Travel Assistant
Organizational Context
The United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) serves as the UN headquarters in Africa, supporting UNEP, UN-Habitat, and the Resident Coordination System globally. It provides essential administrative, security, conference, and information services. This Travel Assistant role is situated within the Travel, Shipping & Visa Unit of UNON's Central Support Services.
Job Purpose
The Travel Assistant provides crucial support to staff, delegations, and non-staff personnel by managing all aspects of official travel and personal effects shipments. This involves offering guidance on entitlements and procedures, reviewing travel requests for compliance, calculating airfares, constructing itineraries, and liaising with travel agencies. The role ensures travel arrangements are economical and efficient, processes expense reports, handles cancellations, and coordinates global personal effects removals, including insurance and claims. Additionally, the assistant provides support for the Umoja travel module and performs ad-hoc duties as required, contributing to the smooth operation of UNON's administrative services.
Responsibilities
Provide expert guidance to staff and delegations on travel entitlements, policies, and procedures, including personal effects removal arrangements. Review and verify travel and shipment requests within the Umoja system to ensure adherence to regulations. Calculate airfares and develop optimal travel itineraries for staff, dependents, and non-staff, prioritizing economical and direct routes. Collaborate with contracted travel agencies for complex itineraries and ticket issuance. Authorize travel and shipment requests, including amendments. Calculate and record lump-sum travel entitlements and process refunds in Umoja. Manage cancellations of travel requests as needed. Process travel-related expense reports submitted to the travel unit. Coordinate worldwide personal effects removals, including shipment registration, insurance, claims processing, and invoice review. Offer Umoja system support for travel-related inquiries. Undertake additional duties as assigned.
Work Experience
A minimum of five years of progressive experience in travel administration, fare construction, routing, and reimbursement is required. This is reduced to three years with a first-level university degree. Experience with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is mandatory. Experience within the UN system or a similar international organization, arranging group travel, and data analytics are desirable.
Skills
Professionalism, Communication, Client Orientation, Travel processing, Data analysis, Umoja system knowledge, Interpersonal skills, Attention to detail.