Project Manager

Background Information - Job-specific

Background on South East Asia and the Pacific Multi-Country Office (EAPMCO):

UNOPS South East Asia and Pacific Multi-Country Office (EAPMCO) supports, develops and oversees the UNOPS portfolio of projects in South East Asia and the Pacific. EAPMCO was established in January 2023 following the merger of the Thailand Multi-Country Office, which covered 20 countries across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific, and the Cambodia Multi-Country Office, which covered 4 countries South East Asia - 3 countries in the Mekong Sub-region (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam) and the Philippines. EAPMCO currently covers 24 countries across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific. With its head office in Bangkok, the Multi-Country Office comprises nine EAPMCOs: EAPMCO Thailand, EAPMCO Indonesia, EAPMCO Pacific Operations Cluster, EAPMCO Papua New Guinea, EAPMCO China, EAPMCO Vietnam, EAPMCO Mekong, and EAPMCO Philippines.

In 2024, the UNOPS EAPMCO implemented projects worth more than USD 80 million, in the areas of Energy Transition, Digital Transformations, Sustainable Environmental Management, Climate Change, Waste Management, Rule of Law and Access to Justice, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Post Conflict Reintegration, Emergency Relief, Post COVID19 Economic Transformations, and Health, through HR, procurement, construction, contract management, fund and program management services.

The Multi-Country Office head office in Bangkok provides strategic direction, operational support, delivery oversight and assurance of the excellence of business processes and quality standards across all of the entire Multi-Country Office locations. It is also responsible for developing, delivering and managing the portfolio of engagements in the country of the MCO location itself.

Local Context: EAPMCO Pacific Cluster

The EAPMCO Pacific cluster, established in 2017, was formed to support the implementation of UNOPS projects across the Pacific, dealing with the challenges and constraints associated with a combination of the Pacific Islands' remoteness, availability of resources, demography, weather, or a combination of all these factors. Many Pacific Islands continue to suffer from diseconomies of scale in production and exchange of goods and services, and access to export markets, with the main economic activities remaining concentrated around tourism, fisheries, forestry, and agriculture, with remittances still playing a significant role in the economy of several Pacific Islands. Currently, UNOPS is working across 12 Pacific Island countries, implementing projects in the areas of health systems strengthening, digital transformations, climate change adaptation, governance, etc.

UNOPS in Kiribati

Kiribati is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change and climate-related disasters. Its ability to respond to climate risks is hampered by its highly vulnerable socio-economic and environmental conditions and geographical situation. Low atolls, isolation, small land areas separated by a vast expanse of ocean, a highly concentrated population, and the costs of providing basic services make Kiribati, like all Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), especially vulnerable to external shocks including the adverse impacts of climate change and disasters. Sea-level rise and exacerbated natural disasters, such as drought and extreme weather fluctuations, pose significant and direct additional threats to sectors and resources central to the provision of basic services and national development. UNOPS has been supporting the Government of Kiribati in mitigating the impacts of climate change through the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Small Grants Program (SGP), with a focus on community-led development interventions. Despite these efforts, more needs to be done to strengthen Kiribati’s long-term resilience to the impacts of climate variability.

Building on UNOPS activities, and in order to support Kiribati’s Climate Change Policy, coastal protection has been identified as one of the key policy themes for UNOPS future assistance to the country, as coastal areas in Kiribati are extremely vulnerable due to the low-lying atoll topography, and higher spring tides and more frequent and stronger storm surges coupled with sea-level rise significantly increase the country’s exposure to flooding and coastal erosion. This has already affected food crops and fresh groundwater lenses, and caused loss of land, loss of habitats, increased vulnerability to invasive alien species, physical damage to, or loss of assets, and economic and non-economic impacts for the government and communities. The projected rise in sea level, with the already limited land area of a typical atoll and the current human-induced degradation of the environment, will further jeopardize the country’s ability to continue to support the livelihoods of the growing population. This may result in unavoidable migration from Kiribati, threatening its future existence as a nation. It is therefore critically important to include coastal security measures and actions in long-term integrated development plans that are collectively put in place to protect and reinforce Kiribati’s current coastal systems and increase the natural resilience of its islands in the face of the imminent challenges of rising sea levels.

Against this background and to support the Government of Kiribati, UNOPS, in collaboration with Australia and Kiribati Government Partners, have established a new program on coastal adaptation to support in restoring the dignity and safety of communities most at risk of floods and coastal erosion. The program will enhance the safety of flood and coastal erosion affecting populations through a mix of infrastructure and nature-based solutions.

Job-Specific Information

In order to support the effective delivery of the Australia-Kiribati Climate Security Program (AKCSI), EAPMCO is recruiting the position of Project Manager (Coastal Engineer) to oversee the day-to-day implementation of the program. The Project Manager (Coastal Engineer) will be based in Tarawa, Kiribati for the full duration of the program and will be the most senior UNOPS personnel in the country.

Reporting to the Pacific SIDS Advisor in Pohnpei, FSM, who provides overall guidance, supervision and quality assurance to all programmatic activities across the MCO. The Project Manager (Coastal Engineer) will be responsible for overseeing the day to day implementation of the AKCSI project, including monitoring project activities, budgets, identifying issues, and providing strategies to overcome challenges, leading programmatic problem analysis, solution identification, effectively managing stakeholders and preparing program reports.

The Project Manager will lead the implementation of AKCSI in collaboration with various Government of Kiribati ministries (OB, MISE, MFMRD, MOF), communities, and development partners to ensure the program achieves maximum impact through focused delivery.

This role involves identifying and developing coastal adaptation measures within the AKCSI framework, building upon existing UNOPS efforts and collaborating with technical experts and long-term agreement (LTA) partners to implement program activities, focusing on both seawall solutions and nature-based coastal defenses.

A crucial aspect of the role is overseeing the construction and deployment of these coastal adaptation measures, as well as conducting day-to-day monitoring of all coastal protection activities in Kiribati. The incumbent will work closely with contractors, communities, and other implementing partners to ensure the successful delivery of all AKCSI programmatic outputs.

Ensuring stakeholder buy-in throughout the project lifecycle is critical, as is strengthening relationships with the Government of Kiribati to facilitate program delivery. The Project Manager will be responsible for proposing effective program implementation strategies, considering local contractors, material availability, and international best practices. Furthermore, the role requires coordination with UNEP on the technical nature-based solution components of the program.

The Project Manager provides services to the different donors, partners and beneficiaries. The Project Manager acts on behalf of the Project Board to manage the project on an ongoing basis during the Implementation Stage. The main responsibility of a Project Manager is to ensure that the project outputs are delivered within the specified project tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. He/she is expected to meet the organization’s performance and delivery goals.

The Project Manager is responsible to create the Implementation Plan, use the Project Initiation Documents (PID), Legal Agreement and have a thorough understanding of the terms, conditions, and the respective roles and responsibilities of the partners/stakeholders to ensure the project(s) outputs are capable of meeting the business cases for both UNOPS and the partner(s). Success of the project(s) and hence Project Manager will be based on the defined Success Criteria.

The project manager for infrastructure projects will be managing project(s) which ultimate goal is to deliver infrastructure physical assets or technical outputs. Those infrastructures are diverse and range from educational and health facilities to roads, bridges, irrigation systems or ports.

The project manager for Implementation projects (infrastructure) will be managing project(s) which ultimate goal is to provide implementation 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 projects may vary, maintaining high standards in terms of quality, health, safety and sustainability is always expected.

Depending on the nature and configuration of the project, the project manager might be executing technical studies, reviews, designs, supervision or operation and maintenance services of one or several physical infrastructure assets, in one or multiple sites. Depending on the implementation modality, it may involve large volumes of procurement of goods, services and HR services.

UNOPS operates in complex contexts where resources might be scarce, local capacity low and where professional judgement and experience in these environments are of uttermost importance.

Summary of functions:

Project Delivery and Performance

Procedures

Monitoring and reporting

Stakeholder engagement

Quality assurance

Knowledge management and innovation

Personnel management

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

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 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

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 4.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 5.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.)

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
7.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

Advanced University Degree preferably in Coastal Engineering, the Civil Engineering field, or other relevant discipline, is required.

A combination of Bachelor’s degree in the above-mentioned areas or another relevant discipline with a combination of an additional 2 years of relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the education requirements outlined above.
Certificate:

Certification in Project Management (PRINCE2, PMI, etc.) is an asset.

Complete the UNOPS PMM, UNOPS PMM Infra perspective and oneUNOPS Projects trainings within (3) months from joining UNOPS is required.
Experience:

A minimum of five (5) years' experience in implementing and managing infrastructure projects is required.

The below are relevant but not mandatory

Specific experience in the investigation, planning, design and construction monitoring of coastal engineering and protection measures is desirable.

Experience in contract management is an asset.

Knowledge of FIDIC contracts is an asset.

Experience in planning and applying Health & Safety procedures is an asset.

Experience in developing Procurement strategies is an asset.

Experience in MS Project and Schedule Analysis is an asset.

Experience in the Pacific countries is an asset.

Experience in writing reports, performing data analysis, and writing technical documents is an asset.

Knowledge of quality assurance methodologies is an asset.

Experience in risk management is an asset.

Experience working in multicultural teams is an asset.

Experience in managing teams is an asset.

Disclaimer:

Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce.

Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process. If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Tarawa is a family-duty station.

Terms and Conditions

For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post.

For retainer contracts, you must complete a few mandatory courses ( they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. For more information on a retainer contract here.

All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.