UNDP Jobs - 34651- Engineering Specialist

Engineering Specialist

Location :

Garowe, SOMALIA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

03-Jan-13 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-3

Duration of Initial Contract :

One year

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

One year (Renewable)

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Over the past years the overall number of civil works and rehabilitation assignments completed by UNDP Somalia has increased dramatically, not only in volume and scope, but also into more complex site areas in Somalia. On this background the UNDP Somalia Country Office is enhancing in-house capacity to deal with the projected civil works and rehabilitation requirements in support of projected Works activities planned by the UNDP Somalia, especially relating to the Governance/Rule of Law (GROL) Programme. The Engineering Specialist will be responsible for ensuring the implementation of timely and high quality civil works and rehabilitation projects predominantly in Puntland, but in other regions of Somalia where GROLS have civil work projects.

The Engineering Specialist will be supervised by the Chief Engineer. The Engineering Specialist would lead and guide the team of regional engineers in Somalia and foster collaboration within the team and with other partner Agencies consistent with rules and a client-oriented approach. The Engineering Specialist works in close collaboration with programme and project teams in the CO, other client UN Agencies and Government officials to successfully deliver Engineering services.

The Engineering Specialist will work in closely with the technical officers in charge; assessing needs, drafting Bills of Quantity, Scopes of Work, monitoring and supervising the contract management processes in the Sub offices and advising management on best practices, taking corrective measures when needed. The Engineering Specialist will also be responsible for assessing and continually updating local market rates for materials, equipment and labour to ensure accurate estimate of costs for works projects and evaluation purposes.

Garowe is considered non-family for the purposes of entitlement setting, Special Operation Approach (SOA) applies for reassignments purposes with Nairobi as Administrative Place of Assignment (APA).

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of functions:

Oversight and building of capacity of the local engineer/technical staff
Oversight and technical support to the sub-office on all Procurement activities:
Supports capacity building of Government counterparts
Implementation of all activities related to procurement of GROL’s civil works, while ensuring the highest levels of value-for-money
Quality assurance as it pertains to evaluation, design, implementation, monitoring and reporting on all GROL’s engineering project activities
Constant monitoring and analysis of the operating environment for civil works

Provides effective oversight of the UNDP Somalia engineer team and the building of capacity of the local engineers/technical staff under the guidance of the Chief Engineer:

Provides oversight of national engineering team performance under his/her project activities through effective application of the UNDP performance appraisals systems and staff learning plans and reports to Chief Engineer on any performance issues.
Assess engineering skill gaps and training needs of UNDP National Engineers, providing input to the design of overall training programs, and contributing to training on the site in conjunction with the Chief Engineer.
Coach and mentor the team of engineers/technical staff through all UNDP Somalia and train them on the designing, BoQ preparation and supervise/monitor the implementation ensuring quality control and application of international standards under the guidance of the Chief Engineer.
Train the local engineers to standardize the designs, the technical specifications and the forms used for the BoQ and the reporting formats.

Provides oversight and technical support to the sub-office on all Procurement activities:

Responsible for oversight and provision of technical support to the Sub-Office procurement function in terms of procurement of all GROL’s Civil works
Responsible for oversight of effective contract management of GROL’s civil works contracts.
Provide technical support to the Head of Sub-office on all civil works related issues.

Supports capacity building of Government counterparts:

Assist the government counterparts in establishing institutional engineering capacity in support of public works, in conjunction with efforts of other UN agencies.
Assess engineering skill gaps and training needs of counterparts, design overall training programs, and carry out training as required under the direction of the Chief Engineer.

Ensures effective implementation of all activities related to procurement of GROL’s civil works, while ensuring the highest levels of value-for-money:

Responsible for effective contract management of all UNDP Somalia Civil Works contracts both in Somaliland, Puntland, South & Central Somalia and Nairobi/Kenya for GROL’s funded projects.
Develop or review the designs and the BoQs of all GROL’s projects and ensure that they comply with the technical standards and the local market prices.
Arrange and conduct pre-tender site visits when required.
Assist the procurement and contracting department in the preparation of the tender documents.
Oversee the bid evaluation and assure ensure transparency and application of UNDP rules & procedures.
Provide technical advice before the awarding of Works contracts.
Responsible for all additional works (volume, design and cost) for approval by the Chief Engineer.
Initiate the necessary amendments of the contracts and provide revised design and BoQs upon request by GROL’s Project Managers.
Responsible for drafting a procurement plan for GROL’s civil works projects, establishing a work-plan, planning supervision and monitoring of all GROL’s projects under implementation by UNDP.

Responsible for quality assurance as it pertains to evaluation, design, implementation, monitoring and reporting on all GROL’s engineering project activities:

Ensure effective site supervision and quality control of all GROL’s works projects, reporting weekly to the Chief Engineer.
Monitor the progress of projects at all phases of their implementation and handover and report on anomalies to the Chief Engineer.
Prepare for site handover before and after works and report to the Chief Engineer on any anomalies.
Issue certification of payment according to the various contractual milestones.
Monitor the progress of all works projects and make random visits to the sites to check the progress against delay and quality of the work in support of daily site supervision conducted by site engineers.

Constant monitoring and analysis of the operating environment for civil works:

Develops and maintains comprehensive risk management logs for all GROL’s civil work projects above 100,000 USD or projects in high risk areas.
Maintains a comprehensive price index for key construction materials for all regions of Somalia for precise cost estimation.
Under the guidance of the Chief Engineer, conducts routine market surveys and pre-qualification of Contractors to ensure updated supplier databases for all regions.
Conducts performance evaluation for all conducted civil works under the GROL’s portfolio and maintains scores in centralized database.

Impact of Results:

The key results have an impact on the overall performance of the Procurement & Contracting Unit in ensuring:

Compliance with UNDP procurement rules and regulations for Civil Works
Quality assurance of Civil Works projects
Timeliness of project implementation
Risk management
Public Procurement and technical capacity building of national staff and Government counterparts.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Building Partnerships

Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build alliances
Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners
Displays initiative, sets challenging outputs for him/herself and willingly accepts new work assignments

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing

Participates in the development of mechanisms, including identifying new approaches to promote individual and organizational learning and knowledge sharing using formal and informal methodologies

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

Understands advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines (financial resources and human resources management, contract, asset and procurement, information and communication technology, general administration)
Continues to seek new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work of the unit
Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally
Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments
Continually looking for ways to enhance financial performance in the office

Promoting Organizational Change and Development

Performs appropriate work analysis and assists in redesign to establish clear standards for implementation

Design And Implementation of Management Systems

Makes recommendations regarding operation of systems within organizational units
Identifies and recommends remedial measures to address problems in systems design or implementation

Client Orientation

Anticipates client needs
Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective
Solicits feedback on service provision and quality

Promoting Accountability and Results-Based Management

Provides inputs to the development of organizational standards for accountability

Core Competencies:

Building support and political acumen
Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation
Building and promoting effective teams
Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication
Creating an emotionally intelligent organization
Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards
Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.
Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advance University Degree in Civil Engineering.
A first level University degree in Civil Engineering with 7 years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

5 years of relevant work experience in the area of infrastructure project development/design and management in a multi-cultural setting, of which 2 years should preferably be in complex UN emergency settings;
Experience in quality control and certification of civil works is an asset
Experience in procurement and infrastructure contract management is highly desirable
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web based management systems
Knowledge of Auto CAD and Chief Architect is an asset

Language Requirements:

Strong written and spoken English skills. Knowledge of another UN language is an asset.