LAC) [Open to Tier 0, 1 and 2 applicants]

UNDP•Panama City, FL

About The Position

The Investigations Team Lead for Headquarters and Latin America and the Caribbean (HQ/LAC) oversees, supervises, and conducts investigations into alleged misconduct within the Office of Audit and Investigations’ mandate, relating to UNDP Headquarters and the Latin America and Caribbean region. The role functionally reports to the Chief, Investigations, Unit 1, under the overall supervision of the Deputy Director (Investigations). The Team Lead provides day-to-day operational leadership for the HQ/LAC Investigations Team, manages its investigative portfolio and workload, oversees investigative strategy and quality, and personally leads complex, high-risk, or sensitive investigations. The role supervises investigators and other personnel, provides performance feedback and appraisals, and is accountable for the quality, timeliness, and defensibility of team outputs. It ensures that investigations follow applicable international standards, UNDP frameworks, OAI guidelines, and procedures, with due process, confidentiality, information security, and victim-centered approaches. The position also engages internal and external stakeholders, supports risk controls and knowledge-sharing, contributes to improvement of investigative practices, and uses investigative technologies and analytical tools responsibly. Field work and mission travel, including to hardship or hazardous duty locations, are mandatory.

Requirements

Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Criminal Justice or an investigations-related specialization, Law, Management, Finance, or a related field; alternatively, a first-level university degree in these areas with two additional years of experience.
At least seven years of progressively responsible professional experience in complex criminal and/or administrative investigations with a master’s degree, or at least nine years with a bachelor’s degree.
Experience leading or overseeing investigative workstreams, acting as an investigator, or working in an equivalent role.
Experience conducting and overseeing investigations into administrative misconduct and/or criminal offences, including fraud and financial crimes, sexual misconduct, and workplace standards-of-conduct violations, from intake through final reporting.
Experience providing technical and functional leadership in an investigative context, including guiding investigators, coordinating multidisciplinary teams, prioritizing workloads, and ensuring quality and timely outputs.
Specialized training in core investigative techniques, including interviewing, evidence handling, evidence analysis, and investigative report writing.
Ability to communicate clearly and persuasively with sound judgment in complex and sensitive situations, including difficult interviews, stakeholder management, and briefings to senior management.
Fluency in English.

Nice To Haves

Formal professional training across investigation-related areas, such as training from a national law enforcement or investigations academy.
Experience addressing underperformance or misconduct within investigative teams, including corrective feedback, documenting performance concerns, supporting improvement, and escalating issues.
Specialized training or demonstrated experience in advanced investigative skills, such as interviewing vulnerable victims and witnesses, handling sensitive cases, digital forensics, and complex evidence analysis.
Experience leveraging investigative technologies, data analytics, and artificial intelligence to improve investigative efficiency, accuracy, or timeliness while ensuring due process, confidentiality, and ethical use.
Experience conducting risk assessments related to investigations, integrity risks, or misconduct trends.
At least one year of experience in an international or multicultural investigative environment.
Fluency in Spanish.
Working knowledge of French or Portuguese.
Knowledge of another United Nations official language.

Responsibilities

Provide day-to-day operational leadership for the HQ/LAC Investigations Team and manage its assigned investigative portfolio, including case allocation, prioritization, workload balancing, and progress monitoring.
Oversee investigations, develop appropriate investigative strategies, pursue relevant lines of inquiry, and deploy investigative resources effectively.
Personally lead investigations in complex, high-risk, or sensitive matters, while providing technical direction and quality assurance for other team investigations.
Review and edit investigation reports and related documents, ensuring factual, objective, well-supported findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
Supervise, guide, recruit as necessary, and conduct performance appraisals for investigators and other personnel assigned to the team.
Conduct case and performance reviews; provide coaching and corrective feedback; address performance or conduct issues and escalate them when required.
Ensure investigations comply with international investigative standards, UNDP legal and policy frameworks, and OAI guidelines and procedures.
Ensure due process, confidentiality, information security, victim-centered approaches, and appropriate evidence collection, handling, analysis, safeguarding, and chain of custody.
Identify investigative, procedural, institutional, and capacity risks; escalate systemic or high-risk issues to the Chief.
Promote responsible use of case management systems, analytical software, open-source intelligence tools, AI-enabled solutions, and other investigative technologies.
Maintain accurate and current case records, databases, and documentation, supporting accountability and auditability.
Formulate case closure recommendations, including assessments of evidentiary sufficiency and proportionality, for review and approval by the Chief.
Provide operational briefings, trend information, and case-related inputs to support regional and functional oversight.
Undertake and, where appropriate, lead investigative missions to UNDP offices worldwide, including hardship or hazardous duty locations.
Build a collaborative, ethical, supportive, and inclusive team culture that encourages accountability, learning, and continuous improvement.
Liaise with senior officials, regional and country offices, legal services, HR, ethics, procurement, management, other international organizations, and national anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies as appropriate.
Provide advisory support to policy managers, where appropriate, to strengthen UNDP risk controls based on investigative findings.
Contribute to professional practice development, risk assessment planning, knowledge-sharing, lessons learned, and capacity-building within OAI.
Keep abreast of United Nations Dispute Tribunal and United Nations Appeals Tribunal jurisprudence and undertake other assignments as directed.