Assessment Specialist - Skills-Based Assessment Design and Development

Organizational Context

The UN Secretariat's Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, Office of Human Resources, is developing a centralized skills-based assessment questions library. This initiative, part of the Staff Selection 2.0 Programme, aims to transition recruitment towards skills-based practices. The library will contain standardized, reusable assessment items designed to ensure validity, reliability, and fairness.

Job Purpose

This role supports the development of a centralized skills-based assessment questions library for the UN Secretariat. The purpose is to create a comprehensive collection of screening questions, substantive assessments, and structured interview items aligned with job profiles and skill proficiency levels. By applying sound assessment design and psychometric principles, the role contributes to a more consistent, valid, reliable, and fair recruitment process across the organization. The developed library will enable hiring managers and HR practitioners to implement effective skills-based assessments, supporting the transition to modern recruitment practices and ensuring quality-assured assessment materials.

Responsibilities

Develop skills-based assessment items, including screening questions, structured interview questions, and substantive recruitment assessments such as written tests, technical tests, case studies, situational judgment tests, and job simulations, ensuring alignment with job requirements and skill proficiency levels. Prepare assessment blueprints that link job requirements, skills to be measured, and appropriate assessment methods. Create structured scoring guides, behavioral indicators, and rating rubrics for consistent and objective candidate evaluation, adhering to the UN Secretariat’s Assessment Framework. Establish item-writing standards and documentation protocols to ensure consistency, transparency, and reusability of assessment materials. Classify and tag assessment items by skill, proficiency level, job family, or occupational area. Apply psychometric principles (validity, reliability, fairness) in the development and review of assessment items. Collaborate with subject-matter experts and talent acquisition teams to ensure assessments reflect realistic job tasks. Support the development of assessments for digital administration and contribute to AI-resilient design approaches.

Work Experience

A minimum of five years of experience in assessment design and development, recruitment assessments, test/item development, psychometrics, or skills-based evaluation methods is required. Experience developing structured assessments for digital administration and applying psychometric principles (validity, reliability, fairness) is also required. Experience managing assessment item banks or question libraries is desirable.

Skills

Assessment design and development, recruitment assessments, test/item development, psychometrics, skills-based evaluation methods, structured assessments (written, technical, SJTs, simulations, interviews), assessment blueprints, scoring guides, behavioral indicators, rating rubrics, item-writing standards, classification and tagging of assessment items, validity, reliability, fairness, collaboration with SMEs and HR, digital assessment administration, AI-resilient assessment design, analytical skills, digital literacy, AI literacy, documentation skills, communication skills.

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