UN documentation and information management careers: records, archives and official documents

Documentation and information management covers several related professions at the UN. It can mean controlling official records through their life cycle, preserving archives, managing parliamentary documents, running an information repository or helping an operational team organize and retrieve its knowledge.

A source database may show the label “IMA.” Treat it as a system job-family code, not a grade, contract type or new profession. The official title and Category and Level fields still govern. More importantly, read the duties to distinguish records management from conference documentation or operational information management.

The main strands of work

The UN Archives and Records Management Section advises Secretariat offices on record-keeping from creation and use through disposal or preservation as archives. Its work includes retention schedules, metadata, taxonomies, transfer, storage, retrieval and secure disposal.

The Documents Management Section coordinates parliamentary documents and mandated publications. It plans workloads, manages submissions and supports timely simultaneous issuance in the six official languages. That is a production and intergovernmental-service chain, not the same job as archival appraisal.

Operational information-management roles, common in humanitarian and field settings, may organize datasets, dashboards, products and sharing arrangements. Some are classified in programme, humanitarian or technology families rather than documentation. A title such as Information Management Officer needs a close reading.

Titles, categories and locations

Titles include Information Management Officer, Records Management Officer, Archivist, Documents Management Officer, Librarian, Knowledge Management Officer, Information Management Assistant and Documents Assistant. Editorial and desktop-publishing positions are adjacent but have distinct language and production requirements.

Professional roles usually appear at P levels. National Professional Officer and Field Service posts may occur outside headquarters. Assistant roles are often General Service or Field Service, and consultancy opportunities support migrations, digitization or taxonomy projects. “Officer” is not enough to determine grade.

Jobs are found in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi, regional commissions, tribunals and field operations. Humanitarian organizations and agencies maintain their own information teams and vacancy systems. General Service roles are usually locally recruited, so verify eligibility for the stated duty station.

Qualifications and domain knowledge

Relevant study can include archives and records management, library and information science, information management, knowledge management, history, public administration or data-related disciplines. Some professional archival or library posts ask for a specific advanced degree. Assistant jobs may require secondary education and suitable technical experience.

For records roles, useful knowledge includes retention and disposal, appraisal, classification schemes, metadata, electronic records, access controls and preservation. The UN’s records guidance emphasizes that records document official business and remain organizational property regardless of format.

Documentation posts may require workflow planning, document submission rules, multilingual production, deadline control and coordination with author departments and language services. Repository roles can require taxonomy, search, content migration, user support and governance. SharePoint or another platform is a tool; the application should also show the information architecture and control decisions behind it.

Evidence that fits the vacancy

For a records example, identify the collection or business process, volume, retention problem and legal or policy constraint. Explain how you developed a file plan or retention schedule, obtained approval, migrated or disposed of records and checked that users could retrieve authoritative versions.

For archives, describe appraisal, arrangement, description, preservation and reference access. For official documents, show how you scheduled competing submissions, checked compliance, managed late changes and achieved issuance deadlines. For operational information management, explain data sources, validation, access rules and the decisions supported by the finished product.

Do not treat digitization as scanning alone. Recruiters will want to know how files were named, described, quality-checked, secured and linked to retention or access rules. Quantify scope without disclosing sensitive holdings.

Applications should also acknowledge the tension between access and protection. Give an example of applying a classification, permissions model or disclosure review. If another authority approved destruction or public release, state your role accurately.

Search current openings on UN Careers and relevant agency sites. First verify the title, category, contract and duty station. Then decide which branch of documentation or information management the job actually belongs to. A precise match is much more useful than a broad claim of having “managed knowledge.”