Public Procurement Analyst

Public procurement serves as a crucial mechanism in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It has the capacity to generate employment, promote equality, and mitigate carbon footprints. By adopting more sustainable and resilient procurement frameworks, we can fortify supply chains, enhance transparency, and deliver greater benefits to communities. At UNOPS, we collaborate with our partners to advance transparent, sustainable, and resilient procurement practices that pave the way for a brighter future.

Efficient public procurement is fundamental to nearly all sustainable development efforts. Every Global Goal, every mission, every operation relies on the effective and sustainable acquisition of goods and services to tackle global challenges.

Public procurement can also act as a catalyst for change, possessing the transformative power to foster sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development. It presents an opportunity to maximize the impact of expenditures and serves as a tool to advocate for social inclusion, fairness, and value for money.

As outlined in the revised UNOPS Strategic Plan, our goal is to assist governments and other partners in planning and executing transparent, cost-effective public procurement that yields sustainable, equitable, and gender-sensitive outcomes. As a key United Nations resource for procurement, we leverage efforts for economic, social, and environmental impact through sustainable procurement and the capacity development of local supply chains and public institutions, addressing all Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 12. Enhancing institutional capacity for sustainable, transparent, and equitable public procurement practices can broaden the resources available for nations to expedite the achievement of the SDGs and combat climate change.

We empower our partners to purchase for impact by:

- **Unlocking potential through sustainable procurement:** UNOPS guarantees sustainable and resilient procurement that can enhance supply chains, boost transparency, and facilitate inclusive choices. By diversifying supply chains, we can provide opportunities for businesses owned by women, youth, individuals with disabilities, and ethnic minorities to thrive.

- **Enhancing public spending effectiveness to empower institutions:** UNOPS aids in making public procurement more efficient, ensuring higher levels of transparency, greater value for money, and improved public services for the communities served.

- **Supporting local economies:** Approximately half of our procurement is sourced from local suppliers, which can help reduce environmental impacts by minimizing emissions and directly supporting local economies.

- **Optimizing public procurement for impact:** UNOPS is committed to freeing up resources by realizing efficiencies, preventing losses from fraud, corruption, and lack of transparency, and enhancing effectiveness through choices that enable sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development.

The Procurement Group (PG) is situated at UNOPS HQ in Copenhagen. It spearheads the organization's sustainable procurement initiatives and is responsible for: formulating strategy, policy positions, and innovative solutions for procurement at UNOPS; facilitating the operationalization and managerial oversight of UNOPS procurement activities through appropriate systems and reports; enhancing the knowledge, skills, and career development of procurement professionals; and leading the implementation of sustainable supply chains throughout the organization.

Job-specific Background

The Procurement Specialist will join the Policy and Standards team at PG, which is primarily responsible for:

• Developing UNOPS procurement policies, guidelines, templates, and other knowledge products, ensuring alignment with best practices and business requirements;
• Establishing a UNOPS Procurement Learning Strategy and plan to enhance and upskill the function globally.
• Creating and delivering training courses for UNOPS personnel;
• Coordinating eProcurement initiatives, including the development and implementation of the UNOPS eSourcing system and ERP modules such as supplier performance evaluation and contract management;
• Serving as the secretariat for the Vendor Review Committee (VRC);
• Addressing and implementing procurement recommendations from internal and external audits, as well as for procurement assessments and certifications.

The successful candidate will be tasked with designing, developing, and implementing training programs and capacity-building initiatives to enhance procurement knowledge and skills across UNOPS offices globally. The specialist will collaborate with relevant stakeholders at HQ and in the regions to identify training needs, develop a curriculum, deliver training sessions, evaluate the effectiveness of training initiatives, and be primarily responsible for the following areas of work:

Training and Learning Initiatives:

• Collaborating with Regional and country offices to assess functional learning needs and gaps in procurement knowledge and skills globally across UNOPS personnel.
• Designing the training curriculum with adult learning principles in mind and following the ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) framework.
• Developing comprehensive training programs and materials tailored to meet identified functional learning needs.
• Working with stakeholders and experts to ensure training content is accurate, current, and aligned with organizational policies and best practices.
• Delivering procurement training courses such as the Procurement Operations Training in HQ and field locations as required.
• Providing procurement training to UNOPS personnel and external partners and clients through various methods, including on-site sessions for large audiences, online methods (webinars, teleconferences, chat rooms), and other modern adult learning techniques.
• Advising on new and innovative approaches to enhance the effectiveness of existing training programs and materials.
• Coordinating the delivery of training sessions through various modalities, including face-to-face training and in-person workshops, webinars, e-learning platforms, microlearning, gamification, and other innovative approaches.
• Offering guidance and support to regional procurement teams in implementing training initiatives and integrating learning objectives into regional trainings.
• Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of training programs through feedback mechanisms, assessments, and performance metrics.
• Continuously reviewing and updating training materials and curriculum to reflect changes in procurement regulations, technology, and organizational priorities.
• Collaborating with the UNOPS Learning team and other relevant departments to ensure the integration of procurement training into personnel induction and the global offering of functional training programs.
• In collaboration with the UNOPS Learning & Development unit, managing the central budget allocated for procurement-related training globally.

The specialist will also be responsible for overall content development for Procurement Guidelines or training content as assigned, which includes:

• Identifying needs for new materials and defining the objectives and scope of content development.
• Coordinating delivery, drafting, and consolidating content.
• Liaising with UNOPS stakeholders to develop policy, standards, guidance, tools, templates, and gathering inputs.
• Conducting necessary research and desk reviews.
• Collecting, consolidating, processing, and providing feedback to stakeholders.
• Ensuring content is consistent with existing organizational strategies, policies, practices, rules, and regulations, tailored to organizational needs to facilitate project implementation.

Knowledge Building and Sharing

• Identifying areas for improvement and providing ongoing maintenance and updates of the UNOPS Intranet space with the most current information relevant to project management activities.
• Contributing to knowledge networks and communities of practice by synthesizing lessons learned and disseminating best practices in the area of work.
• Collecting feedback, ideas, and internal knowledge about processes and best practices and utilizing them productively.
• Supporting the Knowledge Management team in implementing other training and professionalization initiatives.

The successful candidate will be expected to develop and implement sustainable business strategies, think long-term, and externally to positively influence the organization. They will anticipate and understand the impact of future decisions and activities on other parts of the organization, treating all individuals with respect and responding sensitively to differences. The candidate will uphold organizational and ethical norms, maintaining high standards of trustworthiness and serving as a role model for diversity and inclusion.

Education

• A Master's Degree or equivalent, preferably in supply chain, procurement, business, law, audit, economics, or related disciplines.
• Applicants with a Bachelor's Degree in related fields and an additional 2 years of relevant working experience may be considered in lieu of a Master's degree.

Work Experience

• A minimum of 5 years of demonstrated experience in procurement is required.
• At least 2 years of experience in delivering procurement training is required.
• Experience in developing and designing procurement training would be a significant asset.
• Experience working in organizations adhering to public procurement rules and regulations, as well as experience in field offices, would be advantageous.
• Familiarity with UNOPS processes, policies, procedures, and systems is an advantage.

Certifications

• Certification related to CIPS is considered an asset.

Languages

• Fluency in English is required.
• Fluency in French and/or Spanish is highly desired.

Contract type: International ICA
Contract level: IICA2, ICS10