Support Services Associate

The Infrastructure and Project Management Group (IPMG) provides policy, standards guidance and support in three UNOPS service lines of Project Management, Infrastructure and Financial Management Services (Grant Support and Fund Management). IPMG leads the design and implementation of a project, programme and portfolio management (P3M) system centered around the needs of UNOPS partners, beneficiaries and frontline personnel. IPMG also drives UNOPS efforts to leverage sustainable, resilient and inclusive infrastructure and maximize local capacity through grant support management to achieve sustainable development. Through thought leadership, we aim to position UNOPS with its partners, foster innovative solutions for sustainable and inclusive development, and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This includes speeding up the implementation of urgent infrastructure and scaling up infrastructure service delivery, particularly in relation to climate action and energy. Our delivery approach to project management, infrastructure and grant support management prioritizes development needs, empowers institutions and communities, builds partners’ capacity, champions gender equality and social inclusion and reduces environmental impact. IPMG translates policy into practice by providing strategic direction, standards and oversight, while facilitating knowledge sharing and capacity-building for UNOPS teams globally.

This position operates under the supervision of the Project Management Support Specialist (PMSS) within the IPMG Operations Services Unit (OSU). The Support Services Associate provides substantive support for the planning, coordination, and delivery of support services to IPMG and the Procurement Group (PG). The role involves close collaboration with internal stakeholders and relevant counterparts in HQ Admin, Finance, and Procurement to ensure effective coordination, facilitate operations, and deliver activities efficiently. This role also provides cross-functional operational, analytical, and coordination support to the Procurement Group as needed.

The Support Services Associate is responsible for implementing complete, specialized administrative and procurement processes from start to finish, ensuring their integrity and compliance with established rules and policies. This includes planning, monitoring, and reporting on support services, providing administrative and HR support, executing procurement processes, and assisting with budget management. The role requires a thorough understanding of relevant procedures, high level of autonomy, and the ability to identify and recommend process improvements.

1. Planning, Reporting and Optimization:

• In close coordination with the PMSS, drive the preparation of the annual procurement and administration work plan; conducts stakeholder consultations to identify requirements, drafts the comprehensive plan, and verifies budget availability and resource alignment.
• Develop and maintain robust monitoring tools to track execution against annual work plans and key performance indicators (KPIs); synthesize operational data to produce regular progress reports and analytical summaries of spend patterns, operational bottlenecks, and resource utilization to support management decision-making.
• Draft the annual performance report evaluating the execution of IPMG and PG procurement and administrative plans, synthesizing key outcomes, spend analytics, and actionable insights for management.
• Maintain a lesson learned register for procurement and administrative activities to systematically drive continuous process improvement and operational learning across the unit.
• Translate analytical findings into actionable recommendations; actively collaborate on process optimization initiatives by providing on-the-ground operational insights to enhance service delivery. This includes contributing to the revision and maintenance of the IPMG Support Services RACI matrix to clarify team accountabilities across procurement, administration, and on/off-boarding workflows.
• Draft and continuously maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and comprehensive operational guidelines across all relevant support service areas to ensure newly optimized workflows are properly documented.

2. Administration & Operational Support:

• Triage incoming and outgoing communications across OSU and IPMG shared inboxes; manage the IPMG event calendar and ensure timely, prioritized routing and resolution of operational queries.
• Ensure correct access to all IPMG and PG email groups, inboxes and spaces, as well as any other platforms as requested.
• Manage the software and digital services access.
• Maintain filing systems and electronic records, especially the Google Team Drives pertaining to administration, procurement, and financial transactions and budget corrections.
• Manage IPMG and PG assets and the IPMG library. Liaise with ICT helpdesk for the maintenance of IT equipment, licenses and digital services.
• Provide budget estimations based on market research, and lead the coordination, logistics, and implementation (including associated procurement) for internal events including strategic offsites, team-building events, workshops and trainings.
• Provide clerical support, including but not limited to managing team meeting invitations and room bookings, taking meeting minutes, registering visitors, entering requests in the various UNOPS portals and tools.
• Administer the IPMG and PG emergency call trees to ensure continuous operational readiness. Leverage established BigQuery datasets and digital tools to systematically update the system in alignment with personnel turnover, ensure regular team communication, and lead annual testing.
• Conduct research and analyze data to draft a wide variety of comprehensive reports, strategic presentations, correspondence, and operational documents to support management.
• Act as the travel focal point for IPMG and PG at Directors’ level, as necessary.
• Coordinate with the IPMG and PG Petty cash custodians for the acquisition of goods online and prepare the Mastercard form or facilitate the use of Petty cash as applicable.
• Manage the end-to-end logistical and operational delivery of workshops and training sessions at UN HQ for external audiences. Partner with the Headquarters Administrative unit and the event coordinator to oversee agenda set-up, facility management, budget tracking, and comprehensive participant guidance.

3. HR Support:

• Manage and streamline all administrative onboarding and offboarding workflows, ensuring a seamless, timely, and compliant experience for all incoming and departing personnel.
• Maintain operational line-item ownership of all onboarding and offboarding tasks tagged to the position within the overarching IPMG-PG HR Work Plan, ensuring real-time status updates, data accuracy, and timely completion in the system.
• Compile data and draft monthly HR briefings on incoming and departing personnel for internal communication and planning purposes.
• Serve as the IPMG focal point for the Buddy Program, coordinating matchings and orientation support for new team members.
• Lead the bi-annual review of the IPMG-PG onboarding package and ensure the base knowledge for new comers is up-to-date.
• Execute targeted HR support activities for the Corporate Retainer Pool, including contract extensions, cost distribution adjustments, and Certificate of Payment verification.

4. Procurement of IPMG and PG goods and services:

• Act as the primary procurement official for IPMG and PG, independently planning and executing unit-level procurement processes.
• Define procurement strategies in collaboration with the project manager, upon review of the procurement plan, ensuring they contain relevant sustainability considerations, where relevant.
• Guide and support requesters in defining requirements, providing expert operational guidance to review and refine draft terms of reference and technical specifications, ensuring clarity, market suitability, and full compliance with standard procurement formats prior to sourcing.
• Lead the sourcing process and market research, if applicable.
• Prepare solicitation documents and manage the solicitation process.
• Carry out and facilitate the evaluation of submissions as part of the evaluation team.
• Prepare the recommendation for award and submit case to review body, if applicable.
• Execute all end-to-end system transactions in oneUNOPS, including vendor registration and maintenance, requisition creation, contract drafting, Purchase Order (PO) issuance, and payment requests upon verification of deliverables.
• Ensure strict compliance with corporate policies across all acquisitions, verifying adherence to Information Technology Group (ITG) standards for software and digital service purchases, and coordinating with Legal or the Procurement Group (PG) for standard contract template clearances when required.
• Undertake contract management duties, particularly from an administrative point of view including contract registration, in support of the project manager/requisitioner. Support supplier performance management, including tracking performance metrics as per service-level agreements.
• Compile complete supporting documentation to enable supplier/vendor payment process.

5. Budget & Financial Management Support:

• Systematically monitor non-personnel expenditures against system and offline commitments, and update the budget tracking sheet accordingly on a monthly basis. Highlight risks and payment delays as they arise, and execute follow-up actions as agreed with the supervisor.
• Prepare General Ledger Journal Entries (GLJEs) with complete supporting documentation, managing end-to-end follow-ups with the Finance Group through to posting.
• Maintain the retainer payments monitoring table, and conduct regular, systematic follow-ups to ensure retainer payments are processed in a timely manner.
• Financial Closure: Contribute to the year-end financial closure exercise by coordinating the timely payment and processing of all assigned outstanding commitments.

6. Knowledge building and knowledge sharing:

• Organize, facilitate and/or deliver training and learning initiatives for personnel on areas of expertise.
• Provide sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice by synthesizing lessons learnt and disseminating best practices in his/her area of work.
• Collect feedback, ideas, and internal knowledge about processes and best practices and put to use productively.
• Undertake research on a range of issues related to portfolio support and provide content for notes/reports including quarterly and year-end reports for monitoring, statistical and review purposes by management.

Required

• Secondary school (or equivalent) with 6 years of relevant experience

OR

• A Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in any discipline with 2 years of relevant experience is required.

Desired

• A Bachelor or master’s degree in accounting, procurement, finance, business administration or related field.

Required

• 6 years of experience in general office administration, financial support, or procurement functions is required with a high school degree.
• Knowledge of public procurement rules is required.

Desired

• Working knowledge of Google suite, in particular Google sheet.
• Knowledge of ERP software.
• Experience in a project management support function.
• Experience in event administration or logistical coordination.
• A certification in public procurement.

• 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.
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• 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.