HUMAN RESOURCES SPECIALIST

HUMAN RESOURCES SPECIALIST (INTERNATIONALLY RECRUITED) AT UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND (UNICEF)

Contract Type: Fixed Contract
Location: Lilongwe, Malawi

The Malawi Country Office offers an exciting and rewarding career opportunity for you to join our dynamic People and Culture team where you will be responsible for all employee lifecycle matters, providing timely, client-focused advice and ensuring fair and policy-compliant solutions. It supports strategic HR initiatives, promotes diversity and inclusion, and contributes to key functions such as recruitment, performance management, and staff development. The role also strengthens workforce capacity through coaching and learning initiatives, while using HR data to inform decisions and enhance organizational effectiveness.

Working under the overall guidance and supervision of the Representative, manage people and culture activities including the supervision of the P&C team in the small-medium size country office in accordance with the People & Culture strategy and work plan, aligned with the Country Programme Management Plan as well as the goals and strategic needs of the organization. Provides guidance in people and culture matters that promote a gender-balanced multidisciplinary team of professionals.

Join our team and play a pivotal role in shaping how people and culture enable results for children.
This role offers a unique opportunity to influence organizational effectiveness by partnering closely with business leaders and teams across the employment life cycle. As a trusted People & Culture (P&C) advisor, you will help translate strategy into practice—strengthening workforce capability, promoting equity and inclusion, and ensuring people-centered solutions that support both staff well-being and organizational performance.

By excelling in this role, you will contribute directly to operational efficiency and to the delivery of transformative results for children, while helping clients navigate change with clarity, confidence, and consistency.

Key Accountabilities:

Business Partnering
Act as the primary P&C partner for an assigned client portfolio, providing end-to-end advice across the employment life cycle. You will deliver timely, accurate, and practical guidance on P&C policies and processes, proactively support the resolution of people-related issues, and champion equitable, transparent solutions that protect both staff and organizational interests—while advancing gender equity and cultural diversity goals.

Strategic People and Culture
Contribute to the development and implementation of corporate and regional P&C strategies by working closely with divisional, regional, and country office counterparts. You will help shape and continuously improve P&C systems, policies, and processes by sharing insights from the field, benchmarking best practices, and introducing innovative approaches that strengthen people management globally.

Implementation of Assigned People & Culture Services
Support the delivery of one or more P&C service areas—such as recruitment, job classification, performance management, learning and development, career development, or HR analytics—ensuring efficient, high-quality services that help attract, retain, and motivate a diverse, high-performing workforce.

Learning and Capacity Development
Partner with business owners to design and deliver learning solutions that build skills, strengthen competencies, and support career development. You will contribute to competency mapping and talent pipeline development, recommend cost-effective learning products, and serve as a resource person in capacity-building initiatives, including guidance to managers on performance and talent management conversations.

HR Data Analytics
Use HR data to generate insights that inform strategic decision-making. You will analyze trends, strengthen data quality through improved systems and processes, and work with country offices and partners to enhance HR information management and evidence-based people strategies.

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) from an accredited institution in one of the following fields is required: human resource management, business management, international relations, psychology or another related field.
• Work Experience: Minimum 5 years of increasingly responsible professional work experience in human resource management in an international organization and/or large corporation is required.
• Skills:
  • Experience and ability to implement targeted and innovative human resources strategies to address clients’ people-related needs is required.
  • Ability to implement innovative HR programs within a fast paced, evolving, and wide organizational setting is required.
  • In-depth technical knowledge of the principles and concepts of human resources management is required.
  • Ability to identify and analyze systemic issues, formulate opinions and make conclusions and recommendations to resolve same is required.
  • Excellent knowledge of organizational and P&C information technology systems and tools is required.
  • Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively in a diverse organization tailoring language, tone, style and format to match audience is required.
  • Ability to empathize with client managers, supervisors and staff while advocating for consistent and equitable applications of promulgated P&C regulations and rules is required.
• 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.
• International experience, Coaching, Training facilitation, Power BI.
• Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.

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