Background Information – Job-specific
Located in Dakar, the UNOPS office in Senegal has developed a strong working relation with the Governments of West Africa and international partners over the years. It provides technical support in strategic development areas including elections; Procurement and related capacity building; Environmental protection, as well as infrastructure rehabilitation and development.
The primary role of the Program Management Office is to ensure that project management policies, processes and methods are followed and practiced according to the organization standards, while acting as the overall Project Assurance capacity within business units on behalf of the Head of Program (Executive). The PMO Specialist strongly contributes to moving the Hub toward achieving its mission-focused goals and objectives.
The Project Management Office (PMO) provides the Hub with the structures, tools and techniques needed to ensure that it has the right programmes and projects in place, that operational and change priorities are balanced, the governance and decision making is facilitated and it has the resources and capability to deliver them consistently well. The functions and services of the PMO includes :
Strategic Planning/Portfolio Support: Ensuring UNOPS is focused on doing the right projects by supporting management decision-making.
Delivery Support: Ensuring UNOPS is doing projects the right way, through the effective delivery of the programme and projects.
Best Practices: Applying UNOPS standards in project management, encouraging consistent working practices and ensuring appropriate application.
Under the direct supervision of the Head of Programme, the Programm Management Office (PMO) Specialist has the overall following responsibilities:
Development and planning
- In conjunction with the PMO team, provides appropriate levels of programmatic management and administrative support to the Programme Management regarding all ongoing project activities, while maintaining and implementing appropriate standards and best practices in line with UNOPS policies and procedures.
- Directly contribute to strategic oversight, advice and direction on programme and project management activities in line with service agreements and project documents.
- Ensure proper development, implementation and, as and when appropriate, amendments, of project budgets and staffing resources, ensuring synergies across the Hub/PC.
- Develops and establishes resource-tracking systems for use within the PMO, complementary to UNOPS online tools, to ensure effective planning, forecasting and tracking of delivery across the Hub.
- Identifies, and anticipates in a timely manner, potential risks and issues and advises mitigating measures to the Head of Programme.
Set-up and closure
- Facilitate the development of high-level programme/project plans, including the collation of lower-level plan into programme/project-level milestones.
- Facilitate the development of high-level programme/project plans, including the collation of lower-level plans into programme/project-level milestones.
- Develop, track and maintain dependencies.
- Liaise closely and support the Head of Support Services in all project assets and nance related issues.
- For project closure purposes, acts as (or nominates and supervises) a focal point between the Hub and donors throughout the process.
- Oversee and coordinate all project closure activities, ensuring appropriate disposal of project assets, timelyand eective nal (operational) reporting, initiation of financial disbursements as appropriate duringDefects Liability Periods, updating of information on the UNOPS Management Workspace (MWS), and effective handover of closed projects to UNOPS HQ for financial closure processes
Monitoring and reporting
- Prepare and issue regular project reports in accordance with donor guidelines for reporting.
- Regularly review project status, evaluating performance criteria (scope, cost, schedule and quality).
- Maintain diaries and progress reports as required by UNOPS standard procedures.
- Identify and anticipate in a timely manner, potential risks and issues specific to delivery forecasts, and advise mitigating measures to the Head of Programmes.
- Provide routine oversight and analysis of delivery data within the dashboard system, using UNOPS ERPsystem as required.
- Perform routine maintenance and implementation of effective monitoring and evaluation systems of programmes and project activities, in line with logical frameworks.
- Within the context of monitoring and evaluation, ensure all projects submit and regularly update specific milestones and targets for the duration of projects’ life-cycles, and track progress, or otherwise, against such information.
- Provide editorial support to programmes and projects, ensuring effective and timely dissemination of reports, in line with project documentation and clients’ expectations.
- Provide the Head of Support Services with necessary project analysis reports and information to support areas relevant to the project management team (i.e. Locally Managed Direct Costs projections etc.).
- Coordinate and oversee the implementation of requests or initiatives relevant to project management from the Regional Office, IPAS, and HQ Teams, as required.
Stakeholders Engagement
- Develop stakeholder profiles and facilitate the formulation of stakeholder engagement strategies.
- Enable the formulation of programmes and project communications plans.
- Coordinate stakeholder engagement and communication, ensuring effective timing and interdependency management of communications across programmes and projects.
- Coordinate internal programmes/projects communications.
- Monitor the effectiveness of programmes/projects communication.
Quality Assurance
- Work with internal audit and finance to ensure the programme complies with audit requirements.
- Work with procurement/purchasing staff to ensure effective interface with suppliers’ quality systems.
- Ensure compliance with UNOPS defined standards for programme/project management.
- Coordinate quality reviews of programme/project documents and deliverables.
- Provide quality control for management products (project documents, reports, etc.).
- Represent the Head of Programme in supporting key stakeholders to continuously identify and improve operational processes relevant to project implementation.
Knowledge Management and Innovation
- Act as a focal point for the Hub maturity enhancement initiatives, using the P3M3 as a baseline.
- Ensure routine and effective capacity building activities are conducted in order to build the long-term and sustainable capacity of national staff.
- Participate in, and advocate PMs’ participation in, relevant Communities of Practice.
- Actively interact with PMs and the wider PM community to share case studies, lessons learned and best practices in the Knowledge System.
- Provides feedback to Practice Leads on policy and supporting guidance working to achieve continuous improvement of UNOPS policies.
- Contributes to the oversight of lessons learned procedures, ensuring that lessons learnt are shared in a timely and appropriate manner.
Personnel Management
- Exercise control of all staffing issues within the PMO team including recruitment, on boarding and staff performance reviews.
- Directly contributes to the development and maintenance of budget and resource availability tables in conjunction with project managers and relevant project personnel
- Promote and support a learning culture by empowering individuals and teams to identify critical learning needs and plan/provide easy access to learning opportunities to maintain personnel competency and flexibility.
- Foster a positive work environment, respectful of both men and women, and ensure that the highest standards of conduct are observed.
Monitoring and Progress Controls
The PMO Specialist directly impacts on achievement of project results by assisting the Head of Programme to implement effective project management methods and strategies, reduce risks, cut costs and improve success rates. This consequently reinforces the visibility and image of the UNOPS as an effective service.
Education/Experience/Language requirements
Qualification
- Advanced University Degree in Civil Engineering, and/or Architecture, and/or Project Management, and/or Business Administration or other relevant discipline is required.
- University Degree (Bachelor’s degree) in Civil Engineering, and/or Architecture, and/or Project Management, and/or Business Administration or other relevant discipline with a combination of two (2) additional years of relevant professional experience in Civil Engineering, or Architecture, or Project Management, or Business Administration or other relevant discipline, may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Experience
- A minimum of five (5) years combined experience in Project Management and Program Oversight is required.
- A minimum of two (2) years experience within PMO (Program Management Office) environnent is required
- A Minimum of three (3) years experience in team supervision (preferably in multicultural environment set-up) is requiredWorking experience with project management tools is required.
- Working experience managing Infrastructure as PMO or PM is a strong advantage.
- A working experience with data management and analysis, reporting is a strong advantage
- Working experience in UNOPS is a strong asset.
- Detailed knowledge of UNOPS’ project management tools, UNOPS financial and procurement rules and regulations, and financial management tools is an advantage.
- Working experience in West Africa is an advantage
Language
- Full working knowledge of French and English is a requirement.
