Senior Contracts Associate, GS-7, Central Services Center, DFAM, NYHQ, #130362

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, equity

Purpose of the Position
The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

DFAM New York-based Central Services Center (CSC) was established in 2024 as part of the Headquarters Efficiencies Initiative (HQEI). The goal of the CSC is to further consolidate and streamline common, location-dependent transactions and processes. The aim is to improve efficiency and compliance by reducing transactional level tasks for teams, thus enabling NYHQ Division/Office staff to strategically focus on delivering high-quality programmatic work and, ultimately, achieve cost savings and efficiency gains. Consolidating transactions within a Central Service Centre (CSC) will help UNICEF to further mitigate the risks of efficiency loss, duplication and excessive costs as the Centre provides specialization and increased efficiency in the use of resources.

How can you make a difference? 
Under the close supervision and guidance of the Finance Officer (Contracts) in the CSC, the Senior Contracts Associate performs highly skilled work on UNICEF individual consultancy contracts, institutional pre-contracting transactions including low-value transactions, and manages the more complex cases and client requests, which frequently requires the evaluation of difficult situations and adaptation of procedures and processes to resolve such cases. The Senior Contracts Associate is responsible for more specialized work in individual consultancy contracts, institutional pre-contracting transactions including low-value transactions and requires advanced knowledge acquired through formal training and experience. The position involves supervisory responsibility of others.

Key Expected Functions:

Planning: 

• In consultation with supervisor, provides input and participates in forecasting, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the individual consultancy contracts, institutional pre-contracting transactions portfolio and low-value transactions, including establishment of performance indicators, and assessment of fit for purpose and monitoring of streamlined services provision ensuring meeting the established SLA benchmarks.
• In close collaboration with the supervisor, drafts and revises SOPs for the Unit on a regular basis to ensure their validity at all times.  

Individual consultancy contracting/Institutional pre-contracting including low-value transactions:

• Provides technical advice and expertise in application, interpretation, and execution of individual consultancy, procurement and financial policies, procedures, and guidelines.
• Ensures the adoption of fair and transparent solutions throughout the various stages of the processes.
• Delivers technical and operational guidance to support seamless implementation of transactiona