Chief, Client Services Section, Nairobi

Chief, Client Services Section, Nairobi
Closing Date: Saturday, 24 March 2012

Job Title

CHIEF, CLIENT SERVICES SECTION, P4

Department/ Office

United Nations Office at Nairobi

Duty Station

NAIROBI

Posting Period

24 January 2012-24 March 2012

Job Opening number

12-IST-UNON-21837-R-NAIROBI

United Nations Core Values: Integrity, Professionalism, Respect for Diversity

Org. Setting and Reporting

The United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) is the UN headquarters in Africa and the representative office of the Secretary-General. UNON supports programme implementation of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) globally, as well as other UN offices in Kenya, by providing administrative, conference and information services (www.unon.org). The post is located in Client Services Section of Information and Communication Technology Service (ICTS), Division of Administrative Service, UNON.

Responsibilities

Under the general guidance of the Chief, ICTS, the incumbent will be responsible for the following duties: 1. Manage, mentor, support and train the Client Services team, including recruiting staff and conducting performance reviews, demonstrating dynamic leadership and promoting a customer-focused. 2. Administer the Client Services day to day activities effectively planning staff schedules to ensure staff coverage at peak call logging times and ensuring support delivery and continuous service coverage during business hours. 3. Ensure timely user communications for service issues, liaising with Service Owners to escalate and resolve issues as necessary, taking full accountability for the escalation of issues. 4. Manage and supervise the Incident and Problem Management processes, and liaise with other process owners to ensure that processes operate effectively. 5. Responsible for Service Level Management in the section, that include Service Portfolio, Service Catalogue, Service Request Form, and workflow, Standard Operating Procedures, Service Level Agreement, Operation Level Agreement and their management, in addition to IT billing and cost recovery 6. Ensure proper asset management of IT equipment, and licenses for end-user's, that includes inventory, disposal, creation and distribution of computer images, and loan equipment's; 7. Review, coordinate and process all ICTS procurement and contract activities and acts as liaison with the Procurement Section in UNON; 8. Propose policies, standards, and operating procedures to contribute towards a managed workplace, and ensure that compliance is maintain under his/here area of responsibility; 9. Supervise IT training activities reviewing the training plans and budget and helping the IT Officer and customers to solve specific training issues ensuring that IT train needs and requirements within the organization are met; 10. Manage contracts for subcontracted service delivery (e.g. On-site IT support staff), participating in bid evaluation, contract negotiation, agreeing deliverables and monitoring performance.

Competencies

Professionalism: Demonstrated professional competence with ICT Service Level Management, Service Desk operation and support, budgetary processes, and in support issues relevant to a standard desktop and the associated applications and technologies. Extensive proven experience in implementing and managing service desk operations within an ITIL framework. Operational experience in leading and overseeing COBIT, ITIL and other ISO standards relevant to Quality Assurance of ICT Services. Demonstrated mastery of ICT service policies, business activities and processes and how they relate to the delivery of service(s). Show persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges. Remain calm in stressful situations.

Client Orientation: Identify and analyse clients' needs and develop appropriate tasks and procedures to meet service delivery requirements. Seek to understand client objectives and needs from clients' perspective, even when not in line with ICTS standards, and adapt Service Desk support to align with them as they evolve when feasible. Keep clients and ICTS peers informed on progress of critical interventions and rollout programs. Pro-actively introduce innovative solutions by anticipating clients IT problems through analysis of service desks performance. Appreciate the impact of actions/processes not only on the Service Desk but also at the service level, both on clients and peer units with ICTS.

Communication: Excellent communication skills, including the ability to convey complex technical concepts and recommendations to non-technical staff at senior levels, both orally and in writing, in a clear, concise style.

Leadership: Serves as a role model that other people want to follow: empowers others to translate vision into results; is proactive in developing strategies to accomplish objectives; establishes and maintains relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs and gain support; anticipates and resolves conflicts by pursuing mutually agreeable solutions; drives for change and improvements; shows the courage to take unpopular stands. Provides leadership and takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work; demonstrates knowledge of strategies and commitment to the goal of gender balance in staffing.

Managing Performance: Delegates the appropriate responsibility, accountability and decision-making authority; makes sure that roles, responsibilities and reporting lines are clear to each staff member; accurately judges the amount of time and resources needed to accomplish a task and matches task to skills; monitors progress against milestones and deadlines; regularly discusses performance and provides feedback and coaching to staff; encourages risk-taking and supports creativity and initiative; actively supports the development and career aspirations of staff; appraises performance fairly. Ability to manage projects such as the rollout of new technologies (software and hardware) across a substantial user base. Experience in an ICT budgeting process will be a plus.

Education

Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Computer Science, Information Technology or other closely related engineering/science fields. A first-level university degree in combination with qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. Advanced knowledge and certification in PRINCE2, ITIL is mandatory and COBIT an advantage.

Work Experience

A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in managing large ICT operations. Extensive experience in systems design and development, management, implementation and maintenance of complex information systems. Experience at senior levels in developing and overseeing large centralized service desks, including at least three years experience at the international level. Experience in both public and private sector organizations preferable. Experience in the implementation of CRM or ticketing tracking system and ERP system would be an added advantage.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the post advertised, fluency in oral and written English is required. Working knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.

Assessment Method

Evaluation of qualified candidates for this position may include a substantive assessment which will be followed by a competency-based interview.

Special Notice

Staff members are subject to the authority of Secretary-General and to assignment by him or her. In this context all staff are expected to move periodically to new functions in their careers in accordance with established rules and procedures.

All applicants are strongly encouraged to apply online as soon as possible after the job opening has been posted and well before the deadline stated in the job opening. Online applications will be acknowledged where an email has been provided. If you do not receive an e-mail acknowledgment within 24 hours of submission, your application may not have been received. In such cases, please resubmit the application if necessary.

United Nations Considerations

The United Nations shall place no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs. (Charter of the United Nations - Chapter 3, article 8). The United Nations Secretariat is a non-smoking environment.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS' BANK ACCOUNTS.