Partnerships Senior Officer

The UNOPS Global Portfolios Office (GPO) brings together diverse expertise to help partners deliver impact worldwide. With hubs in New York, Geneva, and Vienna, and expert teams operating globally, GPO leads multi-regional initiatives that advance sustainable development, climate action, and peacebuilding - including in some of the world’s most challenging environments. By leveraging our collective expertise and global networks, GPO supports UNOPS’ strategic priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals across more than 130 countries. We work closely with major global partners - including governments, international financial institutions, and UN agencies - to deliver a wide range of services, such as project management, fund management, hosting services, and HR support.

Not Required - part of GPO/NYPO

UN Global Pulse is the Secretary-General’s Innovation Lab. We work at the intersection of innovation and the human sciences to inform, inspire, and strengthen the ability of the United Nations family and those it serves to anticipate, respond, and adapt to the challenges of today and tomorrow.

We support some of the UN’s highest-priority, system-wide innovation efforts, helping teams apply data science, responsible AI, and digital solutions to accelerate impact across initiatives such as the UN Global Pulse Accelerator Programme, UN80 priorities, and the DISHA programme.

Our teams are spread across the world, with hubs in Uganda, Indonesia, Finland, and the United States. Drawing on more than a decade of experience with digital innovation in the UN family, UN Global Pulse unites specialists from the digital and social sciences in search of solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, from conflict to climate change.

We aim to reduce the risks that innovation involves and move towards the opportunities. We restore public trust in technology by making it inclusive, accessible, and ethical. Our input brings value to the work of the UN and external partners in protecting the vulnerable and defending human rights.

The goals of the UN Global Pulse Network are: i) Support efforts to advance innovations, ii) Contribute to the development of global frameworks, and iii) Support the transformation of the UN family.

The incumbent of the position will be personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility.

To achieve its goals, UN Global Pulse is looking for a Partnership Senior Officer (Partnerships and New Business) to support the Partnerships Team. The Partnership Senior Officer (Partnerships and New Business) contributes to developing new funding opportunities and cultivating strategic partnerships to support the work of UN Global Pulse. The role focuses on prospecting, proposal development, and engagement with prospective UNGP partners. The role will also have a focus on organising and coordinating UNGP participation in high-level events. In particular, this role will have a focus on engaging with the Finnish and Nordic innovation ecosystem.

The Partnership Senior Officer (Partnerships & New Business) supports UN Global Pulse's efforts to identify, cultivate, and secure new funding opportunities and strategic partnerships, with a particular focus on engagement across the Finnish and Nordic innovation ecosystem. The role contributes to prospect mapping and pipeline management, the development of high-quality proposals and donor materials, and the coordination of UNGP's participation in visibility-building and donor-facing events. The incumbent also plays a supporting role in internal coordination, ensuring information flows effectively across hubs and teams, and helping to foster a collaborative fundraising culture that strengthens UN Global Pulse's partnership base and broader positioning within the donor and innovation community.

Under the supervision of the Partnerships Lead, the incumbent will:

1) Support new business development & prospecting

• Conduct prospect mapping to identify new financial and non-financial collaboration opportunities.

• Maintain and monitor a robust new business pipeline, ensuring accurate record keeping, including entries to CRM (client relationship management database), forecasting and reporting.

• Support outreach to newly identified prospects and coordinate introductory meetings to support their cultivation.

2) Support proposal development and resource mobilization

• Draft concept notes, project proposals, donor reports, and pitch decks .

• Coordinate internal inputs are gathered from across the relevant teams to ensure well-aligned proposals that benefit and include multiple UNGP priorities.

• Promote ethical and equitable approaches in all partnership activities and engagements.

3) Support ecosystem engagement and events management

• Support in lead of internal event mapping, identify strategic visibility-building and donor engagement opportunities across UNGP and translating these into actionable events calendar.

• Support in design and delivery of donor facing and global visibility events, aligning format and content to partnerships objectives and target audiences and overseeing budgets and logistics

• Represent UN Global Pulse at selected external meetings and events, when delegated.

• Assist in shaping visibility building events and partner engagements that advance UNGP’s positioning within the innovation and donor ecosystem.

4) Contribute to internal coordination and communication

• Contribute to the development and implementation of the new business strategy and annual plans.

• Build strong relationships across internal UNGP and UN teams to gather insights and stories that can inform partnership development.

• Contribute to a collaborative, ambitious, knowledge-sharing and inclusive fundraising culture across the organisation.

• Effective communication with internal and external partners.

• Ensure accurate information sharing across hubs in particular relating to new prospects and engagement opportunities.

The incumbent of this position will be the personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility.

The results achieved will contribute to growing UN Global Pulse’s partnership pipeline and strengthening the UN’s innovation scaling efforts globally. Effective delivery in this role will enhance credibility, expand networks, and increase access to resources.

• Successful proposal submissions and conversions.

• Demonstrated support to partnership activities contributing to innovation scaling.

• Strengthened engagement with Finnish/Nordic ecosystem actors.

• Positive feedback from internal stakeholders on coordination and stewardship.

• Well executed donor facing and visibility events and support of external event coordination that strengthen UNGP’s positioning and generate follow-up engagement.

Required:

• An advanced university degree (Master's or equivalent) preferably in International Relations, Business Administration, Public Policy, Communications, Innovation Management, or other related field with 2 years of relevant experience is required OR

• A first-level university degree (Bachelor's or equivalent) preferably in International Relations, Business Administration, Public Policy, Communications, Innovation Management, or other related field with 4 years of relevant experience

Required:

• Relevant experience is defined as experience in partnerships, donor relations, business development, or similar.
• Experience in events management, including planning and delivering high-profile or donor-facing events.

• Experience in developing or implementing partnerships and donor plans, including budget management.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of the donor funding landscape and emerging trends is desirable.

• Experience engaging with innovation ecosystems, philanthropy, is an asset.

• Experience with managing projects with a variety of stakeholders is desirable.

• Experience in establishing and implementing partnership strategies and plans in a UN context is desirable.

• Experience in building and cultivating strategic donor partnerships with senior stakeholders and demonstrable experience of engaging with private sector, foundations, government and multi-lateral donors is an asset.

• Experience in developing and managing partnership databases and tracking systems is an asset.

• Experience with private sector fundraising in a UN or humanitarian setting is an asset

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