Senior Operations Officer

The Senior Operations Officer provides specialized operational management and advisory support to the UNOPS Legal Group, focusing on the operational management of the Dispute Resolution Practice. The role involves coordinating complex operational workflows, monitoring portfolio performance, identifying risks, and supporting strategic decision-making within an international organization context.

Responsibilities

• Provide operational and administrative support to the Office of the General Counsel and the Legal Group, focusing on the Dispute Resolution Practice
• Oversee operational administration of contracts, purchase orders, invoices and payments ensuring compliance and timely processing
• Support procurement processes and long-term agreements for external counsel and service providers
• Assist with preparation, formatting, proofreading, organization and filing of legal submissions and case materials
• Manage operational coordination with external counsel, arbitral institutions, tribunals, vendors and other stakeholders
• Serve as primary operational focal point for assigned external service providers and stakeholders, resolving operational issues and escalating legal matters
• Coordinate responses to audit and similar requests in consultation with the Legal Group
• Support Management Specialist, General Counsel and legal advisors with day-to-day operations and key events
• Maintain operational portfolio-management framework including trackers, calendars, dashboards and monitoring tools
• Provide periodic portfolio analysis to identify risks, resource needs, delays, financial exposure and bottlenecks and recommend corrective actions
• Collect, organize, analyze and summarize operational data to support monitoring, budget tracking, planning and decision-making
• Prepare analytics and reports for Management Specialist, General Counsel and legal advisors
• Coordinate inputs for audit responses, budget planning, management updates and corporate reporting
• Contribute to identification, assessment and monitoring of operational risks related to the Dispute Resolution Practice
• Develop and maintain risk-mitigation actions and advise management on emerging risks
• Provide regular operational briefings and analytical reports on portfolio status, risks, financial and contractual matters, deadlines and performance trends
• Prepare decision-support analysis and recommendations on operational, resource, process and risk-management matters
• Support document creation and knowledge products using Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Microsoft Office and other tools
• Set up and manage project-management tools, run reports, extract and analyze data for planning and monitoring
• Maintain and administer case and knowledge-management systems for the Legal Group
• Coordinate development and management of the Legal Group's operational knowledge-management framework
• Analyze information and lessons learned to identify operational issues, trends and opportunities for learning
• Assist with testing new applications, implementing technical changes and improving document and case management tools
• Facilitate knowledge building and sharing within the Legal Group and externally

Requirements

• A Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Business Administration, Public Administration, Administrative Management, or related fields, is required
• A Master’s degree, preferably in the above-mentioned fields or related, will be considered an asset and may substitute for 2 of the required years of experience
• A minimum of four (4) years of relevant professional experience (or less depending on academic credentials) in administration, operations, office management, legal administration, procurement support, contract administration, invoice management, project support or related areas
• Experience using Google Workspace, including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Gmail and Google Calendar, as well as Microsoft Office
• Experience supporting procurement processes, vendor management, contract administration, purchase orders and invoice/payment processing (desired)
• Relevant experience working in an international organization, international company or multicultural setting (desired)
• Experience working with UN organizations and knowledge of UN/UNOPS processes and systems (desired)
• Experience with/knowledge of AI tools (desired)

Skills

• Office Management
• Legal Administration
• Procurement Support
• Contract Administration
• Invoice Management
• Project Support
• Vendor Management
• Purchase Order Processing
• Invoice Payment Processing
• Google Workspace
• Google Docs
• Google Sheets
• Google Slides
• Google Drive
• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Microsoft Office Suite
• Operational Management
• Workflow coordination
• Portfolio Performance Support
• Risk Identification and Management
• Strategic Decision Support
• UNOPS Processes
• AI Tools Usage

Languages

English, French, Spanish