Senior Project Manager

UNOPS in DRC and Burundi  will provide services from its main office in the capitals (and presently mainly from the Hub office in Kinshasa) and will be opening offices located in several regions of the country, based on project needs. The organization responds to the needs of the Governments through funding from bilateral donors such as embassies, international financial institutions such as the World Bank and African Development Bank and United Nations agencies such as UNESCO, FIDA, and UNDP. UNOPS provides procurement, contract management, Infrastructure, and human resources services and aims to expand into project management, basic service provisions and other related services, specifically in economic and social infrastructure (construction and rehabilitation) and financial management in sectors such as WASH, Agriculture, Health, Environment & Climate Change Mitigation. 

Under the direct supervision of the CDMCO Director, seconded by the Head of Programme, the Senior Project Manager is responsible to read all project initiation documents (PID), Legal and Financial Agreements and have a thorough understanding of the terms, conditions, and the respective roles and responsibilities of the partners/stakeholders to ensure the projects products are capable of meeting the business cases for both UNOPS and the client. Success of the project(s) and hence of the Senior Programme Manager will be based on the Success Criteria of UNOPS engagements which are linked to the below responsibilities.

The Senior Project Manager will be managing project(s) which ultimate goal is to provide advisory services that contribute to the achievement of partners’ goals. The variety of projects is quite diverse and can range from management of grants, development of strategies to delivery of training or providing technical assistance. 

While the complexity of those may vary, maintaining high standards in terms of quality, health, safety and sustainability is always expected. 

The Senior Project Manager oversees the programme/project portfolio of the country of DRC and Burundi and is expected to manage one or more highly complex or risky multidisciplinary project(s) delivering against an aggressive timeline. Project(s) of this caliber are highly strategic and visible for UNOPS. The Senior Project Manager is responsible for all aspects of the project life cycle which he/she manages. S/he must be able to apply, at a mastery level, the below duties and responsibilities of the programme and projects’ success criteria.

Functional Responsibilities

• Under the direct supervision of the CDMCO Director, seconded by the Head of Programme, the Senior Project Manager is responsible for:

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
• 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

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
• 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 senior 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

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

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

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.)

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

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 team as required and taking into account gender parity and diversity objectives.
• Ensure safety and security for all project personnel and comply with UNDSS standards

Education/Experience/Language requirements

EDUCATION

• An Advanced University degree (Master’s Degree or equivalent) preferably in Project Management, Business Administration, Civil Engineering and/or Architecture, International Development or other relevant discipline is required.
• A First level University degree (Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent) preferably in Project Management, Business Administration, Civil Engineering and/or Architecture, International Development,
• or another relevant discipline with additional two (2) additional years of relevant professional experience in may be accepted in lieu of the Master’s Degree.

CERTIFICATION

• Certification in Project Management (PRINCE2 Foundation, Prince2 Practitioner,  PMI, etc.) is an asset.
• Complete the UNOPS PMM, UNOPS PMM Infra perspective and oneUNOPS Projects training within (3) months from joining UNOPS.

EXPERIENCE

• A minimum of seven (7) years of progressive experience in programme/project management in either public or private sector organizations is required of which at least five (5) experiences in public infrastructure development (construction, rehabilitation) especially in the Water and Sanitation (WASH) & Environmental sectors to include waste management experience is required. 
• At least three (3) years Team Leader/ Management experience/skills is required.
• Experience in programme and/or project development with a focus on training, and coordination in either public or private sector organizations is an advantage.
• Previous experience in the implementation of complex sector-wide programmes will be highly distinct.
• Experience in risk management is an asset
• Experience in developing countries or post conflict environments is an asset
• Experience working in multicultural teams is an asset Strong Problem solving Skills
• Experience in writing reports, performing data analysis, and writing technical documents is an asset.
• Experience in process definition and business requirement documentation is an asset
• Previous experience with UNOPS or a UN Agency is an advantage.

LANGUAGE

• Full working knowledge (Fluency) in both English and French is required
• Fluency in Portuguese is desirable.

Source: https://jobs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=28696