Position Overview:

• The incumbent is accountable to both the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Nairobi (UNON) and the Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM) in accordance with their shared responsibility for the provision of conference services.
• The incumbent leads the administration of the Division of Conference services that provides the full range of conference services (meeting services, interpretation, report writing, editing, translation, text processing, graphic design, printing and reproduction, diplomatic correspondences, etc.) to UNEP, UNHABITAT and the Resident Coordinator System (RCS). He / She oversees the administration of conference facilities at UNON and provides services to meetings held in Nairobi.
• The incumbent liaises with governments who offer to hold meetings in Nairobi, facilitates and negotiates agreements for such meetings. He / She initiates the conference services innovations to improve service delivery. Contributes to the global management of UN conference services and ensures effective collaboration with the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM) and counter parts in New York, Geneva and Vienna.

Your Role Will Include (not limited to):

• Provide policy guidance and executive supervision to the Division of Conference Services and coordinate its operations with UNEP and UN-Habitat.
• Formulate work programmes, costings and budgets based on forecasted workload and capacity; prepare programme budget submissions and budget performance reports; determine resource requirements and utilization rates.
• Provide guidance to and implement the conference-servicing programme of the client offices to ensure the most efficient and cost-effective use of available resources and facilities and adherence to General Assembly resolutions on organizing and servicing of conferences and meetings.
• Coordinate DCS input for reports and additional information for oversight bodies such as the General Assembly and its Committee on Conferences and other policy-making organs, as appropriate.
• Collaborate closely with DGACM in New York and the conference servicing entities of the other duty stations (Geneva and Vienna) in the framework of Integrated Global Management in order to achieve efficient utilization of conference servicing resources globally.
• Contribute to the formulation of DGACM’s global conference management strategies and policies relating to the provision of conference services and to the organization and servicing of meetings and conferences, and the effective utilization of resources under the program budget; provide policy advice to the Director-General, UNON.
• Provide guidance and implement the Division’s chargeback system and the conference-servicing programme of the client offices.
• Manage the conference facilities at UNON in consultation with major users of conference services in Nairobi in order to ensure their most effective utilization and, in cooperation with the Office of the Director-General UNON and Division of Administration UNON help realize improvements to the facilities and appropriate funding of related services.
• Lead DCS contribution and input for the expansion and renovation of UNON’s conference facilities and services, and ensure an effective change management strategy is in place throughout the transition period.
• Provide policy, operational and managerial guidance to the Director-General, other UNON managers and Conference Service staff, and approve proposals for recruitment of staff, extension of contracts or other personnel actions after securing the necessary clearances; ensure proper application of performance management to staff and recommend staff development activities and training.
• Through regular meetings of the Conference Service management team, develop innovative programmes to improve the cost efficiency of the service and its delivery.
• Implement policies and strategies in line with the Organization’s IT Strategy and that of DGACM and facilitate support of DGACM conference management IT systems in the areas of meetings management, documents processing and translation used at all four DGACM duty stations as well as at regional commissions and other international organizations.
• Exercise supervisory responsibility for Conference Services, ensure effective coordination between sections and units of the service and implement the policy and standard practices of the UN and UNEP/UN-Habitat in the field of conference servicing and implement the policies, procedures and standard practices in the field of conference-servicing, as established by the USG for DGACM.
• Initiate innovations, technical and procedural, to improve the efficiency of conference services and direct the development of training programmes for staff to that effect.
• Introduce and institutionalize methods of work for language staff, and forge closer working relations between interpreters, translators, editors and language and other support staff.
• Negotiate with government authorities to achieve host government agreements covering conference service requirements, costings, facilities for remote translation, including visits to meetings venues to review facilities.
• Represent UNEP and UN-Habitat at International Annual Meeting on Language Arrangements, Documentation and Publications (IAMLADP) and contribute to global management of UN conference services and ensure effective collaboration with DGACM/NY and counterparts in Geneva and Vienna.
• As part of the management team at UNON, represent the Division on the Senior Management Team tasked with advising the Director General; help formulate and implement the decisions of the Director-General.
• Lead team members efforts to collect and analyze data and provide insight to identify trends or patterns for data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting. Ensure that all stakeholders can discover, access, integrate and utilize the data they need as appropriate.

Do You Fulfill the Fundamental Requirements?

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in business or public administration, finance, accounting, law, social sciences, language studies or related area is required. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.

Work Experience:

• A minimum of fifteen (15) years of progressively responsible experience in conference management, including the delivery of conference services, administration, human, IT and financial resources management or related fields, of which at least ten (10) years at the international level is required.
• A minimum of five (5) years of experience in the planning, management and delivery of conference services or conference related language services is required.
• Experience in managing diverse teams of staff and significant conference-related human, financial and IT resources is required.
• Experience in the management of complex multi-year and multi-stakeholder projects involving planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in the United Nations is desirable.
• Experience in conferencing related tools and technology is desirable.
• Experience in change management and managing in a complex and multicultural settings is desirable.
• Experience in facilitating intergovernmental processes and multilateral diplomacy, as well as experience in handling a multi-disciplinary portfolio of tasks and duties is desirable.
• Experience in data analytics or related area is desirable