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 for as long as we are needed. 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 professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

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

For every child, the right to Results

UNICEF's Global Shared Services Centre (GSSC) in Budapest, Hungary provides services to UNICEF offices globally in the areas of Finance, Human Resources, Payroll and Information Technology. For more information about GSSC please visit our webpage at Global Shared Services Centre | UNICEF and check this Working for UNICEF’s Global Shared Services Centre - YouTube

How can you make a difference?

Recruitment Administrative Services (RAS) delivers standardized recruitment administration support to hiring offices to ensure timely, complaint, and consistent recruitment processing and positive candidate experience. RAS supports recruitment actions across multiple geographies, time zones, and stakeholder groups, requiring strong coordination, documentation discipline, and adherence to staff selection policy and procedures.

The People & Culture Specialist in RAS (P-3) provides recruitment administration and acts as a technical, operational and knowledge transfer focal point for assigned portfolios with a focus on emergencies. The role ensures quality assurance, supports work planning and workload coordination, manages complex/priority recruitment cases, investigations, escalations, and contributes to performance monitoring and process improvement within the RAS service model.

1. Recruitment Administration (Complex Case Management)

Ensure proper management of end-to-end recruitment for complex, sensitive, or priority, with a focus on emergency cases
Ensure accurate and timely processing across stages, including (as applicable):
- vacancy posting preparation and publication steps;
- eligibility/longlisting support and documentation integrity;
- coordination of written tests/technical assessments/interviews;
- panel support (packs, scheduling, evaluation documentation);
- reference check coordination and selection documentation consolidation;
- ensuring a complete audit trail and case closure standards.
Maintain up-to-date case status in recruitment systems and trackers.

2. Quality Assurance, Compliance and Risk Mitigation

Conduct quality checks on recruitment documentation before key milestones and closure (completeness, consistency, audit trail).
Ensure cases comply with applicable Staff Selection Policy, SOPs, and internal control requirements.
Identify compliance risks early, propose corrective action, handle escalations and exceptions appropriately and develop and case escalation matrix to capture recruitment anomalies.
Support audit readiness by maintaining well-organized documentation and logs.

3. Work Planning, Case Allocation Support & Technical Guidance

Support the supervisor in day-to-day work planning by monitoring queues, deadlines, and dependencies.
Review selected outputs from P-2/NOB supervisors (as assigned) to reduce rework and ensure consistent service quality.
Contribute to onboarding/training of new team members through shadowing plans, checklists, and practical coaching.
Transfer knowledge and share experience from country office operations.

4. Stakeholder Coordination and Service Delivery Support

Serve as an operational focal point for assigned hiring offices/portfolios (emergency portfolio), ensuring predictable coordination and clear communications.
Liaise with PCBPs, hiring managers, panel members, and other stakeholders to resolve blockers (availability, documentation gaps, scheduling).
Handle working-level escalations and ensure timely follow-up on stakeholder inputs required to keep cases moving.

5. Performance Monitoring, Reporting and Case Hygiene

Monitor progress against service standards (SLAs/KPIs) for assigned cases and support team-level tracking where required.
Prepare regular updates (weekly/monthly) on case status, bottlenecks, risks, and mitigation actions.
Promote strong “case hygiene”: accurate system updates, organized files, consistent use of templates, and standardized communications.

6. Process Improvement & Knowledge Management

Identify recurring operational challenges and propose practical improvements (templates, SOP clarifications, scheduling approaches, tracking).
Contribute to the development and maintenance of SOPs, and standardized candidate communications.
Capture lessons learned from exercises and campaigns and support implementation of improvements.

7. Support to Large-Scale Recruitment Exercises / Surge (as applicable)

Support planning and coordination for large-scale recruitment initiatives (e.g., ring-fenced exercises, emergency surge).
Assist with consolidated tracking, scheduling coordination at scale, and quality assurance across multiple cases.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Download File TOR - People and Culture Specialist_P3_00137492.pdf

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

Minimum requirements:

Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Human Resources Management, Business Administration, Public Administration, Social Sciences, and any other related fields.
Work Experience: At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in Recruitment Operations, HR Administration, Shared Services, or Recruitment Coordination. Demonstrated experience handling complex recruitment logistics, documentation management, and stakeholder coordination is required.
Skills: Strong understanding of recruitment workflows, documentation standards, and compliance mindset, excellent organization, prioritization, and follow-through in high volume environments, strong written communication and attention to detail; Ability to handle sensitive information with discretion; Experience in HR systems and tracking tools system optimization and system troubleshooting; Data analysis and reporting skills; Stakeholder coordination and service mindset.
Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
Emergency recruitment experience; Country office and regional office experience; Experience providing technical guidance; Coordination of large-scale recruitment; Audit experience; Process improvement contributions; and Quality assurance experience.
Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others
(8) Nurtures, leads and manages people

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information.

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

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

People and Culture Specialist, P-3, Temporary Position, Global Shared Services Centre, 6 months, Recruitment Administrative Services, HR Admin Section, GSSC, #00137492