People Experience & Engagement Specialist

The People and Culture Group (PCG) positions UNOPS as a people-centered, high-performing organization by driving the development of HR policies, talent frameworks, and inclusive practices aligned with the strategic plan. Through the Integrated People Strategy, PCG empowers personnel, fosters an engaging and inclusive work culture, and enables the delivery of sustainable development solutions. Partnering closely with UNOPS leadership, PCG delivers on the organization’s People Goals—shaping culture, nurturing leaders, enabling flexibility and fairness, building future-ready teams, and setting people up for success. Core capabilities include strategic HR partnering, policy integration, and process simplification through digitization. PCG prioritizes leadership development, workforce diversity, personnel well-being, and innovation in HR practices. By focusing on culture transformation and talent excellence, PCG ensures that UNOPS remains agile, equitable, and capable of delivering results in complex operational environments.

The People Experience & Engagement Specialist reports to the Advisor, Diversity & Inclusion. The role supports the design, coordination and implementation of initiatives aimed at strengthening organizational culture, workforce engagement and employee experience across UNOPS. The incumbent is responsible for managing key corporate engagement initiatives, including the culture and engagement survey and UNOPS Awards, facilitating collaboration with stakeholders and culture ambassadors, and translating workforce insights into actionable recommendations. The role also contributes to corporate reporting on organizational culture and supports the implementation of DEI interventions.

1. Culture & Engagement Measurement and Action Planning

• Coordinate the planning and implementation of UNOPS culture and engagement surveys, including global rollout, communications, and analyses.
• Support the selection and onboarding of a new corporate survey provider, in collaboration with Procurement, ensuring alignment with organizational requirements for data privacy, accessibility, reporting and analytics.
• Manage operational relationships with the survey provider, coordinating survey administration, timelines, deliverables, data quality, and reporting requirements.
• Coordinate the dissemination of survey findings through corporate and disaggregated reports, dashboards and presentations, highlighting key trends, risks and actionable insights.
• Support the development and monitoring of organizational action plans in response to survey findings, working with relevant stakeholders to track progress and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Coordinate and support the global network of Culture Ambassadors, facilitating capacity building, knowledge sharing and locally driven engagement initiatives.
• Support additional workforce listening and feedback mechanisms to identify emerging trends and opportunities to strengthen employee experience.

2. Personnel Recognition

• Project-manage the annual UNOPS Awards programme, overseeing the end-to-end recognition cycle, including programme design, award categories, nominations, selection processes and recognition events.
• Coordinate with selection committees, corporate teams and regional stakeholders to ensure transparent, consistent and timely implementation of the programme.
• Develop and implement engagement and communication activities to promote participation across UNOPS and recognize achievements, innovation and behaviours aligned with organizational values.
• Evaluate programme effectiveness through participation data, stakeholder feedback and lessons learned, recommending improvements to future recognition initiatives.

3. Culture Analytics & Corporate Reporting

• Consolidate and analyze qualitative and quantitative information on organizational culture, workforce engagement and personnel experience to identify trends, risks and opportunities for improvement.
• Prepare analytical inputs, briefing materials and presentations on organizational culture and engagement for senior management and corporate governance processes.
• Contribute to reporting to the UNOPS Executive Board on organizational culture, including the preparation and validation of relevant data, analysis and narrative inputs.
• Support the development and monitoring of indicators to assess progress against organizational culture and engagement priorities.
• Maintain appropriate documentation, reporting tools and knowledge resources to support evidence-based decision-making and institutional learning.

4. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

• Support the planning, coordination and implementation of corporate DEI initiatives aimed at fostering an inclusive, respectful and equitable workplace across UNOPS.
• Collaborate with PCG teams and other stakeholders to integrate inclusive practices into workforce engagement initiatives and relevant people management processes.
• Develop and facilitate awareness-raising activities, guidance materials, toolkits and workshops on inclusion, psychological safety, respectful workplace practices and cultural sensitivity.
• Analyze workforce feedback and relevant data to identify barriers to inclusion and inform targeted interventions.
• Monitor the implementation and effectiveness of assigned DEI initiatives, contributing to progress reporting, lessons learned and continuous improvement.

5. Knowledge Building & Sharing

• Support the organization, facilitation and delivery of training and learning sessions on organizational culture, workforce engagement, personnel recognition, and personnel experience.
• Participate in knowledge-sharing initiatives and Communities of Practice (CoPs), contributing insights and lessons learned from people experience and engagement project implementation.
• Conduct research on organizational culture, workforce engagement and personnel experience topics and contribute to the drafting of reports, summaries and briefing notes.

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) with 7 years of relevant experience OR
• Master’s degree in Human Resources Management, Organizational Psychology, Behavioural Science, Organizational Development, or a related field with 5 years of relevant experience.

Desired:

• Professional training or certification in employee engagement, organizational development, DEI, project management or people analytics.

Required:

• Experience in end-to-end development, delivery and evaluation of organization-wide employee surveys, listening strategies, and recognition or organizational development programmes.
• Experience with data analysis, corporate reporting and engagement with senior stakeholders.

Desired

• Experience within the UN system or other international organizations.

• UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.
• UNOPS will at no stage of the recruitment process request candidates to make payments of any kind.
• Applications to vacancies must be received before midnight Copenhagen time (CET) on the closing date of the announcement. Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the selection process, which may include various assessments.
• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of a wide range of nationalities, cultures, languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. We strive to sustain and strengthen this diversity, fostering an inclusive working environment where all personnel are treated with respect and have equal access to opportunities.
• UNOPS evaluates all applications based on the skills, qualifications and experience outlined in the vacancy announcement. We are committed to a fair and transparent selection process and welcome diverse perspectives, including those of women, indigenous and racialized communities, individuals of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations, and persons with disabilities.
• We are committed to enabling all candidates to perform at their best during the assessment process. If you are shortlisted and require support or reasonable accommodation to complete any assessment, please inform our human resources team upon receiving your invitation.
• UNOPS has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment, and other forms of abusive conduct, including discrimination, abuse of authority, and harassment. To uphold these standards, background checks are conducted for all final candidates to help ensure that individuals with a history of such conduct are not hired. By applying for a position with UNOPS, candidates acknowledge and consent to these verification processes.
  

• 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.
• For more details about the contract types, please click 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.