ICT Officer (Technology for Development), P2, FT, ICTD Digital Centre of Excellence – Nairobi, Kenya

Contract

This is a P-2 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 2 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 85,857 USD and 116,616 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

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, a connected world.

The overarching strategic goal of UNICEF’s Information and Communication Technology Division (ICTD) is to transform and build partnerships with our stakeholders to successfully implement UNICEF programmes globally through the use of innovative technology-enabled solutions.

A global Digital Centre of Excellence (DCOE) was launched by ICTD in April 2021 to support UNICEF’s digital transformation as part of the organization’s strategic shift to using digital programming and innovation to tackle programme and humanitarian challenges and advance progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

Progressively DCOE will work with governments and partners to advance digital public goods; manage in-house digital solutions; identify digital innovations and technologies for field implementation and scale up; and engage companies, donors and supporters as thought partners and investors in philanthropy and digital programming.

The ICT Officer (Technology for Development) reports to the ICT Manager (Field Solutions) at the P-4 level. This position may oversee the work of consultants.

How can you make a difference?

The ICT Officer (Technology for Development) will provide support, coordination, and digital expertise to the DCOE. This role will support field-focused technology activities with headquarter project team members, regional ICT T4D business analysts, technology vendors, and country offices.

This position will support the design, development, documentation, testing, implementation, and maintenance of UNICEF’s field solutions, ranging from mobile platforms, data analysis tools, and digital business process tools. This role will work closely with the ICT Manager (Field Solutions) to plan and coordinate custom development and customization for UNICEF software components for both web and mobile frameworks.

Key responsibilities:

Research and evaluation of new technologies

• Research and review new releases and versions of technologies relevant to field offices.
• Conduct desk reviews and comparative analyses of promising digital products and services relevant to UNICEF’s work.
• Survey vendors and potential industry partners to keep abreast of new technologies, pricing, and customer applicability. Participate in vendor evaluations.
• Identify and provide input to new technology opportunities that will add value or reduce inefficiencies for our field-based colleagues and partners.
• Coordinate activities with field-based colleagues to gather feedback, conduct trials, pilots, usability testing, and develop prototypes to test product-market fit.

Business analysis and product lifecycle management

• Support the critical beginning of life phase of product lifecycles that might address key problems or opportunities for country office programmes and operations.
• Support business and technical requirements definition activities with DCOE colleagues, country office, regional office and headquarters stakeholders, partners, and ICT focal points.
• Contribute to proof-of-concept prototype development and authoring of business cases, proposals, and methods for assessing product-market fit for UNICEF.
• Document and analyze potential business and support models for middle of life phase of product lifecycles and produce total cost of ownership estimations for various scenarios.
• Participate in identification, communication, and evaluation of potential stewards for products’ middle of life. Liaise with other ICT teams and offices, not-for-profit organizations, governments, and private sector companies.
• Coordinate testing, piloting, and evaluation activities to measure product-market fit for UNICEF, as well as quality assurance and other testing activities.
• Contribute to solution delivery, go-to-market, and scale-up plans for concluding DCOE’s stewardship of products’ beginning of life phase and successful transition to middle of life phase and handover to their new steward.
• Ensure that product and technical documentation, end-user support mechanisms, and product maintenance models are up-to-date and comprehensive.

Coordination of documentation, expert advice, and partnership activities

• Coordinate solution documentation activities around technical approaches, business models, and measuring impact to headquarters and country office colleagues to drive digital excellence throughout UNICEF.
• Track, monitor and analyze DCOE’s current and former portfolio of products. Assist with providing support and coordination for external resources, such as outsourced providers and vendor delivery processes.
• Develop and maintain catalog of standard materials disseminated to colleagues and partners to enhance DCOE’s reach and effectiveness. Coordinate development of associated training materials and documentation for self-guided learning.
• Contribute technical expertise and analysis to DCOE publications, funding proposals, and outreach materials.

To qualify as a champion for every child you will have…

• An first university degree (Bachelor’s Degree or higher) in computer science, software engineering, management information systems, information technology management, data science, business administration or other related science field is required.
• A minimum of 2 years of progressively responsible work experience in software development, technical product management, business analysis, technical writing, design, or related fields is required.
• Ability to contribute technical expertise to DCOE activities in a combination of the below areas:
  • Linux command line, software programming and/or scripting experience.
  • Devops experience in systems administration, automation, container orchestration, and product metric monitoring.
  • Applied data analysis, data engineering, or data science expertise.
  • Business analytics/ intelligence experience in producing compelling analytical reports, visualizations, and dashboards.
  • Experience applying human-centered design methodologies and producing strong technical documents.
  • Experience authoring funding proposals and donor reports in the digital development and innovation space.
• Strong analytical and interpersonal communication skills.
• Attention to detail.
• Ability to translate business needs into technical requirements.
• Ability to stay abreast of new technologies and their ability to support UNICEF to improve efficiency and effectiveness of business units.
• Ability to foster excellent work relationships and build alliances with key stakeholders.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and the core competencies as follows:

• Builds and maintains partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others
• Nurtures, leads and manages people

View our competency framework here.

Remarks:

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, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

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

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/

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.

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