Team management and strategic direction
Strategic Development and Research and Analysis
Knowledge creation, capacity building and reporting
Communication and partnerships
Coordinate and guide the work of the internal team and external contributors, including consultants and the related contractual and supervisory responsibilities
Strategic development and oversight of the foresight work stream including its alignment with the overall vision & objectives of the UNGP Network & EOSG;
Development & oversight of a strategic foresight experiments portfolio. This will include the creation of a pipeline of emerging needs and projects together with internal and external partners;
Provision of technical expertise across the foresight value chain, including data scanning, analysis & sensemaking, and visualisation of insights;
Ensure strategic integration of foresight with and across programmatic objectives and processes supporting broader organisational transformation goals;
Ensure the adoption of tools and processes to specific contexts, employing methods and approaches that promote inclusive, safe and ethical approaches;
Manage budgets and procurement activities supported by the administrative staff;
Development of foresight product roadmaps. These will support sustainable adoption, contextualisation, uptake and continuous development of new foresight offerings and services;
Maintain knowledge of technologies, trends, developments and approaches applied in futures and foresight;
Absorb foresight capacity development tasks targeting internal and external partners, including documentation of best practices, developing tools, resources, training, guidelines and policy development;
Ongoing monitoring and reporting tasks, development of M&E and portfolio impact management approaches;
Create impactful visualisations, communications and engagements around emerging trends and issues catering for the senior UN decision-makers and agenda setters;
Strategic communications, partnerships, resource mobilisation, and expert ecosystem development in the substantive area;
Represent Global Pulse at events, workshops and conferences as required;
Planning and facilitating co-creation sessions with diverse groups of stakeholders.
Advanced university degree preferably in international development, computational social sciences, social sciences, behavioural sciences, economics, interaction design or another relevant discipline is required.
A first degree and an additional two years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
Required
A minimum of five (5) years of relevant experience in any combination of strategic planning/development/consulting and/or project or product management, strategic foresight, innovation, data, development, innovation or design research, digital development or other related fields.
A minimum of three (3) years of experience on futures and foresight work in organizational settings.
Desirable: (The following experiences are optional. Candidates who do not have them are welcome to apply)
Experience working in the humanitarian and development sectors, including experience in international organisations or government contexts or sub-government entities, such as think tanks or innovation accelerators.
Experience in working in a developing country context on planning and implementing multi-stakeholder innovation programmes.
Track record of delivering high-quality research, analysis (preferably quantitative and qualitative approaches) and communicating the insights through accessible multimedia formats for action and results.
Ability to manage relationships with partners, including government, universities, UN organisations, NGOs, and the private sector.
Experience with computational social sciences, scripting, coding algorithms, and web design required for data access, analysis, and presentation.
Experience in evaluating, adapting, sharing and scaling digital innovation for development and humanitarian outcomes.
Experience working with agile project management and portfolio management
Experience in working at a startup or intrapreneurial position in an emerging organisational context.
Fluency in English (read, write, speak) is required.
Knowledge of another United Nations official language is an advantage.
UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.
UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.
Working with us
UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.
Diversity
With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.
Work life harmonization
UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.
Background Information: Sustainable Development Cluster(SDC)
Based in New York, the Sustainable Development Cluster (SDC) supports diverse partners with their peacebuilding, humanitarian and development operations.
The SDC’s services include grants management, development and special initiatives support, and technology support to the UN and UN agencies.
The SDC is part of the New York Service Cluster that supports the United Nations Secretariat, as well as a broadening community of other New York-based United Nations organizations, bilateral and multilateral partners in the delivery of UNOPS mandate in project management, infrastructure management, and procurement management.
