UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Shelter Associate

Duty station
🇺🇦 Odesa, Ukraine
Country / area
Ukraine
Region
Europe
UN system
Fund/Programme

About this role

The Shelter Associate supports UNHCR's Emergency Shelter and Housing activities in the Odesa Field Office covering Odeska, Mykholaivska, and Khersonska oblasts. The role involves monitoring and analyzing emergency shelter response trends, providing technical assistance to households, supporting field verification missions, and conducting reinforced monitoring of emergency partners. The incumbent works closely with local authorities and implementing partners to ensure safe and accurate implementation of agreed activities. Regular travel within the oblasts, including overnight stays in remote locations, is required. The position reports to the Shelter Officer and requires strong technical knowledge of construction practices and Ukrainian legislation, along with excellent communication skills and proficiency in MS Office applications.

Key requirements

  • Bachelor's degree in Civil engineering, Architecture or Construction Engineering
  • Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience
  • Fluency in English and Ukrainian

Nice to have

  • Knowledge of Ukrainian Construction legislation
  • Previous experience in humanitarian sector
  • Experience with Power BI

Summary and highlights are AI-generated from the public job posting. Sign in to read the full official description and get an AI-scored match against your CV.

Requirements at a glance

Distilled by AI from the posting
Min. experience
Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience with Bachelor or equivalent or higher
Required degree
Bachelor's degree in Civil engineering, Architecture or Construction Engineering (or other related field) is required
Languages
English Ukrainian

Deadline for Applications

June 2, 2026

Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)

D

Family Type (not applicable for home-based)

Non Family with Residential Location

Staff Member / Affiliate Type

UNOPS LICA6

Target Start Date

2026-07-01

Terms of Reference

The position is located within the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Field Office Odesa and reports to the Shelter Officer.

Nature of Position:
The Field Office in Odesa covers the Odeska, Mykholaivska and Khersonska oblasts and undertakes the full array of UNHCR’s Emergency Shelter and Housing activities including emergency shelter repairs, repair of war damaged houses, IDP house repair and the renovation of social infrastructure. The successful candidate will be joining an established team of engineers and architects who oversee the programme activities. UNHCR uses a mix of direct Implementation and implementation through national Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

Key to the role is close monitoring of all emergency and winter related activities using direct implementation (DI), working closely with implementing partner(s) and/or with authorities. Forming a close working relationship with all stakeholders – including the local authorities – both at regional level and municipal / hromada level is of paramount importance.

Although a sound technical understanding of the construction process, project management, practices, codes and standards is essential, the role will not require the completion of detailed designs or calculations. Rather the incumbent will be responsible for the correct, safe and accurate implementation of the agreed activities under the emergency and winter response.

Based in Odesa, regular travel within the oblasts of Khersonska, Mykholaivska is essential including over-night stays in remote locations (Mykholaiv city).

Duties and Responsibilities:
• Monitor and analyze response trends on emergency shelter materials.
• Calculate percentage of UNHCR-supported responses.
• Provide technical assistance to households receiving emergency materials.
• Support field verification missions.
• Conduct reinforced monitoring of emergency partners.
• Ensure replenishment planning for partner stocks.
• Support winterization activities.
• Maintain incident follow-up and record-keeping.
• Ensure proper case referral between emergency and durable solutions whenever is needed.
• Prepare analytical reports.
• Perform other duties as required.

Essential Minimum Qualifications and Professional Experience Required:
• Bachelor’s degree in Civil engineering, Architecture or Construction Engineering (or other related field) is required.
• Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience with Bachelor or equivalent or higher

Desired Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate should demonstrate:
• Good technical knowledge about construction in Ukraine linked with understanding of Ukrainian Construction legislation;
• Excellent communication skills, with a proactive and flexible approach to problem-solving;
• Capable to use MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook etc.) with strong confidence in Excel;
• Capacity to deal with multi-task environment and efficiently contribute to the multi-national team’s work.
• Knowledge of English and Ukrainian languages is required.
• Knowledge and previous experience in the humanitarian sector is highly desirable

Conditions:
The appointment is for an initial period of six (6) months and is a full-time position with official working hours from Monday to Friday (40 hours per week).

Application Process:
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and may be required to complete a written test. A mandatory competency-based interview for all shortlisted candidates will be conducted as part of the selection process.

 

Standard Job Description

Required Languages

English

,

Ukrainian

,

Desired Languages

,

,

Additional Qualifications

Skills

Education

Certifications

Work Experience

Other information

This position doesn't require a functional clearance


Remote

No

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