Innovation Manager (Artificial Intelligence), P4, TA, Office of Innovation, Stockholm, Sweden (#119841)

Contract

This is a P-4 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 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 90,970 USD and 117,287 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, innovate

UNICEF has a history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships, and technologies are critical for achieve improved outcomes for children. The Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive and agile team in UNICEF that sits at the unique intersection of working on material global issues, startup thinking, technology and partnerships that can scale solutions. We look to form partnerships around frontier technologies (including AI, drones and UAVs, blockchain, new banking tools, wearables and sensors, and 3D-printing) that exist at the intersection of $100 billion markets and 1 billion person needs.

The Office of Innovation currently co-hosts the Secretariat for the Digital Public Goods Alliance, established in follow-up to the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation. In its report, the Panel recommends as 1B “that a broad, multi-stakeholder alliance, involving the UN, create a platform for sharing digital public goods, engaging talent and pooling data sets, in a manner that respects privacy, in areas related to attaining the SDGs”. Norway, Sierra Leone, UNICEF and iSPIRT, the four initial champions are working to implement this recommendation.

The Office of Innovation’s Venture Fund is a pooled funding vehicle specially designed to finance early stage, open-source technology that can benefit children. The core motivation of the Innovation Fund is to identify clusters or portfolios of initiatives around emerging technology – so that UNICEF can both shape markets and also learn about and guide these technologies to benefit children. We invest in solutions that can impact the lives of the most vulnerable children. The Innovation Fund’s Data Science and AI portfolio is composed of a set of companies that develop solutions that bridge learning or connectivity gaps towards employability.

Most recently, the Office of Innovation led the creation of an ambitious UNICEF-wide strategy for AI. With a strong foundation of ethical AI, the strategy aims to make AI a powerful tool to improve the way we deliver our programs, make our internal operations more efficient and advocate for AI to be beneficial for children.

How can you make a difference?

The UNICEF Office of Innovation (OOI) is looking for an experienced AI Lead to provide technical and strategic leadership to the AI-related work at the Office as well as across UNICEF through its ‘nucleus’ for the AI strategy hosted in OOI.

Successful candidates will have both a deep technical expertise of AI, understanding of ethical implications, along with strong organization and communication skills to collaborate with stakeholders across the organization.

Overall, this position is responsible for:

• Managing the activities of the ‘nucleus’ to coordinate roll out of UNICEF’s AI strategy.
• Collaborating with relevant divisions, and country offices as they commence AI projects.
• Facilitating knowledge management and understanding of AI within UNICEF.
• Establishing and maintaining partnerships with external stakeholders (including foundations, private organizations, academic institutions, etc.) and external representation for advocacy purposes.
• Leading execution of high priority use cases within the Office of Innovation, including coordination of related technical resources.
• Provide ongoing advice to startups funded by UNICEF’s Venture Fund, as needed.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Applied Mathematics or another relevant field *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 of relevant professional experience (e.g. AI, data science, technical project management, strategy development and execution etc.).
• Knowledge and understanding of AI, machine learning as well as the associated ecosystem
• Strong understanding of trends in AI and other emerging technologies, particularly in emerging and developing markets
• Track record of project delivery for large, cross-functional projects on technology platforms
• Demonstrated understanding of open source and open data principles and practices
• Demonstrated experience working with technical teams of product managers, software developers and designers
• Demonstrated experience working with stakeholders at different levels to achieve ambitious goals
• Strong writing and communication skills, including for advocacy purposes, and the aptitude to handle competing messages and priorities with multiple audiences and at various levels of seniority
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency 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 UNICEF competencies required for this post are...

• Innovates and embraces change
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Works collaboratively with others
• Manages ambiguity and complexity

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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:

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.