Strategic Foresight Specialist At UNOPS

The incumbent will work under the supervision of the Programme Manager of UNGP Finland in addition to working under the substantive supervision of the Programme Management Specialist (Focal Area Lead in Strategic Foresight) ; and will be responsible for the following duties:

1. Team management and strategic direction
2. Strategic Development and Research and Analysis
3. Knowledge creation, capacity building and reporting
4. Communication and partnerships

Team Management and Strategic Direction

• Coordinate and guide the work of the internal team and external contributors, including consultants and the related contractual and supervisory responsibilities
• Strategic development and oversight of the foresight work stream including its alignment with the overall vision & objectives of the UNGP Network & EOSG; **
  Strategic Development and Research and Analysis**
• Development & oversight of a strategic foresight experiments portfolio. This will include the creation of a pipeline of emerging needs and projects together with internal and external partners;
• Provision of technical expertise across the foresight value chain, including data scanning, analysis & sensemaking, and visualisation of insights;
• Ensure strategic integration of foresight with and across programmatic objectives and processes supporting broader organisational transformation goals;
• Ensure the adoption of tools and processes to specific contexts, employing methods and approaches that promote inclusive, safe and ethical approaches;
• Manage budgets and procurement activities supported by the administrative staff;
• Development of foresight product roadmaps. These will support sustainable adoption, contextualisation, uptake and continuous development of new foresight offerings and services;
• Maintain knowledge of technologies, trends, developments and approaches applied in futures and foresight; **
  Knowledge creation, capacity building and reporting **
• Absorb foresight capacity development tasks targeting internal and external partners, including documentation of best practices, developing tools, resources, training, guidelines and policy development;
• Ongoing monitoring and reporting tasks, development of M&E and portfolio impact management approaches;

Communication and partnerships

• Create impactful visualisations, communications and engagements around emerging trends and issues catering for the senior UN decision-makers and agenda setters;
• Strategic communications, partnerships, resource mobilisation, and expert ecosystem development in the substantive area;
• Represent Global Pulse at events, workshops and conferences as required;
• Planning and facilitating co-creation sessions with diverse groups of stakeholders.

Perform other duties as may be reasonably required and in line with the incumbent’s scope of services above.
Impact of Results
Support UN leadership, including country operations, in accessing futures and foresight capacity to identify emerging risks and opportunities, develop mitigation strategies, and inform strategic planning contributing to the overall vision and mission of the UN Global Pulse.

** Education/Experience/Language requirements

* FEMALE CANDIDATES ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY
* CANDIDATES WITH NO UNITED NATIONS OR UNOPS EXPERIENCE ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY
Education:**

• Advanced university degree preferably in international development, computational social sciences, social sciences, behavioural sciences, economics, interaction design or another relevant discipline is required.
• A first degree and an additional two years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. **
  Experience: **

Required

• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant experience in any combination of strategic planning/development/consulting and/or project or product management, strategic foresight, innovation, data, development, innovation or design research, digital development or other related fields.
• A minimum of three (3) years of experience on futures and foresight work in organizational settings.

Desirable: (The following experiences are optional. Candidates who do not have them are welcome to apply)

• Experience working in the humanitarian and development sectors, including experience in international organisations or government contexts or sub-government entities, such as think tanks or innovation accelerators.
• Experience in working in a developing country context on planning and implementing multi-stakeholder innovation programmes.
• Track record of delivering high-quality research, analysis (preferably quantitative and qualitative approaches) and communicating the insights through accessible multimedia formats for action and results.
• Ability to manage relationships with partners, including government, universities, UN organisations, NGOs, and the private sector.
• Experience with computational social sciences, scripting, coding algorithms, and web design required for data access, analysis, and presentation.
• Experience in evaluating, adapting, sharing and scaling digital innovation for development and humanitarian outcomes.
• Experience working with agile project management and portfolio management
• Experience in working at a startup or intrapreneurial position in an emerging organisational context.

Language:

• Fluency in English (read, write, speak) is required.
• Knowledge of another United Nations official language is an advantage.