Вакансія: Infrastructure Projects Coordinator (full time, Kyiv)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Ukraine is seeking for the programme “U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme” a qualified professional to fill the position of a 

Infrastructure Projects Coordinator (full time, Kyiv)

(internal SAP code: Financial Management & Administration, inc. Project Management) 

“U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme” is a multi-donor action of the European Union and its member states Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, and Slovenia which supports the efforts of the Ukrainian government in the area of decentralisation and regional development, as a top priority on its political agenda. The reform aims at promoting a viable and empowered local self-government (LSG) and thus bringing a positive change to people’s lives. Its success was acknowledged by the European Commission which recognised decentralisation in its Opinion on Ukraine’s application for European Union (EU) membership as “one of the most impactful and successful reforms implemented in the country”. 

U-LEAD Project Preparation Facility

U-LEAD is focusing on infrastructure facilities that are vital to the functioning and revitalisation of municipalities^[1], necessary for the delivery of municipal services (i.e. fall within the remit of local self-government), and are priorities for U-LEAD’s client municipalities with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, namely: education; primary healthcare; local transport (e.g. roads and bridges); water supply and sewage; and waste management. Municipalities, supported by U-LEAD via capacity development measures, will identify, prioritize, and develop the infrastructure projects via a so-called Project Preparation Facility (PPF). 

The PPF is service to help Ukrainian municipalities to prepare gender-sensitive, sustainable local reconstruction projects for ‘objects’ (buildings and other structures) under their communal ownership. They can then be submitted for financing to national and/or international sources, and hence the works, related supplies and supervision services can be tendered and contracted by the municipality with these funds. 

The purpose of the PPF is to get projects ready for submission to funding sources, and hence ready to tender and ready to build, so inevitably their willingness to receive and consider projects plays an important part. The PPF will prepare the technical documentation (via external service provider referred as ‘PPF contractor’ later on) that is necessary under Ukrainian law before a construction permit can be issued. U-LEAD is already supporting municipalities in formulating projects for the PPF. 

GIZ is hiring a Infrastructure Projects Coordinator to support the good management of the PPF and ensuring that target results are achieved. 

Overall tasks: 

• Contribute to planning, management, and implementation of U-LEAD activities in Ukraine under this initiative.
• Identify the needs for external expertise and consultancy support on municipal reconstruction and modernisation projects for the U-LEAD programme and its partners.
• Assist with resource scheduling so that PPF activities are completed in time and in full.
• Liaise with municipalities, national and international experts, other U-LEAD partners; maintain a regular communication with them.
• Collect, study, and analyse information about the relevant legislation, good practices in the field of responsibilities, provide input and feedback.
• Contribute to the preparation and implementation of events, incl. capacity development events, round tables, discussion forums and workshops on reconstruction and modernisation issues.
• Participate in meetings and working groups.
• Contribute to U-LEAD monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and data management.
• Provide input to reports, briefings, presentations, summaries of reports in English and Ukrainian.
• Maintain good flow of communication and information between all involved counterparts.
• Support the implementation of other project activities and other assigned tasks.
• Comply with GIZ rules and standards. 

Specific tasks:

• Facilitate and contribute to preparation of MoUs between municipalities and U-LEAD when it comes to preparation of technical documentation.
• Ensure a smooth information flow and cooperation between U-LEAD, PPF contractor and municipalities.
• Set-up and monitoring of PPF management system to track and monitor agreed design assignments between municipalities and PPF contractor (project deliverables, design activities, timelines, key milestones etc.).
• Monitoring of PPF contractor activities and performance, early identification of risks (delays/ obstacles) and risk amelioration actions to ensure agreed design assignments are completed on time.
• Address any complaints regarding PPF contractor expert performance by municipality or any obligations the municipality is not fulfilling to allow the PPF contractor to complete agreed design assignment (based on MoU). 

Requirements of the candidates: 

• MA degree in civil engineering, architecture, economics, OR public administration.
• 4 years of work experience in coordinating implementation of infrastructure projects. This might include supervision of technical documentation preparation, communication with contractor(s), quality assurance of deliverables, etc.
• 2 years of work and operations coordination experience of donor funded (EU/International Financing Institution e.g., EIB/EBRD) civil engineering projects in Ukraine.
• Practical experience in working with municipalities in preparing public infrastructure projects under different sectors (schools, health, water, waste) would be an advantage.
• Strong project administration and management skills.
• Excellent written and spoken Ukrainian (C2), very good command of the English language (C1).
• Good communication, presentation, organisational and negotiation skills.
• Very good working knowledge of IT technologies and computer applications (e.g. MS Office).
• Readiness for occasional business trips within Ukraine, in compliance to the current GIZ travel policy.
• Diligence and responsible work ethic.
• Availability to take on responsibility and a corresponding sense for responsibility.
• Ability to work under challenging conditions and tight deadlines, flexible and able to work with people of different professional and cultural backgrounds, result-oriented, well organised and motivated.

We offer:

• Official employment.
• Salary fixed in EUR, performance-related bonuses and 13th salary.
• Medical insurance, 29 vacation days annually.
• Language classes, hard and soft skills trainings.
• Individual and group psychological support.
• Possible remote and flexible work.
• Meaningful and valuable work, international environment.

Employment conditions 

Full-time position with 40-hours working week. Place of assignment is Kyiv. Starting April 2023. The contract duration is until the end of December 2023, although this may be subject to extension.  GIZ is an equal opportunity employer and offers an attractive and challenging working environment with opportunities for skill enhancement. 

Application

Application comprising of the candidate’s CV and a cover letter in English explaining the motivation to apply for the job is to be sent to [email protected] until COB 22 March 2023, Wednesday.  By sending the application the candidate gives the consent for the personal data processing for recruitment processes solely. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for the next stages of the recruitment process.

[1] European Commission, Government of Ukraine and World Bank, Rapid Damages and Needs Assessment, September 2022.