Job Vacancy at UNESCO: Senior Project Officer (Sciences), Dar es Salaam – October 2026

1. Job Overview

Organization: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Job Title: Senior Project Officer (Sciences)
Position Number: 6KESCS0003PA
Grade: P-4
Parent Sector: Natural Sciences Sector (SC)
Job Family: Natural Sciences
Duty Station: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Contract Type: Project Appointment
Contract Duration: 12 months, renewable subject to satisfactory performance and availability of funds
Recruitment Open To: Internal and external candidates
Application Deadline: October 29, 2026 (Midnight Paris Time)
Estimated Annual Starting Salary: USD 113,814

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, and Professionalism.

2. Organizational Background

The Kilimanjaro Transboundary Aquifer System (KTAS) Project, titled “Unlocking the Groundwater Potential of the Kilimanjaro Water Tower” (GEF ID 11547), is a five-year Global Environment Facility (GEF) International Waters initiative approved in June 2026.

The project is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as the GEF Agency and executed by UNESCO in close collaboration with the Governments of Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania.

The project aims to strengthen water security, climate resilience, and ecosystem health through improved scientific understanding, protection of groundwater recharge areas, enhanced groundwater storage and monitoring, stronger groundwater-management tools, and sustained transboundary cooperation.

The Kilimanjaro aquifer is a strategically important shared groundwater resource that supports livelihoods, biodiversity, and economic activities on both sides of the Kenya–Tanzania border. Climate change, land-use change, increasing water demand, and ecosystem degradation make coordinated management increasingly important.

The project covers groundwater assessment and Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), exploratory drilling, managed aquifer recharge, recharge-area protection, harmonized monitoring systems, a Hydro-Environmental Observatory, a Strategic Action Programme (SAP), stakeholder engagement, knowledge management, and monitoring and evaluation.

3. Position Summary

The Senior Project Officer (Sciences) will serve as the senior manager and strategic technical authority of the Project Management Unit (PMU).

The successful candidate will lead the PMU and be accountable to UNESCO for coherent, timely, and high-quality project implementation across Kenya and Tanzania.

The role involves providing strategic and technical direction, integrating all project result areas, supervising PMU staff and consultants, ensuring compliance, advising the Project Steering Committee (PSC), and maintaining high-level partnerships that support joint country ownership and long-term sustainability.

4. Key Duties and Responsibilities

A. Strategic Direction and Integrated Delivery

• Translate the approved project document and inception decisions into an implementation strategy, multi-year plan, annual work plans and budgets, procurement priorities, and performance objectives.
• Direct implementation across all project components and resolve interdependencies and bottlenecks.
• Ensure scientific work, field investments, governance processes, capacity development, safeguards, and communication are delivered as an integrated programme.
• Exercise delegated management authority over PMU activities, resources, and schedules.
• Establish clear responsibilities, controls, escalation routes, and follow-up mechanisms.
• Maintain a strategic risk register and lead adaptive management.
• Recommend significant project changes to UNESCO, FAO, and the PSC through established approval procedures.

B. Transboundary Governance and High-Level Coordination

• Serve as UNESCO’s principal project-level contact with FAO, co-chairing ministries, national coordinators, basin institutions, the Jumuiya Water Fund, and other strategic partners.
• Provide substantive and secretariat support to the PSC by preparing agendas, presenting decision papers, maintaining accurate records, and tracking decisions.
• Guide the Technical Committee and obtain independent advice from the Knowledge and Scientific Advisory Board.
• Lead institutional and political processes for establishing a permanent transboundary consultation and information-exchange mechanism.
• Support development of the Strategic Action Programme (SAP) and related policy and regulatory dialogue.
• Represent the project at authorized national, regional, and international forums, including GEF International Waters knowledge platforms.

C. Technical Authority and Quality Assurance

• Establish a project-wide technical assurance framework, including review procedures, acceptance criteria, and standards for hydrogeology, geophysics, hydrochemistry, isotopes, modelling, drilling, monitoring, managed aquifer recharge, ecosystem restoration, and data management.
• Approve scopes of work and technical specifications within delegated authority.
• Provide final substantive clearance of key technical outputs before formal submission by UNESCO.
• Ensure the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis, conceptual model, harmonized maps, monitoring framework, information system, Hydro-Environmental Observatory, pilot activities, and SAP meet scientific and decision-making standards.
• Organize multidisciplinary reviews where evidence is uncertain or contested and document the basis for significant technical decisions.
• Integrate gender equality, Indigenous and local knowledge, youth participation, climate resilience, environmental and social safeguards, and conflict sensitivity into project implementation.

D. Team, Consultant, and Partner Performance

• Lead, supervise, coach, and assess PMU personnel, including the Project Technical Officer.
• Promote an accountable, collaborative, and inclusive working environment.
• Supervise consultants, contractors, and service providers and assess their deliverables against contractual requirements.
• Chair key inception and review meetings and recommend acceptance or corrective action in accordance with UNESCO procedures.
• Coordinate the performance of co-executing and implementing partners against agreed work packages, milestones, budgets, and reporting obligations.
• Ensure terms of reference, technical evaluation criteria, and deliverable-review arrangements are appropriate and maintain proper separation of technical and administrative controls.

E. Results Compliance and Reporting

• Lead results-based management against the project results framework and GEF core indicators.
• Use disaggregated and verifiable evidence to monitor progress and address performance gaps.
• Oversee timely preparation and quality of progress reports, financial narratives, annual implementation-review inputs, PSC documentation, co-financing reports, and other reports required by UNESCO, FAO, and GEF.
• Ensure compliance with the UN-to-UN Agreement and applicable UNESCO, FAO, and GEF requirements relating to fiduciary management, procurement, safeguards, gender, ethics, visibility, and records management.
• Coordinate with relevant specialists to maintain compliance.
• Lead management responses and follow-up actions arising from audits, supervision missions, the Mid-Term Review, and Terminal Evaluation.

F. Partnerships, Financing, and Sustainability

• Maintain strategic partnerships with government institutions, regional organizations, academic institutions, communities, civil society, the private sector, and development partners.
• Promote complementarity with related programmes.
• Track confirmed co-financing, identify financing gaps, and mobilize additional or parallel financing consistent with approved project and country priorities.
• Guide partnership conferences and investment dialogue related to the SAP.
• Prepare credible priority investment proposals.
• Promote long-term institutional ownership and sustainability of governance mechanisms, monitoring networks, information systems, the Hydro-Environmental Observatory, capacity development, and knowledge products beyond project closure.

5. UNESCO Competencies

Core Competencies

• Communication
• Accountability
• Innovation
• Knowledge sharing and continuous improvement
• Planning and organizing
• Results focus
• Teamwork

Managerial Competencies

• Building partnerships
• Driving and managing change
• Strategic thinking
• Making quality decisions
• Managing performance
• Leading and empowering others

6. Required Qualifications

A. Education

Applicants must possess a PhD in Hydrogeology, Geology, Water Resources Management, or a closely related field.

B. Professional Experience

Candidates must have:

• At least seven years of progressively responsible relevant professional experience, preferably including at least three years acquired at the international level.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multidisciplinary water, environmental, or natural-resource programmes involving multiple institutions and countries or jurisdictions.
• Substantive experience in groundwater assessment or management, including the ability to direct and quality-assure multidisciplinary technical work.
• Experience supervising personnel and consultants, managing work plans and budgets, and delivering results and donor reports under formal accountability frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience facilitating government-led processes and building partnerships across public institutions, technical organizations, civil society, and development partners.

C. Skills and Competencies

Applicants should demonstrate:

• Strong strategic judgement and the ability to translate complex scientific and institutional issues into clear decisions and implementation priorities.
• Excellent leadership, negotiation, facilitation, and diplomatic skills in multicultural and politically sensitive transboundary settings.
• Strong knowledge of results-based management, risk management, quality assurance, and technical and executive writing.
• Ability to manage competing priorities, make timely decisions, and maintain accountability.
• Digital proficiency, including standard office and project-management tools.
• Sufficient familiarity with hydrogeological data, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and information systems to oversee data quality and use.

D. Language Requirements

• Excellent knowledge of English, both written and spoken.
• Excellent knowledge of Kiswahili, both written and spoken.

7. Desirable Qualifications

A. Additional Professional Experience

The following will be considered an advantage:

• Experience with GEF International Waters projects, project design, TDA/SAP processes, or projects implemented or executed by United Nations organizations.
• Professional experience in Eastern Africa and knowledge of water-governance systems in Kenya and Tanzania.
• Experience with transboundary aquifers, volcanic hydrogeology, groundwater information systems, managed aquifer recharge, ecosystem-based approaches, or climate-resilient investment planning.
• Demonstrated experience in resource mobilization or co-financing management.

B. Additional Language Skills

Knowledge of another official UNESCO language is desirable:

• Arabic
• Chinese
• French
• Russian
• Spanish

8. Salary and Benefits

The approximate annual starting salary for this position is USD 113,814.

UNESCO salaries comprise a basic salary and may include additional benefits and entitlements, where applicable, such as:

• 30 days of annual leave.
• Family allowance.
• Medical insurance.
• Pension plan.

Actual entitlements depend on the applicable UNESCO employment terms and conditions.

9. Contract Duration

The initial contract is for 12 months and may be renewed depending on satisfactory performance and the availability of funds.

10. Selection and Recruitment Process

All candidates must complete an online application and provide complete and accurate information before the application deadline.

The selection process may include:

• Pre-recorded video interviews.
• Written assessments.
• Interviews with a selection panel.
• Reference checks.
• Requests for additional information relevant to the position’s qualifications.

Candidates cannot modify their applications after submission. All applicants will be informed of the outcome of their applications in due course.

Shortlisted candidates may also be added to UNESCO talent pools, subject to their consent and the applicable data privacy arrangements.

11. Additional Information

• UNESCO is committed to the highest standards of efficiency, technical competence, and integrity.
• UNESCO maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of harassment.
• The organization promotes geographical diversity and gender parity across its workforce and encourages applications from underrepresented Member States.
• Individuals from minority and Indigenous groups, as well as persons with disabilities, are encouraged to apply.
• All applications will be treated with the highest level of confidentiality.
• Geographical mobility is required for staff appointed to UNESCO international posts.
• Shortlisted candidates may be required to submit scanned copies of their degrees, diplomas, and certificates before an interview.
• UNESCO considers higher educational qualifications obtained from institutions accredited or recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED).
• The statutory retirement age at UNESCO is 65 years.
• UNESCO appointments are subject to medical clearance. International Professional appointments also require a visa for the host country, facilitated by the organization.
• UNESCO does not charge application or recruitment fees at any stage of the recruitment process.

WHED Website: https://www.whed.net

12. How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates should submit their applications online through the official UNESCO Careers website.

Application Deadline: October 29, 2026, at midnight Paris time.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Applicants are advised to review the official vacancy announcement carefully and ensure that all required information is provided before submitting their applications.

Important: UNESCO does not charge any fee at any stage of recruitment.