Partnerships Officer

Job Highlight

This role offers an exciting opportunity to engage in high-level partnership development, unlock key resource mobilization channels, and help shape strategic project formulations that deliver solutions.

About The Group

Based in Panama City, Panama, the UNOPS Office of the Regional Director (ORD) for Latin America and the Caribbean provides strategic leadership and coordination across the region, enabling effective delivery of UNOPS’ mandate. Through portfolio oversight, integrated risk management, and the mobilization of expertise and resources, the ORD ensures regional coherence and operational excellence. The office supports country teams in aligning activities with organizational goals, strengthening the impact and efficiency of development efforts. It also leads regional positioning and representation in high-level forums, advancing visibility and engagement with key stakeholders. In close collaboration with other regional offices and headquarters, the ODR fosters cross-regional learning, promotes innovation, and drives strategic initiatives that contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Role Purpose

The Partnerships Officer supports and contributes to the development of new projects, partnership development, resource mobilization, and the strategic positioning of UNOPS. The Partnerships Officer plays an active role in identifying and developing business opportunities, cultivating relationships with partners and donors, advancing the resource mobilization pipeline, and supporting key stakeholders.

Functions / Key Results Expected

Positioning and Project Development

• Identify and analyze potential project and business opportunities aligned with UNOPS' mandate, strategic priorities and areas of comparative advantage.
• Analyze development priorities, government programmes, donor strategies, investment priorities and emerging needs to identify opportunities for UNOPS engagement and positioning.
• Assist in developing expressions of interest, concept notes, capacity statements, proposals, logical frameworks and other project development documents for prospective engagements.
• Coordinate with internal teams and prospective partners to clarify project requirements, develop project concepts and formulate initial project requests.
• Develop high-level estimates of project scope, effort and costs and consolidate the technical, financial and contextual information required for project development. .
• Prepare substantive partner profiles, opportunity assessments, background analyses, briefing notes, talking points and presentations for project development discussions, strategic meetings and missions.
• Participate in discussions with prospective partners and stakeholders and ensure systematic follow-up of opportunities, commitments and agreed next steps.
• Maintain and analyze information on prospective projects, opportunities and partner intelligence to support the development and prioritization of the project pipeline.
  
  

Partnerships and Resource Mobilization

• Identify, map and assess funding and partnership opportunities with governments, UN entities, bilateral and multilateral donors, international financial institutions, multilateral development banks, foundations, NGOs, civil society and the private sector.
• Contribute substantively to the implementation of the UNOPS partnership and resource mobilization priorities, including the identification, qualification and advancement of opportunities through the pipeline.
• Assist in developing and maintaining a structured overview of key partners, donor priorities, funding cycles, funding mechanisms, partnership modalities and emerging funding opportunities.
• Build and maintain effective working relationships with existing and prospective partners and support targeted engagement based on identified opportunities and shared priorities.
• Prepare and coordinate inputs for donor and partner meetings, strategic missions, consultations and other resource mobilization activities.
• Follow up on partnership opportunities (as assigned) from initial identification through project formulation and, where relevant, engagement approval.
• Assist in gathering and providing inputs to support the negotiation and refinement of project and partnership documentation in collaboration with relevant internal stakeholders.
• Coordinate the preparation and consolidation of project documentation, budgets, legal agreements and other information required for the development and review of new engagements.
• Contribute to the quality assurance of new engagements by reviewing the completeness, consistency and quality of information and facilitating the required internal reviews, clearances and approvals.
• Monitor and analyze the resource mobilization pipeline, identify bottlenecks and opportunities, and provide regular updates and recommendations to the supervisor.
  
  

Knowledge Building and Sharing

• Support the organization, facilitation and delivery of training and learning sessions on partnerships.
• Participate in knowledge-sharing initiatives and Communities of Practice (CoPs), contributing insights and lessons learned.
• Conduct research on partnerships-related topics and contribute to the drafting of reports, summaries and briefing notes.
  
  

Education Requirements

Required

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) with 2 years of relevant experience OR
• A master's degree (or equivalent) in any discipline with 0 years of relevant experience is required.
  
  

Required

Experience Requirements

• Relevant experience is work in international development, involving support of partnership and programme development plans, project development and proposal writing, establishment of partnerships with UN agencies, international development organizations, governments, foundations or private-sector organizations, or related areas.
• Experience working directly with internal and external partners, including governments and international donors is required.
• Experience in professional proposal writing is required.
  
  

Desired

• Good knowledge of Google Suite tools and experience in handling web-based management systems is desired.
• Experience of working in multicultural environments or UN system organizations in a developing country is desired.
• Experience in development or humanitarian contexts is desired.