Technical Officer (Digital Health)

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 168,113 USD and 216,746 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.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

The Department of Digital Health and Innovation sits within the Science Division, led by the Chief Scientist. The overall mission of the Science Division is to harness the power of science and innovation in a systematic way, by ensuring the excellence, relevance and efficiency of WHO's core technical functions, including norms and standards and research. Within the Division, the specific purpose of DHI is to harness the power of digital health and technologies to contribute to the attainment of the highest standard of health of all people.

The mandate of the department is structured around 4 functions:

1. To enhance WHO's global leadership and role in assessing and enabling digital health technologies, and support countries to make decisions about how to prioritize, integrate, implement and regulate them.

2. To support development of methods for assessment of digital technologies, at global and national level.

3. To identify, foster and scale up evidence-based innovations, to address gaps in the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), protection from health emergencies and the attainment of healthier populations.

4. To identify and foster internal and external collaboration through networks and partnerships to help identify and address gaps and avenues for digital health solutions.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Under the direct supervision of Unit Head PDH and Director DHI, the incumbent will be responsible for:

1. Contributing to the establishment ofa product vision and facilitate normative processes to drive consensus for documentation of specifications that facilitate implementation of WHO guidance into digital systems, including:

- Developing aproduct vision detailing primary and secondary use cases related to digital vaccination certification, laboratory test results, recovery status;

- Facilitating engagement with counterparts in stakeholders and coordinating meetings and workshop processes to achieve consensus on specifications and interoperability standards (including HL7 FHIR, ICD, LOINC) related to security, privacy, authentication, and data representation;

- Supporting refinement of requirements documentation for primary and secondary use cases, including proof of vaccination certificate, continuity of care, and retention of personal records;

- Details patterns of architecture and implementation, leveraging common patterns of deployment and software global goods.

2. Managing and supporting key internal and external stakeholders counterpartsfocused on implementation of software that meets specifications (reference software products), including:

- Supporting contributions to, and coordination of documentation of specifications (released as versions with incremental additions) into technology implementation guides to support adoption by technologists and governments;

- Working with technology developers to support their understanding and adoption of technical specifications and standards into digital solutions;

- Supporting development of criteria for assessment of digital solutions to establish conformance to different versions of smart vaccination certificate specifications;

3. Creating innovativemechanism to advise WHO staff, governments and technology developers to support adoption and joint-learning around systems and applications utilizing specifications for smart certificates, including:

- Drafting documentation in support of reference implementations;

- Supporting a community of practice for joint learning from reference software and country-implementations;

- Supporting capacity building with WHO regional and country offices;

- Organizing progress meetings around that convene:

a. internal department updates

b. stakeholder coordination between WHO, UNICEF, GAVI, World Bank

c. member states

d. technologists and informaticians.

4. Contributing to the development of conformance and assessment criteria for review of digital health products' alignment with smart vaccination certificate specifications, including:

- Developing materials needed for assessment according to standards, specifications, and health content associated with smart vaccination certificate specifications;

- Developing guidance for technologists to encourage ensure they adopt and their products conform to smart guidelines' health content and interoperability standards;

- Supporting colleagues at WHO-HQ, WHO Regional Office, and WHO Country Office, to understand and have capacity to support countries review and adopt digital products that meet minimum criteria of alignment with smart vaccination specifications.

Perform all other related duties as assigned.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Essential: An Advanced university degree in medicine, public health, health informatics, computer software engineering, or mathematics. Desirable: A doctorate or PhDin medicine, public health, health informatics, computer software engineering, ormathematics.

Experience

Essential: At least seven years of experience combined in the following areas:

- Proven experience in requirements gathering for digital health solutions.

- Experience in the development or implementation of digital health standards with relevant standards development organizations at both the business requirements and computable levels.

- Experience in developing strategies for organizational digital transformations and implementation of those strategies.

- Professional experience in developing digital software solutions for low resource settings.

- Professional experience in deploying digital software solutions for low resource settings in at least 5 countries including interfacing with ministries of health, donors and local implementation partners.

- Experience with developing and organizing the technical content needed for a variety of stakeholders that include public health professionals as well as software developers.

- Experience with project management related to fund-raising, financing, or issuing grants for open-source and open-standards digital health solutions.

- Experience working in a dynamic and fast-paced environment managing a variety of stakeholders with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds and experiences.

- Experience in a variety of health domains, ideally experience in primary health care or health workforce. Desirable:

Skills

- Deep understanding of WHO immunization guidance, processes, requirements, systems and stakeholders.

- In-depth understanding of WHO's publications, guidance, and products surrounding digital health, e.g. WHO guideline recommendations on digital interventions for health system strengthening, Digital Implementation Investment Guide, Classification of Digital Health Interventions.

- Demonstrable technical and leadership skills working with commonly adopted digital health global goods used in low-resource settings.

- Excellent problem solving and understanding of how various technology solutions can be leveraged to address health care challenges.

- Ability to frame and design technology solutions that would address health care challenges.

- Skills developing software products that are aiming to be conformant to interoperability standards and tested through connect-athons (FHIR, ICD, LOINC).

- Demonstratedskills indeveloping HL7 FHIR implementation guides.

- Skills in OpenHIE architectural standard.

- Demonstrated project management and implementation skills.

- Ability to communicate effectively and tactfully with multiple stakeholders in an international environment.

- Ability to deliver high-quality products under very tight deadlines.

- Strong presentation and story-telling skills with excellent ability to use PowerPoint.

- Business process mapping and creation of terminology standards-based data dictionaries.

- Ability to stay up to date on new innovations and technology trends and gauge their ability to disrupt health care and health service delivery.

- An understanding of WHO processes, guidance and/or country implementation processes.

WHO Competencies

Teamwork Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences Communication Moving forward in a changing environment Producing results Creating an empowering and motivating environment

Use of Language Skills

Essential: Expert knowledge of English. Desirable: Expert knowledge of another UN language.

REMUNERATION

WHO salaries for staff in the Professional category are calculated in US dollars. The remuneration for the above position comprises an annual base salary starting at USD 74,913 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance, as applicable), a variable post adjustment, which reflects the cost of living in a particular duty station, and currently amounts to USD 5450 per month for the duty station indicated above. Other benefits include 30 days of annual leave, allowances for dependent family members, home leave, and an education grant for dependent children.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• This vacancy notice may be used to fill other similar positions at the same grade level

• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.

• A written test may be used as a form of screening.

• In the event that your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO 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 through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.

• Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to WHO Staff Regulations, Staff Rules and Manual.

• Staff members in other duty stations are encouraged to apply.

• For information on WHO's operations please visit: http://www.who.int.

• WHO is committed to workforce diversity.

• WHO's workforce adheres to the WHO Values Charter and is committed to put the WHO Values into practice.

• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.

• WHO has a mobility policy which can be found at the following link: http://www.who.int/employment/en/. Candidates appointed to an international post with WHO are subject to mobility and may be assigned to any activity or duty station of the Organization throughout the world.

• Applications from women and from nationals of non and underrepresented Member States are particularly encouraged.