Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Organization: UNOPS
Deadline: 13-Apr-2025
Job Description
Background Information – Job-specific
UNOPS Horn of Africa Multi-Country Office is recruiting for this position: Civil Engineer based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
UNOPS strategy for the Horn of Africa Multi-Country Office is aimed at providing support to the Government and people of Ethiopia, Sudan, and Djibouti through the delivery of projects and services in line with the governments’ own priorities and also under the UN Delivery as One initiative. The UNOPS Horn Africa Multi-Country Office (HAMCO) has been established as an organizational mechanism to deliver a range of projects for which UNOPS has been appointed as the implementation agency. At present, the UNOPS Ethiopia office is implementing and negotiating a number of projects in a range of sectors including infrastructure development, Procurement Support to Government Ministries and other UN agencies, and HR support to UN agencies. The functional objective of UNOPS Ethiopia Office is to deliver projects in an efficient and effective manner, to achieve the development outcomes sought by the Government of Ethiopia and the donor community, where capacity building is always considered and encouraged.
The Civil Engineer is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the project(s) and provides services to the different donors, partners and beneficiaries. The main responsibility of a Civil Engineer is to work closely with the Infrastructure Project Manager and PMs to ensure that the project outputs are delivered within the specified project tolerances of time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits. The incumbent is expected to meet the organization’s performance and delivery goals.
The Civil Engineer, together with the Infrastructure Project Manager are responsible for creating the Implementation Plan, using the Project Initiation Document (PID), Legal Agreement and having a thorough understanding of the terms, conditions, and the respective roles and responsibilities of the partners/stakeholders, to ensure the project(s) outputs are capable of meeting the business cases for both UNOPS and the partner(s). Success of the project(s) and hence of the Civil Engineer will be based on the defined Success Criteria.
Functional Responsibilities
The Civil Engineer will be responsible for assisting the project development process, participating in assessment, development of BOQs and preparation of bid documents. The position holder will be assisting UNOPS Ethiopia office in construction supervision and technical assessments of infrastructure projects in Addis Ababa and different sites across the country. The position requires frequent travel to project sites in all regional states of Ethiopia.
The Civil Engineer will be responsible for the below listed tasks and responsibilities.
Oversight and coordination to ensure timely completion of the works, will include
- Under the guidance of the infrastructure project manager and UNOPS supporting teams, oversee the contractual clause out of project contracts.
- Reviewing/confirming materials quantities to allow facilitation of procurement including direct payment to material suppliers upon request by the contractor.
- Supported by the infrastructure project manager and PMs and the procurement team, ensure timely and cost-effective procurement.
- Oversight of construction activities to ensure that quality and timely delivery are achieved and to ensure HSSE compliance on site.
- Ensuring that UNOPS system and compliance requirements are met in construction implementation and reporting.
Monitoring and reporting will cover the following
- Collection of information on results achieved by the project.
- Calculation of progress against project KPIs for the final project reporting.
- Assessing project performance against KPIs for reporting.
- Contribution of analysis and data to final report.
Operational
- Work on the detailed bill of quantities of the identified works on town water supply schemes rehabilitation needs, and other water resources development projects in consultation with the State authorities and the scheme operations staff.
- Liaison with local contractors engaged to carry out topographical and geotechnical investigations (if any) and direct supervision of the works, and provides technical input to the design development process.
- Collect scheme operational data, assets maintenance records, beneficiaries, survey information and carry out project assessments for new works.
- Undertake a baseline (preliminary) survey to assess the situation of the existing schemes
- Provide technical input to the preparation of costs estimates as well as project implementation schedules for the rehabilitation/ replacement/ extension/ new construction of various works such as deep wells, elevated tanks, transmission & distribution pipe lines and reticulation systems.
- Facilitate the project implementation process with the state authorities and other project stakeholders.
- Support in carrying out the contractor’s evaluation and selection processes.
- Assist the infrastructure project manager or project executive to provide the technical input to the preparation of tenders, during bid evaluation process and in the preparation of the contracts award approval documents.
- As tasked by the infrastructure project manager , supervise the construction works, and administer the execution of the work as per the contractual provisions and the design specifications;
- Support the overall management of the implementation of the work in the field that will ensure the constructions works are completed on time, within budget and up to quality standards;
- Timely actions on potential delays and/or cost overruns that can either be prevented or mitigated are to be quickly reported with recommended remedial actions to the infrastructure project manager;
- Assist the infrastructure project manager in the preparation of project / contracts related documentations such as periodic progress reports, site monitoring reports, stakeholder meeting minutes, engineer’s instructions and variation orders, contractor’s bills review reports, certifications, client hand-over documents and contracts close-out reports.
- Assist in providing training and technology transfer to national personnel and contractor’s personnel and advise on good construction practices, good environmental management practices, and appropriate health and safety standards during construction;
- Represent UNOPS in project implementation activities in the field, as directed by the infrastructure project manager in order to ensure that UNOPS procedures and the standards adhere to all project implementation activities.
- Represent UNOPS to the different related forums, coordinating with other stakeholders and ensuring UNOPS intervention if feasible and documented.
The Civil Engineer will be supported by the Infrastructure Project Manager, IPAS legal, the Ethiopian Multi-country office procurement team, the project manager and the UNOPS Sudan country manager. The incumbent will represent UNOPS in the field, as directed by the Project, to ensure that UNOPS procedures and the standards adhere to all project implementation activities.
Education/Experience/Language requirements
Education
- A Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering, Construction Management, or related fields is required.
- A Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering, Construction Management, or related fields is an asset and may replace some of the required years of experience.
Work Experience
- At least four (4) years general experience in civil engineering or construction technology is required
- At least two (2) years relevant experience in construction supervision and monitoring is required.
- Work experience in coordinating with relevant government technical departments is desirable.
- Experience in UNOPS or other development partners is an asset.
Language
- Fluency in written, spoken and reading English is required.
- Knowledge of another UN official language is an asset.
