Innovation Manager (Governance & Innovation Portfolios), P4, FTA, Office of Innovations, Stockholm, Sweden (#00117604)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, hope

The Office of Innovation (OoI) works to catalyze UNICEF’s and all its partners’ expertise and resources against key children-outcomes bottlenecks, with a view to continuously ideate and scale the most effective solutions with transformational potential at scale to achive the child- related SDGs.
The office is doing this by continuously exploring new ways of accelerating results for children, investing across a range of early stage solutions, and harnessing internal and external expertise towards continuously iterating and fine-tuning the most promising solutions for children through a systematic portfolio management approach, and leveraging all stakeholders’ innovation energy, knowhow and resources from intergovernmental, multilateral, private sector and non-governmental fora (think tank, academia).

How can you make a difference?

Under the general guidance and direction of the Senior Advisor, Innovation (Portfolio, Culture and Scale 89335), and in close collaboration with relevant Innovation Hub leads, the incumbent will be responsible for:

1. Oversight and implementation of governance principles, processes and entities for the innovation function globally, across the Innovation Hubs and including the Innovation Portfolio Steering Committee (IPSC).
2. Distill best practices for portfolio management and provide guidance and technical assistance across Innovation Hubs and to Regional Offices and Country Offices to support their innovation governance needs, including to tailor global governance principles and processes to country and regional level.
3. Oversight and guidance for the UNICEF innovation pipeline, across Innovation Hubs, including developing resources, Standard Operation Procedures and relevant criteria that defines the journey from pilot to acceleration to scale.
4. Lead, develop and manage the associated tools and platforms that enable UNICEF’s innovation portfolios, specifically i) INVENT and ii)
UNICORN
5. Manage internal UNICEF, cross-portfolio funding allocation exercises from cradle to grave.
6. Collaborate with the P3 Engagement Culture and Capacity post which manages field engagement, knowledge management and capacity
building.
7. Represent OOI on relevant governance entities.
8. Deliver clear and effective engagement across stakeholders of the portfolios, especially across the field.

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks:

1. Oversight and implementation of governance principles, processes and entities for the innovation function globally. Management of the
Innovation Portfolio Steering Committee (IPSC) which is chaired by P5 Senior Adviser Innovation (PCS), including its membership, convening, communication and functioning. The IPSC purpose is to provide strategic guidance and support OOI in its accountability to enable UNICEF to maximize its impact in innovation through the development, operationalization, and active management of UNICEF’s programme-led, problem-focused portfolio approach to innovation.

2. Distill best practices for portfolio management and share across UNICEF’s Innovation Hubs, portfolios and offices. Provide guidance and technical assistance to Regional Offices and Country Offices to support their innovation governance needs, including to tailor global
governance principles and processes to country and regional level.

3. Oversight and guidance for the UNICEF innovation pipeline across the Innovation Hubs, including developing resources, Standard Operation Procedures and relevant criteria that defines the journey from pilot to acceleration to scale, including stage gates, criteria and processes for exit and entry at multiple points. Develop the guidance, resources and learning and its widespread application. Undertake the necessary consultation across stakeholders, and benchmark against world class external practices.

4. Lead, develop and manage the associated tools and platforms that enable UNICEF’s innovation portfolios, which are realized through their respective Hubs. INVENT is the enterprise-wide platform for innovation and T4D and connects the innovation pipeline from the inventory of all solutions through to portfolios of promising projects and priority projects for scale. Manage, identify resources for and support the INVENT Product Manager and platform, particularly its application for innovation portfolios. In collaboration with the P5 Senior Adviser Innovation (PCS), #89335, who is the Business Owner for both platforms, this post will run INVENT governance (Project Governance Board and other entities per its Project Charter), prioritized product development, and sustainability.

5. Lead, develop and manage the UNICORN platform, the enterprise open innovation/challenge platform. Partner with PFP in co-leading the awareness and effective use of UNICORN to enables open innovation engagement with the public, use as an internal culture and capacity building platform, and to support sourcing for UNICEF’s innovation portfolios. Undertake relevant activities in coordination with ICTD.

6. Manage internal UNICEF, cross-portfolio funding allocation processes, including process, drafting communications, monitoring, documentation and learning, and reporting, including reviewing significant investments and set aside allocation exercises.

7. Collaborate closely with the P3 Engagement Culture and Capacity post which manages field engagement, knowledge management and capacity building. In particular producing resources that for which the P3 would support the knowledge management, community development and sharing, and capacity building.

8. Represent OOI on relevant governance entities, such as the Humanitarian Review, Responsible Data for Children, and with ICTD PMO.

9. Deliver clear and effective engagement across stakeholders of the portfolios to reinforce and widely communicate this inclusiveness. With OOI communication team, support communication around portfolio, its value propositions and staff engagement especially across the field.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education: An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the following fields is required: Social Science or Humanities, Innovation-related field, International Relations, Business Administration, or another relevant technical field. *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.

Experience:
• A minimum of eight (8) years of relevant professional experience is required at national and international levels in the areas of innovation
and/or social and economic development and cooperation.
• Demonstrated expertise in innovation practice, spanning start-up to scaling innovations, especially in the social and/or development sectors.
Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.