Consultancy - Senior Full Stack Software Developer, Remote, Office of Innovation, 11.5 months

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, innovate..

Giga

UNICEF and ITU have launched “Giga”, a new initiative to connect every school to the internet, and every young person to information, opportunity and choice. It also serves as a platform to create the infrastructure necessary to provide digital connectivity to an entire country, for every community, and for every citizen. Learn more about Giga’s progress here: https://gigaconnect.org/features/

Providing connectivity to the world remains a challenge. According to the ITU, nearly 3.7 billion people remain unconnected from the internet and to digital products and services that could dramatically improve their lives. Approximately 29% of 18-24-year-olds, ~360m people, most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, do not have digital access and thereby lack access to the same information, opportunity and choice as their more-connected peers. Unless things change, a big part of this rapidly growing group of young people is in danger of being left behind, excluded from the modern digital world.

Closing the digital divide requires global cooperation, leadership, and innovation in finance and technology. Giga leverages data, innovative finance and new technologies to bring the power of meaningful connectivity to fast-track young people’s access to educational resources and opportunities.

How can you make a difference?

We seek a strong self-motivated, full-stack Senior Software Developer who can work with a diverse, global and interdisciplinary team to help us build and then scale tools and products that support the successful, on-the-ground implementation of the Giga project. Further, you can establish and maintain a high standard and quality of work even under tight time constraints.

In particular, you will:

• Work closely with the Product Manager and the Data & Tech Lead, to lead the development of the Project Connect, an Open-source platform to map real-time school connectivity globally
• Coordinate the work of vendors and other software partners that are supporting us to build new products, API and distributed infrastructures worldwide
• Build new prototypes and tools that support the current Giga project, as well as scale features in existing ones
• Support and maintain, including documentation, software and products related to Giga
• Work closely with other parts of the team (i.e., blockchain team) to explore collaboration and integration

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Computer Science or equivalent work experience *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of eight (8) years of relevant professional experience in full-stack software development
• Advanced experience in building software prototypes and extensible API
• Experience in ETL implementation for structured/unstructured data source.
• Experience in interacting with users and collecting user feedback on prototypes
• Certification on software development
• Familiarity with Agile development environments and practices
• Advanced knowledge in cloud services: Azure, AWS, GCP and DevOps
• Technical experience in
  • Advanced knowledge on JavaScript front-end frameworks (React / Redux, Angular, etc.)
  • Languages: Node.js, ruby, python, C#, bash
  • Experience in development of Headless CMS
  • Advanced knowledge on native desktop application development technologies.
  • Geospatial DBs, libraries and data structures
  • SQL and NoSQL database systems
  • Experience with git, pull requests, and continuous integration and deployment
• Ability to learn other coding languages as needed
• Open-source community active
• Knowledge of blockchain technologies is an asset
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency conditions is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

The competencies required for this post are….

• Builds and maintains partnerships - Lv 2
• Innovates and embraces change - Lv 2
• Manages ambiguity and complexity - Lv 2
• Thinks and acts strategically – Lv 2
• Works collaboratively with others – Lv 2

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Payment details and further considerations

• Monthly payment, based on monthly tasks and progress reports, approved upon monthly review with supervisor.
• Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance
• Consultant is eligible for standard DSA for all work-related travel

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.