Working at United Nations Secretariat
Careers, recruitment routes and current opportunities across the United Nations Secretariat
Explore United Nations Secretariat careers, staff categories, recruitment routes, application guidance and current vacancies across departments and duty stations.
Overview
The United Nations Secretariat is the central administrative body of the UN, serving the General Assembly, the Security Council and the other principal organs. It covers political and peacebuilding affairs, peace operations, humanitarian coordination through OCHA, human rights through OHCHR, economic and social affairs, drugs and crime, disarmament, legal affairs, management, conference services and global communications.
Duty stations span the main offices in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi, the regional economic commissions in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Geneva and Santiago, and field presences in peacekeeping and special political missions. This makes the Secretariat one of the largest single employers in the international system, and the range of professions is correspondingly wide.
Vacancies are advertised across several categories: Professional and higher (P and D), National Professional Officer, General Service and related, Field Service in missions, and separately consultancies and individual contractor assignments. Each category has its own eligibility rules, and the same subject matter can appear under more than one of them.
Organization profile
The Secretariat is a normative, policy and coordination body more than a direct delivery organisation. Much of the work involves servicing intergovernmental processes, drafting reports and analysis for member states, coordinating across agencies, and supporting mandates agreed by the Security Council or General Assembly. Precision in drafting and comfort in formal multilateral settings matter more here than in operational agencies.
Recruitment follows a highly standardised system. Posts are graded, job openings are written against a fixed set of evaluation criteria and the organisation's core values and competencies, and selection decisions are reviewed by a central review body. Geographical diversity and gender balance are stated selection considerations for Professional posts, and knowledge of a second official UN language is an advantage that becomes close to a requirement at senior levels.
Field and mission service adds another dimension. Field Service and mission-based posts often carry non-family or rotational status, hardship classifications and security constraints, and staff are expected to be mobile between duty stations over a career.
Recruitment at a glance
1000 vacancies analysed.
By grade / level
| Vacancies | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| CON | 445 | 45% |
| I-1 | 158 | 16% |
| P-3 | 78 | 8% |
| P-4 | 75 | 8% |
| P-5 | 43 | 4% |
| P-2 | 34 | 3% |
| D-1 | 30 | 3% |
| G-6 | 23 | 2% |
By contract type
| Vacancies | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| C | 387 | 39% |
| R | 200 | 20% |
| J | 174 | 17% |
| V | 151 | 15% |
| H | 55 | 6% |
| D | 14 | 1% |
| U | 10 | 1% |
| F | 7 | 1% |
Based on 1000 vacancies published on UN Global Jobs in the last 12 months. Last calculated 2026-09-17.
Which roles are advertised
1000 vacancies analysed.
Top duty stations
| Vacancies | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 74 | 7% |
| United States | 59 | 6% |
| Kenya | 27 | 3% |
| Austria | 17 | 2% |
| Panama | 12 | 1% |
| Thailand | 12 | 1% |
| Germany | 10 | 1% |
| Brazil | 9 | 1% |
Most advertised career fields
| Vacancies | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| administration | 216 | 22% |
| programme | 206 | 21% |
| environment | 121 | 12% |
| protection | 118 | 12% |
| finance | 115 | 12% |
| communications | 105 | 11% |
| monitoring-evaluation | 85 | 9% |
| legal | 71 | 7% |
Based on 1000 vacancies published on UN Global Jobs in the last 12 months. Last calculated 2026-09-17.
How to apply
Applications go through the UN careers portal (Inspira), where you build a single personal history profile and apply to individual job openings from it. The profile, not an attached CV, is what the screening is based on, so it must be complete with every position, exact dates, supervisors, and full education history.
Read the evaluation criteria in the job opening and mirror them. Screening is applied against the stated education, years of relevant experience and language requirements, and applicants who meet the criteria but do not state it explicitly are routinely filtered out at the first stage. Answer every screening question, and use your cover letter to connect your experience to the specific mandate and functions named in the opening.
Check eligibility before you invest time. National Professional Officer and General Service posts are restricted to nationals or legal residents of the duty station. Professional posts are open internationally. Internal candidates already serving in the UN system are given consideration under staff selection rules, which makes external competition demanding. Temporary job openings are filled faster and can be a realistic entry route, as are the Young Professionals Programme, the Junior Professional Officer scheme funded by donor governments, and internships.
Assessment generally consists of a written test or technical exercise followed by a competency-based interview using the situation-task-action-result format against the Secretariat's core values and competencies. Timelines can be long. Six months to a year from closing date to offer is not unusual, and candidates who reach the roster after a successful assessment may be selected for a comparable post later without repeating the process. The UN charges no fee at any stage of recruitment, any request for payment is fraudulent.
Salary and conditions
UN Global Jobs does not publish salary, allowance, benefits or contract-condition guidance for United Nations Secretariat. Pay and conditions differ by grade, contract type and duty station, and they change over time. The authoritative statements are the ones in the vacancy notice and in the offer made by the organisation, which is where you should verify them. Where a vacancy notice states pay, we reproduce it on the listing; where it does not, ask the recruiting team before making commitments.
Sources
Vacancy figures on this page are calculated from job openings published by the United Nations Secretariat and collected by UN Global Jobs. Organisational and recruitment facts are taken from the UN's own published careers material and staff selection rules.