Chief of Service, Programme Management, D1

The Chief of Service leads the Strategic Heritage Plan project at the United Nations Office at Geneva, overseeing programme management, financial control, and support arrangements to ensure timely and efficient project delivery. The role involves managing a team, coordinating with UN entities, and representing the project to intergovernmental bodies.

Responsibilities

• Formulates and implements the substantive work programme of the Strategic Heritage Plan (SHP), determining priorities and allocating resources to ensure efficient and timely project execution.
• Leads a team of approximately 16 staff plus contractors and oversees management of SHP activities.
• Coordinates work within the project and with other UN organizations as appropriate.
• Formulates and implements programme management, financial control and support arrangements including communications and contracting strategies.
• Undertakes or oversees programmatic/administrative tasks necessary for project functioning including preparation of reports for intergovernmental bodies.
• Represents the SHP to intergovernmental bodies on budget/programme performance and substantive issues.
• Manages coordination of information and responses to external and internal audits.
• Ensures outputs meet high-quality standards and comply with relevant mandates.
• Provides strategic leadership on project closure activities ensuring orderly completion, risk management, resource optimization, and compliance.
• Recruits staff considering geographical balance and manages staff development and training.
• Fosters teamwork and communication within SHP and across organizational boundaries.
• Coordinates and liaises with UN Geneva, Headquarters, and UN Common system organizations for project implementation efficiencies.
• Leads and supervises organization of meetings, seminars and represents SHP at international, regional or national meetings.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in business or public administration, finance, accounting, law, social sciences or related area is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A minimum of fifteen years of progressively responsible experience in human resources management, administration, logistics, procurement, financial management, budget or related field is required.
• At least seven years of experience in programme or project management, including experience in planning and implementing large scale projects at the international level is required.
• Senior level responsibility for resource planning, contract management and project management and experience in cost control or monitoring is required.
• Experience in overseeing and leading the preparation of complex reports for submission to intergovernmental bodies is desirable.
• Work experience within a European contracting and legal environment is desirable.
• Experience in using relevant IT systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Project Management software, is desirable.
• English and French are required at UN Level III for reading, writing, listening and speaking.
• Either Arabic or Spanish or Chinese (Mandarin) or Russian is desirable at UN Level I for reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Skills

• Human Resources Management
• Administration
• Logistics Management
• Procurement
• Finance Management
• Budget Management
• Programme Management
• Project Management
• Resource Planning
• Contract Management
• Cost Control
• Project Monitoring
• Report Preparation
• Enterprise Resource Planning
• Project Management Tools
• International Project Implementation
• Intergovernmental Reporting
• European Contracting Environment

Languages

English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), Russian