Full time individual Contractor: Senior software developer for T4D solutions (UNICEF ECARO)

This opening expired 2 years ago. Do not try to apply for this job.

UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund

Open positions at UNICEF
Logo of UNICEF

Application deadline 2 years ago: Thursday 16 Sep 2021 at 21:55 UTC

Open application form

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is the United Nations agency mandated to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, emphasizing the needs of the most disadvantaged, excluded and vulnerable children.

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 over 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children’s survival, protection and development. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS, UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

For every child, hope

How can you make a difference?

If you are a committed, creative Software Developer and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you.

Background

UNICEF has been promoting the use of Innovative tools and technology to deliver various programs intended to have positive social impact on children globally and to support the development of these tools, the technology for development (T4D) team in UNICEF provides support for identifying, prototyping, and scaling up technologies and practices that strengthen UNICEF’s work for children. These Innovations range from new ways to structure programs to new products and technological solutions. The main focus is on innovation that benefits the most deprived people, and the areas with the highest level of inequity, specifically focusing on technologies, tools and solutions that can be deployed and used in remote areas and by people who do not have access to advanced technology, specifically in the following main areas:

  • Real-time information: Development and scale-up of innovations to provide real-time information to UNICEF programs and increase transparency and accountability.
  • Access to information and Quality Learning: Development and scale-up innovative solutions to provide improved access to information, quality education and learning.
  • Youth engagement: Scale-up of U-Report and partnerships to promote youth engagement
  • Programme-tech solutions: Digital solutions for FinTech, EdTech, digital health, etc.

Recognizing the potential of digital solutions in improving quality of life and services for children and their families, UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) supports careful development and scale up of technology-based solutions across the countries in ECA region. The following are a few examples of the ongoing initiatives:

HealthBuddy - Information chatbot and app for COVID-19: A multilingual interactive chatbot, is an interactive tool that helps countries in the region to access accurate information, and counter misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The chatbot was developed in RapidPro and Rasa – open-source conversational AI framework. The chatbot is now available for national authorities and public health institutions for tailored use in countries, including in local languages.

Parenting application: UNICEF ECARO initiated development of the parenting app “Bebbo” as an innovative solution that should support parents and caregivers to respond to multiple needs of their children related to health, well-being and care, and learning. The easily accessible mobile app for IOS and Android platforms will provide evidence-based guidance that supports childcare and development as well as parental wellbeing and mental health. In addition to ECD content across domains of health, nutrition, play, safety, responsive parenting and parental wellbeing, the app will offer functional features related to morning and recording of vaccinations, child growth and development, customizable and tailored to child’s age and gender, and other parameters.

AAC Cboard App: UNICEF ECARO has been piloting a joint initiative to bring affordable Assistive Technology for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) in a few countries of the region. An open-source mobile app “Cboard” developed by Venture Fund Graduate “Cireha” is being introduced by UNICEF and partners to support young children with complex communication needs who otherwise may be left out of early childhood education services. Development of long-term solutions and scale up of Cboard to new countries of the region will require technical support at the RO and country office levels.

U-SupportME: It is an online platform where adolescents and young people, including those most vulnerable, can access engaging MHPSS information, support, and services. Providing mental health and psychosocial support through online digital platform represents an unprecedented opportunity to drastically scale up access to such services for children, young people, caregivers, families, and communities, including the most vulnerable ones.

Purpose of the Assignment

UNICEF ECARO seeks to hire a full time Individual Contractorto provide technical guidance and support to design, develop, test, deploy and troubleshoot different digital solutions (web and mobile apps).

Main objective and Expected results

Under the supervision of the Technology for Development(T4D) Business Analyst and in coordination with different regional advisors, the individual contractor will work with different teams to help in building stable and scalable digital solutions by providing technical support and guidance in selecting right technology stack, framework and architecture. The consultant will also review the wireframes and codebase/Repos of different applications to ensure good quality and standard, as well as help in testing, deploying, and troubleshooting different digital solutions.

Expected results: (measurable results)

The individual contractor will deliver the following outputs and services:

  • Provide input and review design, architecture and codebase of different digital solutions which includes web and mobile apps
  • Provide technical support in designing backend architecture, setting up repository on DevOps and/or GitHub
  • Provide technical support in cloud hosting and publishing mobile apps on google play store and apple app store
  • Provide technical support in building chatbots, polls and surveys on RapidPro or other platform
  • Test different digital solutions in terms of functionality, scalability and alignment with technical specifications
  • Support country offices in localizing and deploying the selected digital solutions
  • Provide support in assessing the existing digital solutions in the ECA Region for potential scale-up and replication to other countries in the region
  • Any other service required to support the development, testing and deployment of digital solutions.

Contractual arrangements:

  • Duty Station: Due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions, the Individual Contractor will be based remotely within Europe and Central Asia Region time zone.
  • Timeframe: The Individual Contractor will work full time for 11.5 months
  • Payment: Payment will be made on a monthly basis based on completion of the outputs outlined above and specific deliverables/reports to be agreed with the supervisor at the beginning of each month.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you are required to have the following:

  • Advanced university degree in a relevant field, ideally in software engineering or computer science. A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 7 years of professional experience will be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
  • At least 5 years of experience in designing, developing, and deploying software applications with hands-on technical experience in the following:

    • JavaScript front-end frameworks (React / Redux, Angular, Vue.js etc.)
    • Programming Languages- HTML5, Python, Django, PHP, Java, Swift, Kotlin, etc.
    • CMS: Drupal, WordPress or any other CMS
    • Database: SQL, Postgres, MangoDB and other NoSQL database systems
    • Experience with git, CI/CD pipelines, pull requests, code review and continuous integration and deployment
  • Experience in creating product roadmaps and contribution to open source project
  • Experience working with a multidisciplinary team of designers, developers, and subject matter expert
  • Experience working in an agile software development environment
  • Knowledge of AI based chatbot and RapidPro is 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) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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.

TO APPLY:

Candidates are invited to:

  1. complete their online UNICEF profile
  2. attach latest P-11 History Form, CV and Motivation Letter including links to any developed applications or codebase
  3. Indicate monthly fee in USD. Applications without fees will not be accepted.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.

Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: unicef.org