Innovation Officer (Health Technology), P2, TA, Supply Division, Copenhagen, Denmark

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 103,732 USD and 140,894 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, every right

The Product Innovation Center (PIC) within Supply Division (SD) works closely with internal and external partners to drive R&D and scale of new innovative products to improve the lives of children. This is done by identifying needs not appropriately met by products currently available and then scanning the market to see if there are products that can meet this need. If yes, we procure and scale the products, if no, we drive R&D utilizing develops product profiles to specify the performance a product has to deliver and incentivize R&D, using our procurement and implementation power. In addition, PIC is mandated to push the envelope of the organization in terms of coming up with new innovative concepts to influence R&D of products beyond UNICEF’s procurement, evolve the global thinking around product innovation for development/humanitarian contexts as well as to develop new ways of driving scale of products. Key to these ambitions is an aim to ensure most impact for disadvantages children for the resources available, always pushing for value for money of products.

The Product Innovation Center operates within public procurement practices to drive research and development (R&D), validation and implementation of new products to address programmatic and/or emergency needs. In instances where there are no products in a procurable form on the market, a Product Innovation Project (PIP) is initiated with the ultimate goal of enabling procurement of fit-for-purpose and value-for-money supplies across all UNICEF program areas.

How can you make a difference?

This position will directly contribute to UNICEF's Strategic Goal Area 1: Every child survives and thrives.

The Innovation Officer will run product innovation projects for newborn health technologies. Deaths among newborns and infants are highest in LMICs where appropriate devices are unavailable or priced out of reach. This role will address the causes of some of the deaths by running product innovation projects to ensure the availability of appropriate and rugged newborn health technology products in the settings where UNICEF operates.

To meet UNICEF's goals of addressing the needs of children and mothers, particularly in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to ensure that countries can provide oxygen therapy to those who need it, including children suffering from pneumonia. Many countries do not have the experience of implementing large scale oxygen therapy projects, this position bridges that gap by developing tools that countries can leverage to fast-track planning, procurement and implementation, and providing the necessary training to use the tools.

This position will develop the web version of the Oxygen System Planning Tool and support the use and further development of the Excel version. The tools will be accompanied by appropriate training materials that will have to be continuously updated and improved. The position will also provide technical support to countries wanting to use the tools for any of the use cases currently defined or any other use cases that tool users will be interested in. The work of providing technical assistance to countries will be done together with the Oxygen Technical Assistance Team.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

1. Manage the development of the web version of the oxygen system planning tool

• Develop business/user requirements for the tool
• Finalise the selection of the partner to develop the online version of the tool
• Work with selected partner and UNICEF's internal IT centre to agree on development environment and development tools, putting emphasis on UNICEF preference for open-source solutions
• Manage release dates for versions and features
• Keep all stakeholders fully informed

2. Before the release of the web version, maintain and support the use of the excel version of OSPT

• Keep a log of prioritized feature requests
• Add and test features, update training materials and create a priority list of tested features for inclusion into web version
• Support countries in the use of the excel tool
• Maintain documentation of all added features and all user testing

3. Support the training of consultants, partners, and all other users

• Keep all training materials, including the Agora training, relevant and up to date.
• Proactively offer support to countries to use the OSPT in whichever form is applicable at the time
• Provide technical assistance to countries on quantification of requirements and general system planning
• Provide support to countries developing oxygen roadmaps and funding proposals
• Train frontline consultants whose role is to support countries

4. Drive at least one newborn health product innovation project

• Based on desktop analysis, including review of scientific and other publications, updating product landscapes and phone interviews, ensure thorough understanding and documentation of the need for given product
• Support the validation that products, if available, would be scalable given UNICEF programmatic and country-specific contexts and needs.
• Create and deliver a plan which is aligned with the Innovation Strategy for how to drive procurement, implementation, and scale
• Support the process of putting products into the UNICEF Supply catalogue
• Produce and maintain project documentation up to date and make submissions to IRB for relevant gate transitions and critical decision-making.

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

Education: A completed 1st university degree (Bachelor’s) in one of the following areas: Business Administration, Business Studies, Communication, Social Sciences, including innovation, software development, or other related fields required.

An advanced degree (Master’s) in engineering or related discipline, and/or public health would be as asset

Work Experience/Required knowledge: Two (2) years of relevant work experience required.

• Experience in software development or product innovation
• Experience in supporting LMICs in oxygen system planning and procurement of oxygen therapy products.
• Experience developing and administering training packages
• Experience in developing and using excel-based tools

Desirable attributes:

• Experience in user-centered design, software prototype development, development of online tools is considered a strong asset
• High level of analytical skills and attention to detail
• Knowledge of the environment in which UNICEF operates (i.e., global health sector)
• Able to work independently and problem solving oriented
• Strong stakeholder and donor management skills

Languages: Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN language (Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinees, Russian) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: https://uni.cf/UNICEFValues

UNICEF competencies required for this post are

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1)
• Works Collaboratively with others (1)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (1)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (1)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (1)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (1)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. 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 is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.