Innovation Manager (INVENT Product Manager), P4, TA, Stockholm, Sweden (Post # 119403)

Overview

Manage the development and adoption of UNICEF's innovation platform INVENT.

You have:

• A Master's degree or higher in computer science, engineering or relevant field.
• Minimum of 8 years relevant professional experience in building and shipping technical products.
• Experience in creating product roadmaps and defining go-to-market strategies.
• Experience working with a multidisciplinary team of designers, engineers, researchers.
• Experience working in an agile software development environment.
• Knowledge of project management tools, preferably open-source ones (e.g., GitHub, ZenHub).
• Knowledge of the environment in which UNICEF operates, especially in developing countries, including experience developing low bandwidth applications.
• Good verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to align technical goals with UNICEF strategic goals.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency situations is an asset.
• Fluency in English is required; knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

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, hope....

The Office of Innovation (OoI) works to catalyse UNICEF's and all its partners’ expertise and resources against key children-outcomes bottlenecks, with a view to continuously ideate and scale the most effective solutions with transformational potential at scale to achieve the child-related SDGs.

The office is doing this by continuously exploring new ways of accelerating results for children, investing across a range of early stage solutions, and harnessing internal and external expertise towards continuously iterating and finetuning the most promising solutions for children through a systematic portfolio management approach, and leveraging all stakeholders’ innovation energy, knowhow and resources from intergovernmental, multilateral, private sector and non-governmental fora (think tank, academia).

How can you make a difference?

You will work under the general direction of the P5 Senior Advisor, Innovation (Portfolio, Culture and Scale 89335). You will follow guidance and work closely in partnership with the P4 Innovation Manager (Governance, innovation portfolios), who leads on the global strategy, guidance, and governance around UNICEF’s innovation pipeline and ICTD colleagues.

We seek a strong self-motivated Product Manager who can maintain the quality of their work even under tight time constraints and who can work with a diverse team of designers, innovators. programmers, data scientists and communications professionals to help us build a quality tools that support the successful development and continued adoption of INVENT, UNICEF’s enterprise platform for innovation and T4D.

Under the direction of the P5 Senior Advisor, Innovation (Portfolio, Culture and Scale) you will be responsible for:

• Overseeing overall project management for INVENT as UNICEF’s enterprise platform for innovation and T4D activities.
• Managing governance for INVENT as per the Project Charter, engaging and managing key stakeholders (ICTD, COs, ROs, Venture Fund, PCS) and providing support and advice to the directors of OOI and ICT, along with the Deputy Executive Director.
• Drive product development and lead the prioritization and implementation of new features for the INVENT platform.
• Manage the INVENT budget.
• Procurement and management of vendors.
• Manage backlog and provide user support, including communicating and monitoring support and maintenance requests with software developers.
• Guide, oversight of UX and design for INVENT.
• Conduct user research and gather user requirements from different stakeholders and users and incorporate into product development roadmap.
• Analyze the impact of products and user adoption & satisfaction by defining and tracking key metrics.
• Create relevant documents and communication materials and communicate the work to internal and external audiences, and conduct relevant trainings and capacity building related to the platform as needed.
• Work closely with stakeholders across the organization to communicate around INVENT and find opportunities for collaboration and integration with related efforts.

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

Education: (Master’s or higher) in computer science, engineering or other 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.

Experience: A minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in building and shipping technical products.

• Experience in creating product roadmaps and defining go-to-market strategies.
• Experience working with a multidisciplinary team of designers, engineers, researchers.
• Experience working in an agile software development environment.
• Knowledge of project management tools, preferably open-source ones (e.g., GitHub, ZenHub).
• Knowledge of the environment in which UNICEF operates, and understanding the constraints of working in a developing-world environment. This should include experience developing low bandwidth applications in challenging work environments.
• Good verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to align technical goals with UNICEF strategic goals — that always will mean UNICEF's mission over any particular technology.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN 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...

• Applying Technical Expertise (2)
• Creating and Innovating (2)
• Deciding and Initiating Action (2)

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:

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

Potential interview questions