Management & Oversight Senior Advisor

Based in Bangkok, the Asia Regional Office (AR) supports UNOPS’ offices throughout the region, providing programme, project, partnerships, management and oversight support, and managing human resources.

The Asia Regional Office helps ensuring that programmes and projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between projects across the entire region.

The Management and Oversight Senior Advisor reports to the Regional Director (RD) who provides broad supervision and guidance.  The role is responsible for providing strategic advice to the Regional Director, with particular focus on business performance, portfolio analysis and corporate results reporting.

The role acts as Officer in Charge in the case of absence of the RD.

The role is responsible for, amongst others:

• Providing strategic advice to the RD, with particular focus on financial stewardship, operational excellence, effective and productive workforce management and delivery of results across the region;

• Providing advice to the RD related to regional performance improvement and knowledge sharing across the region;

• Coordinating and monitoring of implementation progress for the strategic corporate initiatives across the region;

• Supporting the RD to monitor and update the regional business plan;

• Leading the regional operations management group and

• Coordinating improvement and knowledge sharing initiatives and overseeing their implementation.

Functions / Key Results Expected

1. Strategic advisory

2. Operational performance oversight and coordination

3. Performance improvement

4. Knowledge management and innovation

The incumbent advises and supports the RD with respect to the following responsibilities and activities:

1.       Strategic advisory

• Facilitate the development of regional strategies and policies through advice to the RD and senior management, including advising on current and future business operations and strategy development and planning.

• With the RD and in collaboration with the team and partners, develop the multi-year strategic plan for the Region and the annual business plan for the Region, including proposing targets, standards and results expected to ensure timely and partner oriented services.

• Evaluate overall regional activities/initiatives to ensure alignment with organisational strategic plans, framework and standards of accountability, ethics and integrity and to ensure that portfolio delivery and business development are mutually reinforcing.

• Keep abreast of organisational changes to make recommendations on regional strategy and approaches to business development, management of regional project portfolio and delivery of sustainable results.

• With the RD, plan and allocate resources (human, financial and administrative) to achieve goals and ensure the cost effective and appropriate use of resources in accordance with UNOPS standards of ethics, integrity and accountability framework.

2.       Operational performance oversight and coordination

• Review and endorse proposed regional and country targets in terms of process excellence, workforce management excellence and financial stewardship.

• Monitor and oversee the performance across the region; provide guidance and support in relation to actions required to achieve targets.

• Monitor and oversee the internal controls across the region; provide guidance and support in relation to actions required to achieve sufficient levels of controls.

• Oversee the regional performance and execute appropriate controls, with particular focus on cost recovery and attribution of costs, and other high operational risks.

• Coordinate with relevant UNOPS HQ units, to ensure prioritisation, alignment and coherent interactions with the region; actively engage with internal stakeholders and HQ units to make sure that country and regional perspectives are reflected in HQ-led initiatives.

• On behalf of the RD, participate in and report on the relevant coordination meetings, working groups, task-forces, etc.

• Coordinate and maintain regular communication with all countries in the region on their needs and request for support.

• Coordinate preparation of substantive briefs for the RD on regional opportunities and challenges.

• Act as the secondary supervisor for the Head of Support Services in the region.

3.        Performance improvement

• Drive and support world-class performance, organizational excellence and continuous improvement, as well as nurture a high-performance management culture.

• Make recommendations to the RD on matters related to performance and efficacy of regional operations.

• Recommend to the RD, changes to structural arrangements within and between entities in the regional structure, including cross-functional integration and coordination within the region, in accordance to UNOPS standards on organisational structures.

• Develop and implement a performance monitoring system to provide oversight of the regional performance measures and tracking of improvement initiatives.

4.        Knowledge management and innovation

• Actively engage with UNOPS’ Implementation Practices and Standards unit as well as the regional portfolios, to capture and provide a synthesis of best practice, lessons learned and ensure harmonisation of  practices across the region.

• Facilitate and encourage the sharing of information, knowledge and best practices across the region.

• Contribute to the planning, implementation and organisation of strategic capacity building of personnel, partners and stakeholders for strategic business development and engagement.

• Act as the learning focal point for the region.

Impact of Results 

The effective and successful achievement of results by the incumbent directly contributes to the visibility and image of the UNOPS brand, as an effective service provider in project services and management and consequently strengthens its competitive position as a partner of choice in sustainable development and project services.

• An Advanced University Degree (Master's or equivalent) in Business Administration, Finance, Political Science, International Relations, International Development, Social Sciences or a related discipline is required;
• A First-Level University Degree (Bachelor's) in combination with 2 additional years of relevant professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. 

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in management and advisory/coordination roles is required.
• A minimum of 3 years experience working in project and programme management, international development, post-disaster and/or emergency contexts is required.
• Field work experience is required.
• Proven ability to collaborate with and oversee diverse and senior teams;
• Experience in an international organization is an asset.
• Demonstrated experience in strategic planning and change management is desirable. 
• Demonstrated understanding of development issues and current donor and sectoral trends is an asset.
• Prior work experience in Asia is desirable.
• Strategic planning experience is an asset;
• CA or CPA or equivalent is desirable.
• PRINCE2® Foundation and/or Practitioner Certification or equivalent is desirable.

• Excellent writing and oral skills in English

Contract type: Fixed-term staff contract

• 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
• 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.

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.