Regional Ethics and Integrity Officer (P)

Role Overview

This position places you as the primary ethics advisor for the organization’s regional operations across East, Horn, and Southern Africa. You will act as the direct link between field offices and headquarters on all integrity-related concerns, from advising leadership on conflicts of interest to triaging and assessing retaliation grievances. Your daily work will shape how thousands of staff understand and uphold ethical standards, and your guidance will help ensure that personnel feel protected when they raise concerns and that decision-making remains transparent and accountable.

You will spend your time split between hands-on casework, policy analysis, and regional outreach. You will review allegations and legal documents, respond to ethics questions from managers and staff, and design training sessions that can be delivered in person or cascaded through local facilitators. Because this role sits inside a regional office, you will also spot emerging ethical risks specific to the region and translate those into practical guidance, tools, and awareness campaigns that resonate with diverse teams operating in challenging environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the regional go-to person on ethical dilemmas, giving clear, prompt, and impartial counsel to staff and leadership on the standards of conduct, conflicts of interest, reporting pathways, and protection for whistleblowers.
• Carry out preliminary evaluations of retaliation complaints, weighing evidence against relevant legal frameworks and advising whether further investigation or formal action is warranted.
• Monitor changes in international administrative law and employment rulings, then use those insights to help draft and update the organization's ethics policies, guidance notes, and internal instructions.
• Identify patterns and recurring risk areas in how ethical issues surface across the region, and adapt training content, outreach materials, and advisory approaches to address those specific vulnerabilities.
• Build and execute a regional capacity-building strategy that includes direct training for staff, train-the-trainer sessions, and supervision of ethics facilitators so that ethical awareness is embedded at every level.
• Support the annual disclosure process for senior managers and those in procurement or resource-heavy roles, helping to ensure that conflict-of-interest declarations are meaningful, timely, and properly reviewed.
• Contribute to the global ethics team’s knowledge base by tracking case outcomes, preparing trend reports, and sharing lessons that demonstrate the impact of the ethics function and guide future policy.
• Collaborate with other integrity-focused units, especially those working on protection from sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, to coordinate joint campaigns, learning opportunities, and strategy alignment.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Education: A master’s degree in law or a closely related discipline from an accredited institution, paired with at least five years of relevant professional experience; alternatively, a university degree in the same fields with at least seven years of qualifying experience.
• Core experience: Direct professional background in ethics, legal advisory work, investigations, compliance and oversight, or dispute resolution, ideally gained within a public international organization or comparable institutional setting.
• Casework and policy: Hands-on experience reviewing misconduct allegations (especially retaliation), advising on conflicts of interest and financial disclosure, and undertaking policy research, analysis, drafting, and revision.
• Training and outreach: Proven ability to design and lead ethics trainings, build awareness materials, and deliver capacity-building programs for both large audiences and small, senior-level groups.
• Legal specialization: Demonstrated formal training or focused expertise in international administrative law, employment law, or litigation, either as part of your degree or through additional study.
• Workload and field exposure: Ability to manage a heavy, varied caseload while meeting deadlines; prior field experience, particularly with the same organization, is a distinct advantage.
• Personal attributes: Unquestionable integrity, discretion, impartiality, and poise when handling sensitive matters; strong analytical judgment, objectivity, and the ability to work autonomously under pressure.
• Communication and collaboration: Excellent written and oral communication skills in English (required); working knowledge of another UN official language, such as French, Arabic, or Spanish, is an asset. You must be comfortable liaising with high-level counterparts and explaining complex issues in a way that is both accessible and motivating.