product development and publication.
• Develop technical and information resources, including training resources, and respond swiftly to ad hoc requests for information or support.
• Contribute to the assessment, prioritization, and management of the overall caseload.
• Manage and provide project management support for a defined portfolio of WHO products / publications under development by Responsible Technical Staff across all three levels of WHO (Headquarters, Regional Offices, and Country Offices) ensuring that the Responsible Technical Officer / Team receives relevant, fit for purpose, end-to-end support at each step of the development of their products.
• Collaborate with other experts within the department and division for continuous improvement in the service model and to manage access by Responsible Technical Officers and Teams to available technical resources.
• Contribute to connecting to other critical workflows in WHO, such as prequalification, R&D, and communication to accelerate product planning and development.
• Contribute to the maintenance of the unit and department Standard Operating Procedures and Service Level Agreements to ensure currency and efficient operations while minimizing response time, risks, and delays.
• Contribute to the monitoring of efficiency KPIs.
• Analyze existing processes, workflows, and SOPs to identify common inefficiencies or sources of delay in the product development process and lead or participate in the design, development, and implementation of solutions to address them, including systems / platform solutions, when necessary.
• Collaborate with other PEF colleagues to contribute to the overall work of the unit.
• Other relevant duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications:

Education:

Essential:

• A first level university degree in project management, public health, health science, management, project evaluation and design, IT platform development, or another field relevant to the position.
• Project management course or training.

Experience:

Essential:

• At least 5 years of recent professional experience in programme/project planning, management, and successful delivery of complex or interdependent projects.
• Proven experience in writing business plans, investment cases, work plans, project plans, or business requirements documents. Client-facing, service-oriented experience.
• Experience at the international level.

Skills:

• Proven skills in the areas of business process and project management, planning, and risk management with careful attention to detail to continuously monitor progress, actions, and initiatives.
• Strong problem-solving ability including conceptualization of creative solutions.
• Service-focused mind-set with the ability to manage client expectations and respond rapidly to support requests.
• Strong communication (written and oral), management, and customer service/support skills.
• Expertise in the use of collaborative software including Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
• Familiarity with the use of PowerAutomate to develop flows is an advantage.
• Knowledge of WHO’s policies and programmes is an advantage.
• Knowledge of project management software is an advantage.

Source:   https://careers.who.int/careersection/ex/jobdetail.ftl?job=2401368