Role Purpose
The Head of People Business Partnering leads the global People Business Partnering function, ensuring it operates as a high-performing, business-aligned capability that directly enables service line delivery, operational excellence, organizational impact, and strategic human capital management.
In terms of service line delivery, the role acts as a critical integrator, ensuring that people strategies are embedded across the full lifecycle of services UNOPS provides to partners—from planning and pipeline development to execution. By establishing rigorous feedback loops and partner-facing insights, the role informs adjustments in service design and pricing, ensuring HR expertise directly supports the organization’s ability to deliver timely, cost-effective, and high-impact solutions.
Simultaneously, the role serves as a high-level architect for people partnering and talent management, acting as a trusted advisor to senior leadership to drive superior organizational performance. This involves developing strategies that enforce leadership accountability and depth, and translating global people policies into value-adding outcomes tailored to diverse operating contexts. The incumbent is accountable for positioning Regional People Partners as strategic advisors who enhance leadership effectiveness and organizational design, ensuring the global talent landscape is optimized for long-term impact.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Define and drive the global strategy for People Business Partnering, positioning it as a core enabler of service line delivery, operational performance, and sustainable growth.
- Ensure alignment between people strategies and UNOPS strategic priorities, service line objectives, and delivery targets.
- Establish a clear operating model for People Partnering which enables scalability, consistency, and impact across regions.
- Lead, guide, and hold Regional People Partners accountable for delivering high-impact, business-aligned partnering which enables service line success.
- Build the capability of the People Partnering function to operate as strategic co-owners of organizational performance, not solely HR advisors.
- Establish performance metrics for People Business Partnering that measure contribution to delivery outcomes, workforce effectiveness, and organizational impact.
Service Line Performance
- Establish a formal service viability analysis process with service line owners, providing robust analysis of technical skills and talent availability.
- Proactively advise on optimal organizational structures, talent acquisition, contractual modalities, and realistic resourcing timelines.
- Support the structured onboarding of new partners and service line personnel.
- Identify systemic workforce risks across service lines and ensure proactive mitigation to protect delivery timelines and quality.
- Collaborate with global leadership to tailor HR service line offerings that align with specific regional demands.
People Partnering and Talent Management
- Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, architecting talent management strategies that enforce leadership accountability and build bench depth.
- Lead partnering with regional and country stakeholders on key talent management activities including leadership development, talent acquisition, workforce planning, and mobility.
- Support organizational change initiatives including workforce transitions and restructuring efforts.
- Provide cross-regional insights and synthesize feedback on the practical application of corporate talent management policies.
- Collaborate with Practice owners to define key measures and develop dashboards to track and report on productivity and delivery outcomes.
Policy Application and Operational Excellence
- Exercise delegated authorities to facilitate decision-making that is compliant with the UNOPS regulatory framework.
- Ensure consistent and pragmatic application of HR policies that support efficient operations while maintaining compliance.
- Serve as a senior escalation point for complex or high-risk workforce issues impacting delivery.
- Mitigate relationship risks by acting as an escalation point for HR service delivery issues within regions.
Culture, Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness
- Champion a culture of performance, accountability, integrity, and inclusion aligned with UNOPS values.
- Support end-to-end planning and implementation of the annual culture and engagement survey.
- Use survey insights to identify systemic engagement risks and drive improvements in organizational effectiveness.
Knowledge Management and Innovation
- Establish systems to capture and leverage cross-regional insights to strengthen effectiveness.
- Contribute to the development and introduction of innovations to ensure UNOPS incorporates best practice approaches.
- Promote knowledge management and cross-regional learning among People Partners.
Requirements and Qualifications
Education:
- Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Human Resources, Business Administration, Industrial-Organizational or Business Psychology, Behavioural Science, Organizational Development, Public Administration, or relevant social sciences with 12 years of relevant experience; OR
- Master’s degree (or equivalent) in any of the above or related fields with 10 years of relevant experience is required.
- Certification from a recognized coaching organization (e.g., ICF) is an asset.
Experience:
- Leading strategic HR Business Partnering functions in delivery-driven or complex, multi-stakeholder operational environments.
- Providing strategic HR advice and coaching to senior leaders.
- Implementing strategic HR initiatives (talent and performance management, workforce planning, organization design, employee engagement, change management).
- Experience with aligning workforce strategies with business performance and delivery outcomes.
- Experience using analytics to drive enterprise-level decision-making and performance improvement.
- Experience working in multicultural environments, UN system organizations, or development/humanitarian contexts is desired.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified? Go to UNOPS Careers Portal to apply. Ensure you submit your application by May 26, 2026.
