Re-advertisement due to amendments in the Vacancy Announcement) Innovation Specialist (DPG Project Coordinator, P3, TA, Office of Innovation, Stockholm, Sweden (#119845)

Contract

This is a P-3 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 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 74,649 USD and 97,747 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.

This is a re-advertisement due to amendments in the Vacancy Announcement. Previous applicants need not reapply as their original application will be duly considered.

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.

How can you make a difference?

The UNICEF Office of Innovation (OOI) is looking for a Project Lead to support implementation of UNICEF Ventures’ engagement in the Digital Public Goods Alliance.

UNICEF is engaging on the next phase of its leadership role in the Digital Public Goods Alliance, with support from the Government of Norway until end 2025. In this context, this role will coordinate UNICEF’s engagement, leading our engagement with private investors and technology companies to increase their commitment to DPGs. This role will also act as project manager, driving and tracking progress against the organizational workplan, supporting UNICEF’s Board members in their engagement, acting as the main focal point with the DPGA Secretariat and support donor engagement and communications efforts.

Overall, this position is responsible for:

Develop and implement plan to engage private investors and technology companies to increase their commitment to DPG

• Build out value propositions for these stakeholder groups showing how they can benefit from engagement on DPGs, such as investment cases.
• Develop resources and compile research to support these engagement points
• Convene a group of private investors with the aim of building a community of private investors for DPGs.
• Identify key corporate sector players for engagement in DPGs and develop a plan for their involvement in UNICEF’s DPG work, and potentially the DPG Alliance.

Support advocacy efforts led by UNICEF

• Identify opportunities to promote key advocacy messages – including fora, conferences, high level events.
• Support UNICEF’s engagement by conducting research and drafting key messages
• Coordinating engagement with other DPGA members and the Secretariat.

Provide product management support to innovative open source prototypes and toolkits or other resources.

• Working closely with the DPG Tech Lead, develop concepts and product development roadmaps.
• Support the identification of relevant technical partners and vendors.
• Identify opportunities to integrate these prototypes into the DPG platform and apply them to other ongoing work within the Ventures team.
• Provide ongoing management to open toolkits, addressing feedback provided on GitHub and other fora, promoting and monitoring their use (e.g. the DPG Operational Toolkit, the DPG Accelerator Guide).

Act as project manager for the implementation of UNICEF’s workplan on Digital Public Goods, as supported by Norway

• Develop and implement to track and monitor, project management tools that articulate goals, activities and progress against agreed KPIs.
• Facilitate planning and review sessions.
• Facilitate regular stand-ups and similar team check-ins, identifying bottlenecks and working with team members to resolve them.
• Compile information for regular reporting to the DPGA roadmap, relevant donor and other internal reports.
• Act as spokesperson for the work, where relevant/

Support UNICEF’s Board members in their engagement

• Track key agenda topics for discussion and decision, compiling main feedback and talking points.
• Identify agenda items for submission to the Secretariat.
• Follow-up on any actions identified for Board members.
• Prepare documents as needed to support external engagement and internal updates on UNICEF’s engagement in the DPGA as needed.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in engineering, technology, computer science, 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.
• A minimum of five years of relevant professional experience in open source project or community management, development or strategy development.
• Demonstrated expertise in required technical areas, including software quality assurance, Open-Source license strategies (copyleft vs. permissive), documentation and community management, developing and piloting Open-Source technology products.
• Experience in delivering guidance, technical support and mentorship to individuals, teams, start-ups or other groups on complex challenges.
• Experience with professional software engineering practices and best practices for the full software development life cycle and exposure to a variety of languages, frameworks, and toolchains.
• Experience engaging with stakeholders from different backgrounds and coordinating multi stakeholder activities, including for the purposes of development and promotion of technical standards and collaborations.
• In-depth knowledge of the open-source software and open data eco-systems.
• Demonstrated strategy development and project management skills, including coordination of resources and consultants.
• Must be able to write and review code as an individual contributor and provide track record of own open-source development.
• Piloting and scaling of technology solutions in UNICEF programme countries desired. developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Familiarity with international development.
• 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...

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

Functional competencies:

• Relating and Networking
• Planning and organizing
• Deciding and initiating action

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.