UNESCORE Programme Management Office Lead (Paris, France) contract

Parent Sector : Bureau for Digital Business Solutions (DBS)

Duty Station: Paris 

Job Family: Computer Sciences / Information Technologies

Type of contract : Non Staff

Duration of contract : From 7 to 11 months

Recruitment open to : External candidates

Application Deadline (Midnight Paris Time) : 16-DEC-2024

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

The UNESCORE program is one of the cornerstones of digital transformation initiatives. Its objective is to streamline core work processes for speed, efficiencies, and results; standardize data and knowledge management for improved capture, reporting, analytics, institutional memory, and transparency and strengthen accountability at all levels of the Organization.
UNESCORE addresses revamping of programme and project management, ensuring end-to-end coverage of processes fully digitally supported with a harmonized and streamlined approach with enhanced reporting capabilities. It also addresses improvements to recently built modernized platforms to support UNESCO’s C/5 Planning and Programme Implementation. The technologies used are  Salesforce Amp-Impact, SAP, Microsoft Azure and Drupal.

The goal of Core Manager is to support Implementation of C/5 and therefore programme management, reporting and monitoring of UNESCO projects at large both for financial and programmatic elements. Core Planner is developed to support the C/5 biennial financial and programmatic planning of UNESCO. Core Planner was launched in December 2022 and Core Manager was launched in December 2023. 

A savvy and senior program management lead is sought to coordinate and organize the various tasks of the Programme and ensure the right level of stakeholder management.
 

In the course of 2025, ongoing improvements to UNESCORE will be delivered both on the reporting and the functionality aspect. Phasing out of the incumbent CRM system is also part of the roadmap. Following the critical launches, stakeholder follow-up becomes more important and there is a need to improve proactivity levels. Strengthening the structure, improvements to the delivery, enhancements to support model and stakeholder engagement are part of activities planned for 2025.

Internal business stakeholder audiences are segmented into multiple categories. Overall there are central units (not exhaustive list but key groups are: financial and strategic planning, human resources, external relations department, participation programme and evaluation and monitoring), Major Programmes (Sector), Field Offices and Institutes.  

The person is expected to provide services to enhance programme management in order to give 360 visibility of all internal team activities, overall planning of various workstreams, stakeholder follow-up actions, tasks and communication as well as change management oversight for improved user adoption. The consultant is expected to increase the maturity of the stakeholder management, expectation management, ensuring timeliness to their requests coordinating the relevant activities with technical and functional teams that are internal and external. 

In addition, prior Salesforce expertise and knowledge is sought to support the above tasks with very good understanding of UN context, implementation of Salesforce platform in such environments, knowing that there are external partners already engaged for the implementation of the platform. 
 

Education 
Advanced university degree or experience equivalent in Business Management, Information Technology, Computer Science or relevant field. 
Demonstrated experience using JIRA as planning, prioritization and quality control tool. 
Demonstrated experience in using Microsoft SharePoint to organize collaborative and communication workspace per customer needs. 
Proven experience in assignments. 
 

Skills 
Good understanding of Salesforce platform and Information Architecture.
Curious or familiar with visualization of user journeys. 
Strong communication skills and demonstrated experience in organizing and optimizing information. 
Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and French.
Tech savvy with proficient computer skills, including Word, Excel, Power Query and SharePoint. 
General Knowledge on Business processes, Controls & Risks to understand the data is desirable. 
Strong analytical skills and reporting capabilities. 
A high level of individual responsibility, commitment and initiative. 
Responds flexibly to changes and develop alternate plans to achieve objectives. 
Motivated by learning, taking challenges and improving processes. 
Team player and easy communication to keep people informed on challenges or delays. 
 

5.    Desirable Qualifications
A consultant with experience on UN or International Organizations.
 

6.  

1. Deliverables

The expected output for PMO Lead of UNESCORE are as follows:

• Meetings as needed with business stakeholders
• A consolidated list of all critical actions, status updates and activities for business stakeholders.
• Planning, following up and monitoring the progress of workstreams.
• Ensuring the liaison between business related requests and enhancements and final backlog list
• Oversight of change management and user adoption activities. Ensure training materials are complete for new functionality, there are sufficient training sessions to ensure user satisfaction is continuously monitored.
• The coordination and management with technical and functional teams (internal and external) to fulfill the above.
• Provide summaries, status updates and briefings in documents formal/informal for the above tasks as needed.
• Support the programme as needed particularly for the continuation of service delivery such as anticipating the continuity of external teams, planning of contract renewals and extensions with partners.
• Monitor documentation needs and follow-up of the knowledge transfers between team members as and when needed