Job Description

Please note that this vacancy is only open to eligible staff members who have been individually notified of their eligibility to apply for positions advertised in the Accelerated Posting Compendium.

June 12, 2026

H (no hardship)

Family

PR3

Professional

Reason

Regular > Regular Assignment

2026-05-26

Archivist

Organizational Setting and Work Relationships
This job may exist in HQ, Bureau, or Country Operations. The incumbent may report to the Records and Archives Section, a Bureau or a country operation. In both cases, the job should follow the Records and Archives policies, standards, and guidance. The incumbent may supervise staff and work in partnership with other information management related functions. The role is to implement best practices for managing UNHCR's information during the complete lifecycle, from the planning and creation stage until the disposition of temporary information or i-preservation in UNHCR's archives.

All UNHCR staff members are accountable for performing their duties, as reflected in their job description. They do so within their delegated authorities, in line with the regulatory framework of UNHCR, which includes the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNHCR Policies, and Administrative Instructions as well as relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, staff members are required to discharge their responsibilities in a manner consistent with the core, functional, cross-functional and managerial competencies and UNHCR's core values of professionalism, integrity and respect for diversity.

Duties
- Design and implement programs for the organization, preservation, integrity, authenticity, and accessibility of records.
- Apply UNHCR's access policy to information and archives.
- Implement and administrate records management, archives, and digital preservation platforms
- Develop guidance and best practices on information and records and archives management.
- Prepare and apply records schedules to physical and digital records
- Develop and implement strategies for the digitization of physical records
- Assist units and offices in HQ and Field to transfer physical and digital information of long-term value.
- Participate in outreach activities.
- Facilitate the implementation of the records and archives management policy and advise on information governance for digital and physical material.
- Provide training on how to manage information, transfer knowledge, and use institutional memory.
- Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs on information and records and archives management).
- Oversee the disposition process.
- Contribute to the creation of MS Teams or Share Point sites and map content to e-SAFE or other records and archives management systems.
- Support Records Management focal points.
- Promote information governance best practices.
- Identify and provide context on material for the Archives in digital and physical format and facilitate the transfer.
- Manage and document communications with internal and external researchers seeking access to or information from UNHCR information resources.
- Advise researchers on the availability of and restrictions on archives collections, offering guidance to identify relevant research content where required.
- Conduct on-demand research on behalf of UNHCR staff members where necessary, assisting and advising on archives collections of relevance to their subject.
- Take the lead in conducting declassification activities following UNHCR access policy.
- Analyze research trends to anticipate future access demand and to assist in resource allocation.
- Coordinate and participate in the supervision of researchers in the archives reading room.
- Coordinate and project manage archival description tasks and creation of finding aids.
- Coordinate and project manage catalog development tasks including preparing data for upload to UNHCR's archives catalog, improving existing catalog descriptions where required.
- Oversee the web archive service
- Be responsible for the pre-ingest preparation of data sets.
- Implement the Digital Preservation System (DPS).
- Manages digital curation and preservation tasks, looking at critical functions within DPS, in particular, the preparation of Submission Information Packages for the Digital Preservation -System.
- Manages the ingest of electronic content into the DPS.
- Develops policies and procedures relating to Digital Preservation.
- Implements integrations between the DPS and other critical UNHCR systems.
- Manages long term preservation projects with ITS and external parties.
- Develops additional RAS initiatives related to the care of born-digital materials.

- Support the identification and management of risks and seek to seize opportunities impacting objectives in the area of responsibility. Ensure decision making in risk based in the functional area of work. Raise risks, issues and concerns to a supervisor or to relevant functional colleague(s).
- Perform other duties related to the management of information and records, and archives.

Minimum Qualifications
Education & Professional Work Experience
Years of Experience / Degree Level
For P3/NOC - 6 years relevant experience with Undergraduate degree; or 5 years relevant experience with Graduate degree; or 4 years relevant experience with Doctorate degree

Field(s) of Education
Information Management, Archival Management, History
or other relevant Field.

Certificates and/or Licenses
Archives/Record Management
(Certificates and Licenses marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Relevant Job Experience
Essential
6 years of experience in progressively responsible functions in relation to archives and records management in a large organisation that deals with both sensitive and non-sensitive materials. Experience with Enterprise Content Management systems with Records Management capacity. Sound operational knowledge and experience of office automation and electronic records management. Experience with digital archives with knowledge of current trends, tools, best practices, policy development, and issues associated with electronic records and their preservation. Familiarity with archival metadata standards. Sound knowledge of Digital Preservation theory and practise. Proven ability to deal with multiple tasks in a courteous and service-oriented manner in demanding working conditions that often have short deadlines.

Desirable
Knowledge and exposure to UNHCR Mandate, its principles, and policies towards refugees and the forcibly displaced and stateless persons to UNHCR. Experience with Web Archiving and Digital Preservation Systems.

Functional Skills
RC-Audiovisual archives (appraisal, standards, preservation, description)
RC-Digital archives delivery and management
RC-Enterprise content and records management systems
RC-Information appraisal
RC-Records and archives program implementation
RC-Records Management and Archives Principles, practices and Standards
RC-Records management functional systems administration
(Functional Skills marked with an asterisk* are essential)

Language Requirements
For International Professional and Field Service jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English.
For National Professional jobs: Knowledge of English and UN working language of the duty station if not English and local language.
For General Service jobs: Knowledge of English and/or UN working language of the duty station if not English.

All UNHCR workforce members must individually and collectively, contribute towards a working environment where each person feels safe, and empowered to perform their duties. This includes by demonstrating no tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment including sexual harassment, sexism, gender inequality, discrimination and abuse of power.

As individuals and as managers, all must be proactive in preventing and responding to inappropriate conduct, support ongoing dialogue on these matters and speaking up and seeking guidance and support from relevant UNHCR resources when these issues arise.

This is a Standard Job Description for all UNHCR jobs with this job title and grade level. The Operational Context may contain additional essential and/or desirable qualifications relating to the specific operation and/or position. Any such requirements are incorporated by reference in this Job Description and will be considered for the screening, shortlisting and selection of candidates.

Essential Attributes
• Proven professional experience in archives and records management at an organizational scale.
• Demonstrated experience in implementing digital preservation projects and managing digital preservation systems.
• Technical expertise in preserving diverse digital content, including Web archiving, email preservation strategies, database and dataset preservation and migration, use of emulation tools and related strategies, best practices for digitization of analogue content

Desirable Attributes
• Knowledge of additional languages, in particular French, Spanish, and/or Arabic.
• Strong collaborative mindset, including a flexible approach to teamwork and a willingness to undertake cross-functional responsibilities to ensure effective and timely responses to operational requirements for information, guidance, and services.
• Exposure to or experience in diverse and inclusive work environments (aligned with organizational objectives to strengthen gender and geographical diversity and encourage applications from colleagues with disabilities).

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Operational context

Occupational Safety and Health Considerations:

To view occupational safety and health considerations for this duty station, please visit this link:

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel

Nature of Position:

The position is part of the Records and Archives Section, within the Global Data Service and reports to the Head of Records and Archives.

The Global Data Service oversees, guides and supports UNHCR’s data work. It covers a broad range of data dimensions, ranging from the highly operational registration work, through statistics and information management all the way to records and archives as well as overall data governance.

The position is responsible for Digital Preservation projects, services, guidance and system management for UNHCR’s global operations. The post holder will be responsible for designing strategies and solutions for the long-term preservation of UNHCR’s important digital assets, representing the recorded history of the organization and of persons within its protection mandate.

The position holder will build partnerships with strategic stakeholders throughout the organization, including those in IT, Data, Policy, Protection and Emergency Response functions, to ensure that digital content is adequately risk-assessed, and solutions for maintenance of accessibility to information of long-term value are put in place. Engagement with external stakeholders in the wider Digital Preservation and research community is also a requirement of the post, and participation in fundraising and advocacy initiatives is an essential part of the job.

The position holder is expected to work flexibly within the broader Records and Archives team, undertaking Records Management, Research facilitation and other cross-functional duties within the team as required.

Living and Working Conditions:

The position is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The incumbent will be required to travel, sometimes on short notice. Living and working conditions in Switzerland are up to the level of a highly developed country, where easy access to quality schooling, services, medical support, and higher education is available.

The position requires residence in Switzerland and cannot be undertaken remotely, although some teleworking is possible, after discussions with the manager.

Additional Qualifications

Skills

Bachelor of Arts: Archival Management, Bachelor of Arts: History, Bachelor of Arts: Information Management

Certifications

Archives/Record Management - Other

Competencies

Accountability, Analytical thinking, Client & results orientation, Commitment to continuous learning, Communication, Judgement & decision making, Managing performance, Organizational awareness, Planning & organizing, Teamwork & collaboration, Technological awareness

https://icsc.un.org/Home/SalaryScales

Compendium

Accelerated Posting Compendium 2026 - Part B

Additional Information

This position doesn't require a functional clearance