Project Manager [Open to Tier 1 and 2 applicants]

In line with the commitment to safeguard capacity and support personnel already in the Organization, a majority of UNDP UNCDF/UNV vacancies are advertised using a tiered application process whereby:

• Tier 0: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV IP staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments, whose posts will be abolished, or contracts will be terminated or not renewed during 2026.
• Tier 1: Other UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments
• Tier 2: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA), personnel on regular PSA contracts, and Expert and Specialist UN Volunteers
• Tier 3 or no tier indicated: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

Please make note of the Tier(s) indicated in the vacancy title, if any, and ensure that you satisfy the eligibility to apply.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN's global development network, working in 170 countries and territories. In line with its 2026-2030 Country Programme, UNDP in Bosnia and Herzegovina focuses on inclusive green growth, human capital development and accountable institutions and social cohesion. UNDP is fully committed to supporting Bosnia and Herzegovina in achieving its Agenda 2030 commitments and advancing its European Union (EU) integration priorities. Across all areas of work, UNDP applies conflict-sensitive, integrated, and innovative approaches tailored to the country's development needs.
UNDP in BIH implements a portfolio of projects that engage and support a wide range of stakeholders, including institutional partners and socio-economic actors, strengthening their capacities for pursuing relevant socio-economic reforms, strengthening social cohesion, and implementing the SDG Framework in BIH. In this context, UNDP implements several initiatives through its Effective Governance Sector, including the Bridges of Trust: Improving social cohesion and resilience in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SCORE Project.

The SCORE Project aims to strengthen social cohesion in Bosnia and Herzegovina by using evidence-based analysis to understand divisive narratives and identify opportunities to build trust. This approach will enable data-driven interventions that foster an environment conducive to democratic development and EU integration.

Three key areas of intervention include:

• Output 1: Robust research framework and publicly accessible datasets on social cohesion, resilience, and inclusive participation are established and used to inform policy decisions and development programming in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Output 2: Targeted oversampling and analysis at the local level, in communities prone to heightened social tensions, to generate in-depth local insights that inform tailored policy responses and address context-specific challenges to social cohesion and gender incl
   
• Output 3: Enhanced local mechanisms and multi-stakeholder platforms in place across Bosnia and Herzegovina to foster intergroup trust, counter divisive narratives, and support inclusive participation of underrepresented groups, particularly women and youth in public decision-making.
   

Alongside national-level activities, the project will directly engage with 5 targeted local governments, selected to reflect proportional representation by population and administrative structure.

Under the direct supervision of the Effective Governance Sector Leader, the Project Manager will assume the overall responsibility for the management of the SCORE Project activities implemented under UNDP Effective Governance Sector, ensuring close cooperation with relevant projects.

The Project Manager will be based in the UNDP BIH office in Sarajevo, with frequent field travel to the target area.
In line with the ProDocs, UNDP rules and regulations, as well as the UNDP internal control framework, the Project Manager will have the following main functions:

• Coordinates and manages project activities, donors, project partners and other stakeholders.
   
• Manage and ensures achievement of the overall project objectives as stated in the project document including supervision of the project team.
   
• Supports coordination of activities related to the incorporation of different approaches into project activities.
   
• Applies programming tools and policies in line with the UN Result-Based Management Approach, prepares annual activity and procurement work plans, as well as budgets based on expected year-end outputs.
   
• Builds, motivates, and leads a high-performing team consisting of personnel, experts, service providers, and conducts performance assessments of team members
  Reports to the Project Board to assure the overall direction and integrity of the implementation.
   
• Ensures full accountability, transparency, and the principle of competition in the allocation of resources, procurement of services, works and goods and selection of recipients.
   
• Secures proper and efficient use of projects budget, as per the JP document and workplans; manages financial allocations and approves expenditures according to the authority delegated and ensures timely payments in accordance with UNDP rules and regulations.
   
• Ensures that all UNDP project management quality standards are observed and applied in the implementation.
   
• Complies with security and safety requirements and regulations and ensures the same are respected by the team members

• Provides conceptual guidance, policy and technical advice to the team and counterparts.
• Identifies sources of information related to policy-driven issues, identifies and synthesises best practices and lessons learned directly linked to projects objectives.
   
• Provides strategic leadership and steers the regulatory and policy formulation processes in line with the project's documents, observing the application of EU standards as relevant and ensuring sustainable and lasting changes.
   
• Guides the design and implementation of the support to institutional partners and other stakeholders.
   
• Participates in project-level committees, policy and capacity development working groups and events.
   
• Ensures strategic synergies and coordination with other relevant interventions.
   
• Provides technical support to the Sector Leader.
   
• Advises on issues of further programme development, including writing of concepts and proposals, as well as resource mobilisation.

• Reviews on a regular basis schedules, deliverables and budget as articulated in the Annual Work Plan - AWP (evidence of progress towards expected outputs, according to schedule, within budget) with the projects staff.
• Ensures close monitoring of activities in line with the monitoring plans, guiding the design and regular use of adequate monitoring tools and systems, enabling evidence-based tracking of progress, achievements, and results, against the logical framework indicators.
• Monitors budgets, verifies the availability of funds, obtains necessary approvals and updates budget-related information.
• Ensures that all projects-related issues and risks are identified and reported in a timely manner and suggests corrective measures.
• Ensures timely submission of narrative progress and financial reports, and other reports as may be required by UNDP, Project Boards or the donors.
• Carries regular, announced and unannounced performance monitoring of the team, as well as conducts field visits and quality checks of project events, sites and activities.
• Ensures data and information inputs, as necessary, to the regular Country Office programme monitoring and reporting processes.
• Ensures the existence of successful quality assurance for financial, procurement and administrative processes in order to make sure that they are conducted in line with prevailing UNDP rules and regulations as well as in line with the project timelines.

• Ensures gender mainstreaming throughout the project activities, work plans, budgets, reports, research, analyses and, where specifically relevant, analyse it in detail.
• Supports continuous learning by the team and contributes to the UNDP in-house thematic knowledge and practitioners’ networks.
• Prepares analytical reviews and systematically captures lessons learnt from the implementation, identifying follow-up actions, and submits them for consideration to the Project Board.
• Establishes connections of exchange and learning with national and regional local development networks and resource persons.
• Ensures all project products and heritage are duly stored and made available to the broader programme

• Establishes and maintains good working relations with relevant institutional and organisational partners at state, entity, and local levels, as well as with main international organisations as relevant.
• Arranges, prepares and follows up on meetings with direct stakeholders such as public officials, service providers, civil society, regional/international professional networks, and others that consolidate wider support to the JP objectives and expand its outreach.
• Encourages active participation of all stakeholders in order to promote empowerment and ownership of national counterparts and stakeholders.
• Actively works on the relationships with the institutional partners and other stakeholders, ensuring full understanding, cooperation and a best fit of the programme activities with the needs of the beneficiaries.
• Ensures wide dissemination and visibility of achievements.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the functioning of the Project and the Organization.

The incumbent will report to the Project Board and Sector Leader as part of the UNDP Effective Governance Sector

Core Competencies

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making

People Management Competencies

• UNDP People Management Competencies can be found in the dedicated site.

Cross-functional & Technical Competences

Business Management

• Results-based Management
  • Ability to manage the implementation of strategies, programmes and projects with a focus at improved performance and demonstrable results. 
  • Knowledge and understanding of relevant theories, concepts, methodologies, instruments, and tools.
• Partnership Management
  • Build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and public sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.
• Communication
  • Communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience. 
  • Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.

Partnership management

• Resource mobilization
  • Ability to identify funding sources, match funding needs (programmes/projects/initiatives) with funding opportunities, and establish a plan to meet funding requirements.
• Relationship management
  • Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding.

Business Direction & Strategy

• Entrepreneurial Thinking
  • Identify and seize opportunities to service and add value to clients, create clarity around UNDP value proposition to beneficiaries and partners and, develop clear service offers responding to client needs based on UNDP’s organizational priorities and mandate.
• Systems Thinking
  • Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Public Administration, Economics, Law, Political Sciences, other Social Sciences or a related field is required, OR;
• A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying work experience, will be given due consideration in lieu of the Advanced University Degree.

Experience:

• Minimum two years (with Master’s degree) or four years (with Bachelor’s degree) of proven project management experience is required.
• Experience in designing, managing and implementing projects related to social cohesion, democratic governance, local development, community resilience, and inclusive participation using research and data analysis to support project design and implementation is required.
• Extensive experience in partnering and interaction with governmental institutions at various levels, civil society organization, academia and other relevant stakeholders to promote policy dialogue, stakeholder engagement, and collective action is required.

Desired skills:

• Experience in managing projects throughout the full cycle, including planning, budgeting, procurement, team coordination, identification of funding opportunities, preparation of donor reports, and support to donor engagement and resource mobilization efforts is desired.
• Experience in developing and implementing public policies or strategies related to governance, social cohesion, citizen participation, or strengthening local governments is desired.
• Experience in designing and delivering programmes tailored to the socio-economic and post-conflict context of BiH, including local development strategies is desired.
• Experience in assessing development challenges and formulating practical, evidence-based solutions is desired.
• Experience applying gender equality, inclusion, and diversity principles in projects, including gender analysis is desired.
• Demonstrated experience working with UNDP or other UN entities is desired.

Languages:

• English and any of official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian/Croatian or Serbian) is required.

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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