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UNOPS

Self-financing international agency delivering projects

Partnerships Advisor

Full-TimeUpdated on 10/16/2026
No salary listed
Mid
Madagascar
In Person
ConsultingStrategy & Management Consulting

About the job

Responsibilities
  • Advise on developing a comprehensive partnership-development strategy aligned with UNOPS strategic plans, regional strategy, and office plans, including analysis of national context and development landscapes, identification of key partners, strategic positioning, opportunity-pipeline development, portfolio diversification, and use of internal tools and knowledge resources.
  • Advise the management team on implementing the partnership strategy.
  • Advise and support the management team throughout project-development planning, including prioritizing partners, countries, sectors, and service areas.
  • Research and analyze donor strategies, programming priorities, and political situations to identify funding opportunities aligned with UNOPS strategy and mandate.
  • Promote a rigorous, beneficiary-impact-focused approach to partnership and project/program development consistent with the UN mandate and principles.
  • Support and guide the partnerships team in developing, expanding, and maintaining relationships with key partners, including governments, United Nations agencies, donors, foundations, non-governmental organizations, academia, and the private sector.
  • Work closely with the Head of Programmes, Head of Support Services, and Project/Programme Management Office to ensure new projects are developed by project managers and partnership personnel in alignment with programmes and support services.
  • Apply expertise to uphold high standards for partnership positioning and development, mentoring partnership personnel and guiding their work.
  • Work with communications colleagues to align UNOPS external positioning with national priorities and the office partnership strategy.
  • Participate in and lead key partnership-building meetings and negotiations with government and development partners, secure appropriate terms, and follow up systematically and promptly on agreed actions.
  • Coordinate, advise, mentor, and coach partnership and programme personnel at country, programme, and project levels to ensure aligned and consistent partner engagement.
  • Collaborate with partnership colleagues and regional and headquarters teams to share good practices and strengthen UNOPS partnership-development capacity.
  • Facilitate, manage, and lead meetings between senior management and senior government representatives as needed.
  • Plan and facilitate high-level meetings between UNOPS senior management and subregional or national partners, including at conferences and other forums.
  • Support partners in assessing options for effective project implementation and results achievement while promoting national ownership.
  • Establish standards for designing and disseminating institutional communications materials, capacity notes, and success stories to help partners understand the impact of UNOPS services.
  • Represent office management, as delegated, at meetings and negotiations with senior government representatives and partners.
  • Participate as needed in inter-agency planning and sector-cluster meetings for United Nations humanitarian and development plans.
  • Contribute to subregional and national harmonization of United Nations policies, practices, and approaches, including implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework.
  • Ensure developed programmes and projects comply with results-based management principles.
  • Ensure partnerships, projects, and programmes have appropriate monitoring and evaluation frameworks for effective monitoring and impact evaluation.
  • Work with project managers to formulate project results frameworks and set measurable short- and long-term performance-monitoring objectives.
  • Ensure timely preparation and submission of current, informative, and accurate reports on the office's partnership-development activities.
  • Support the design and deployment of internal feedback mechanisms to inform continual improvement of partner outreach and project-development activities.
  • Guide the establishment of systems to monitor partnership development and progress.
  • Guide partnership personnel in researching and assessing stakeholder landscapes to identify priority themes and opportunities.
  • Guide partnership personnel on deliverables and activities that advance potential partnerships, including drafting concept notes, preparing project proposals, producing relevant knowledge products, and participating in negotiations with key partners on new projects and programmes.
  • Contribute to all aspects of project formulation and assess implementation approaches for robustness, sustainability, gender integration, feasibility, resource availability, and financial implications.
  • Implement headquarters-provided standards, tools, and templates to strengthen partnership and project development within the team and improve UNOPS effectiveness as a trusted service provider for sustainable results.
  • Contribute to researching, developing, and applying best practices and innovative approaches that maximize performance and ensure long-term impact in project and partnership development.
  • Strengthen project managers' partnership capacity and negotiation skills to support stronger stakeholder engagement.
  • Facilitate knowledge-sharing by disseminating lessons learned and best practices in project and partnership development to support organizational learning and planning.
  • Provide regular feedback on systems, tools, and resources to strengthen their effectiveness and support continual improvement.

About the company

UNOPS acts as the United Nations’ operational arm, planning, funding, and executing development, humanitarian, and peacebuilding projects worldwide. It delivers services in infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management, and human resources across more than 80 countries, focusing on post-disaster and transitional contexts. It runs on a self-financing, fee-for-service model, charging a management fee rather than relying on core UN funding, and provides an integrated, contract-based package for construction, procurement, and program delivery. Its goal is to produce timely, quality project outcomes that support sustainable development, resilience, and reconstruction through coordinated delivery and strong partner collaboration.

Company Size

5,001-10,000

Company Stage

N/A

Total Funding

N/A

Headquarters

Copenhagen, Denmark

Founded

2016

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