Temporary Appointment – Operations Officer (Talent Management & Capacity Building), P-2, DFAM, Istanbul, Türkiye, #127619

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, hope… 

One of the key roles of DFAM is to safeguard the financial resources entrusted to UNICEF for the survival, development, and protection of the world’s children by maintaining and improving financial and administrative systems and procedures to ensure efficient, cost-effective, and transparent utilization of these resources.

Under the supervision of the Chief – Field Strategy and Technical Support, the incumbent will work with the global operations community focused on field offices (Country and Regional Offices) to support operations talent management and technical capacity building efforts on the ground. The incumbent will network and collaborate closely with the Regional and Country Office’s Operations community and Deputy Representatives, to ensure talent management activities are prioritized and adhered to by all Operations staff members in the IP, NO and GS categories.

How can you make a difference?

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

Support to Operations Recruitment

• Engage with Regional Chief of Operations, Section Chiefs, Deputy Regional Directors and operations managers in planning, implementing and reviews of operations recruitments to improve speed and outcome.
• Organize the logistics of recruitments and particularly the Generic Vacancy Announcements (GVAs): communication with all parties, preparation of final shortlists, coordination of panels, consolidation of technical assessments, reporting of final outcomes and recommendations, preparations of technical clearances and facilitation of approvals required.
• Conduct analysis of specific recruitment needs and/or candidates that need particular attention of the senior management to enhance operations efficiency and effectiveness.
• Support Chief of Sections and Operations managers in the process of reference checking, particularly for Generic Vacancy Announcements (GVAs).
• Update and maintain Operations Talent Groups to ensure its readiness to support UNICEF operations globally in terms of skills and expertise needed, gender balance desired from the geographic background that is reflective of UNICEF diversity.
• Prepare a technical summary of each Operations Talent Group member to facilitate reviews and appointments to subsequent vacancies in COs,ROs and HQs.

Operations Talent Management

• Conduct monitoring of all operations staffing reports, including post abolishment, post creations, temporary assignments, recruitment stages, stretch assignments and deployment to emergencies.
• Provide technical support to the various development and updates of Operations Talent Groups.
• In collaboration with DHR, support the outreach to source qualified Operations candidates from a wide geographical background particularly female through technical networks, working group, the academia, etc.
• Work closely with the Operations community in gathering and consolidating feedback on Generic Vacancy Announcement (GVA) for continuous improvement of the process, organize focus group discussion on the topic and document recommendations.
• Provide analysis on specific operation staffing cases that need talent management intervention.

Technical Capacity Building

• Act as focal point for the update of Operations technical courses on Agora and liaise with section chiefs to initiate necessary reviews.
• Gather data, update matrix, and produce progress reports on the implementation of the Operations Learning Strategy to support the Operations Repositioning through 4 Areas of Knowledge: Interpersonal Skills, Core Business Skills, Operations Technical Skills and Leadership Skills.
• Conduct analysis on specific technical knowledge gaps of HQ and field staff, propose solutions and contribution to the implementation of improvement plans.
• Ensure proper logistics preparation and engagement for courses revision and/or development: including preparation of narrative, scripts, update, etc.

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

• A first level university degree (Bachelor’s) in Public or Business Administration, Management, Human Resources, Psychology, and/or a directly related technical field(s) is required.
• A professional certification or technical expertise in training, coaching, learning and development is highly desirable.
• A minimum of two years of relevant professional experience in operations, human resources/training and development, administration and/or change management is required.
• Strong analytical, planning and organizing skills is a significant asset.
• Ability to identify issues, build rationale, conduct rigorous analysis and make recommendations is highly desirable.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

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.

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. 

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

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable are encouraged to apply.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be cancelled.

All selected candidates will 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.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. 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.