Director, Knowledge, Innovation and Foresight, UNOPS (Copenhagen)

UNOPS is recruiting a Director of Knowledge, Innovation and Foresight within its Partnerships and Futures Group, based in Copenhagen at executive level (IICA-4 / ICS-13). The role sets strategic direction for knowledge management, innovation, and strategic foresight across the organization, and oversees eight thematic missions spanning the planetary crisis, energy, resilience for small island developing states, healthcare, digital transformation, social protection, the humanitarian-development nexus, and food systems. The mandate maps closely onto methods the Symbiotic Design Framework treats as core to observing and shaping futures: horizon scanning and scenario planning as disciplined ways of reading signals from the present, and mission-oriented innovation, in Mariana Mazzucato's sense, as a way of turning societal challenges into directed opportunity. Details: duty station Copenhagen; contract ICA / IICA-4, executive level; education a bachelor's degree with 12+ years or a master's with 10+ years of relevant experience. Important: the posted application deadline was 19 July 2026 (Copenhagen time), so the vacancy appears to have closed. Recorded here for reference and as a signal of the foresight-led roles worth tracking.