Project Coordinator

Project background

ETH Zurich in collaboration with the Division for Prosperity at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC), and EPFL is seeking a Project Coordinator for ETEL-AI (Empowering Training, Education and Learning with AI). The coordinator will serve as central operational point of contact and governance focal point, ensuring that program, pedagogical, research and technical activities remain aligned and that decisions, timelines and deliverables move forward.

ETEL-AI is an 18-month international innovation project that adapts Ethel, an open-source multilingual AI-assisted learning platform, for training programs delivered by international organizations. The project combines three interconnected work packages: platform adaptation and AI-assisted content generation; psychometric quality assurance and fairness auditing; and multilingual adaptation, pilot deployment and open-source release.

The work is co-designed with UNITAR and prepared with UNICC for secure, scalable and sustainable production use. The project team brings together expertise in AI for education, design-led co-creation, psychometrics, multilingual large language models, international training delivery, cybersecurity and UN infrastructure.

Job description

As Project Coordinator, you will connect program and learner needs with the work of ETH Zurich, EPFL, UNICC, UNITAR, trainers, facilitators and specialist consultants. Your role is to make the overall program work coherently and to keep the consortium focused on operational impact.

Project coordination and governance

• Serve as primary operational contact and governance focal point for project partners, and maintain effective communication across organizations, disciplines and time zones.
• Organize regular coordination meetings; prepare agendas, briefs and decision material; document decisions, actions, owners and deadlines; and follow through to completion.
• Maintain an integrated project plan across its work packages, including milestones, dependencies, deliverables, resource needs, approvals, reporting dates and critical paths.
• Track progress against the project milestones, provide concise status updates, identify emerging issues and escalate risks or delays to the appropriate project leads.

Program and pilot integration

• Coordinate the operational integration of ETEL-AI into UNITAR's training program, including access to course content, module and asset readiness, trainer and facilitator scheduling, participant support arrangements and pilot launch readiness.
• Coordinate interfaces among trainers and facilitators, assignment-feedback staff, the technological and pedagogical expert, content-integration services and the research and engineering teams, ensuring that responsibilities and handovers are clear.
• Plan feedback and evaluation logistics for learners, trainers and program staff, and ensure that operational findings are converted into agreed improvements and tracked actions.

Co-design and stakeholder engagement

• Organize and operationally support living-lab co-design workshops with UNITAR, ETH Zurich, EPFL and UNICC, including participant coordination, agendas, materials, logistics and follow-up.
• Capture operational requirements and prototype feedback, maintain a structured requirements and decision log, and ensure that agreed changes are reflected in work plans and delivery priorities.
• Support regular engagement with regional and national networks, trainers, facilitators and program stakeholders so that the platform fits real workflows and diverse learner contexts.

Risk, compliance and production transition

• Maintain the project risk and issue register, coordinate mitigation actions and support timely decisions on operational, methodological, technical and data-protection risks.
• Coordinate the preparation and follow-up of data-protection agreements, consent and data-handling arrangements for pilot and learner data, working with UNITAR, ETH Zurich, EPFL and UNICC.
• Track UNICC architecture reviews, cybersecurity and PII-compliance assessments, deployment clearances and production-readiness actions, ensuring that required approvals are in place before launch.
• Support production transition and handover activities, including documentation, hosting and migration readiness, operating responsibilities, issue handover, and sustainability and scalability planning.

Monitoring, reporting and dissemination

• Coordinate evidence and acceptance criteria for milestone reporting, including platform readiness, pilot progress, user feedback, operational lessons and partner contributions. Scientific analyses remain the responsibility of the relevant work-package leads.
• Support grant administration and reporting by consolidating partner inputs, maintaining the deliverable repository, tracking consultant and service-provider tasks, and supporting budget and forecast reviews with the responsible administrative teams.
• Prepare clear progress updates, briefing notes, presentations and workshop records for project governance, partner management and funder reporting.
• Coordinate communication and dissemination activities, including institutional updates, outreach material, the open-source toolkit release, the pilot evaluation report and planning for reuse across other UN entities.

Profile

• You have a university degree in a field relevant to the position, such as design, education, social sciences, humanities, innovation, international development, public policy or a related discipline. An advanced degree is an advantage; however, the subject of the degree is less important than your demonstrated professional experience.
• You bring substantial experience in coordinating interdisciplinary research, education, innovation or knowledge-exchange projects, preferably within externally funded and multi-institutional collaborations.
• You have a proven track record of planning and facilitating co-design processes, stakeholder workshops and collaborative decision-making. You are able to translate the needs of learners, trainers, program teams and institutional partners into clear requirements, work plans and follow-up actions.
• You have experience developing or delivering curricula, learning experiences, executive education, professional training, capacity-building or training-of-trainers activities. Experience with digital learning, AI literacy or AI-supported education is highly desirable.
  You are comfortable working at the interface of technical, pedagogical and operational teams. You are not expected to develop software or machine-learning models, but you should be able to engage confidently with topics related to artificial intelligence, responsible innovation, ethics, accessibility and data protection, and communicate them clearly to non-specialist audiences.
• You have excellent organizational and project-management skills, including coordinating meetings and workshops, maintaining project plans, monitoring milestones and deliverables, documenting decisions, following up on actions, identifying risks and contributing to progress reporting.
• You communicate clearly and diplomatically with researchers, educators, program staff, technology specialists and senior stakeholders, and you are comfortable working in interdisciplinary and multicultural environments.
• Experience working with a United Nations entity, international organization, humanitarian organization, university or comparable public-interest partnership is an advantage.
• You have excellent written and spoken English. Knowledge of French, German or another United Nations language is an advantage.
• You work independently, reliably and collaboratively, and are willing to travel occasionally between Geneva, Zurich and Lausanne.

We offer

• A fixed-term position at 60% for 18 months, with a start date by agreement.
• A visible coordination role in the real-world deployment of responsible, multilingual and open-source AI for education.
• Collaboration with an international team spanning AI, education, psychometrics, design research, international development, cybersecurity and secure digital infrastructure.
• The opportunity to help shape a reusable digital public good with potential application across the United Nations system.
• A role with substantial autonomy and direct impact at the interface of research, program delivery and institutional adoption.
• The position is mostly online but involves regular virtual and in-person coordination with project partners at UNITAR and UNICC in Geneva, ETH Zurich in Zurich and EPFL in Lausanne. The detailed working arrangement will be defined by the hiring institution.