ICT Senior Officer - Software Development [Full Stack Web Developer] - Retainer, Multiple positions

UNOPS supports partners to build a better future by providing services that increase the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of peace building, humanitarian and development projects.  Mandated as a central resource of the United Nations, UNOPS provides sustainable project management, procurement and infrastructure services to a wide range of governments, donors and United Nations organizations.

New York Service Cluster (NYSC) supports the United Nations Secretariat, as well as other New York-based United Nations organizations, bilateral and multilateral partners in the delivery of UNOPS mandate in project management, infrastructure management, and procurement management

Sustainable Development Cluster (SDC) supports diverse partners with their peacebuilding, humanitarian and development operations. It was formed by combining the following portfolios: Grants Management Services (GMS), UN Technology Support Services (UNTSS), Development and Special Initiatives Portfolio (DSIP) It provides Services to partners' programmes that are designed, structured, and managed with a global perspective and primarily serving partners that are headquartered in New York.  The SDC has a footprint of approximately 125 countries.

UNOPS has signed an agreement with the United Nations to implement the project activities for the Global Pulse.

Global Pulse is a flagship innovation initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General on big data. Its vision is a future in which big data and AI are harnessed and used responsibly as a public good. Its mission is to accelerate discovery, development and scaled adoption of data innovation for sustainable development and humanitarian action. To this end, Global Pulse will work to promote awareness of the opportunities Big Data presents for sustainable development and humanitarian action, forge public-private data sharing partnerships, generate high-impact analytical tools and approaches through its network of Pulse Labs, and drive broad adoption of useful innovations across the UN System.

Global Pulse implements data innovation programs through its Pulse Labs to provide UN and development partners with access to the data, tools and expertise required to discover new uses of big data and AI for development. Global Pulse develops policies, toolkits, applications and platforms to improve data-driven decision-making and support the evaluation of promising solutions. 

The incumbent of this position will be a personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility.

The contractor will support the development of software tools across the Pulse Lab Network. Examples of similar projects to the ones the Full Stack Web Developer will support include using speech-to-text technology to support the response to the COVID-19 infodemic:  https://www.unglobalpulse.org/2020/05/using-speech-to-text-technology-to-support-response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic/.

The contractor will: 

• Support producing regular as well as ad hoc reports around key infodemic trends;
• Develop, document, test, deploy and debug applications, software and front-end interfaces that will be used by Global Pulse and UN partners; 
• Work with the team to research, use and develop tools and libraries to create solutions implemented by Global Pulse and UN partners which can support the response to COVID-19 and other crises; Support the identification of gaps and opportunities for improvement of existing solutions;
• Assist with the development and work with APIs for integration with various data services; 
• Support the operational research team in the planning, design, development and utilization of data processing systems for development and humanitarian response;
• Assist the team to determine system requirements to meet user needs; analyze system capabilities to resolve problems on program intent, output requirements, input data acquisition, programming techniques and controls; prepare operating instructions;
• Support data security standards implementation; 
• Provide support to the coordination of testing of solutions and processes by development and humanitarian partners to strengthen, adapt and improve the project’s efficiency and effectiveness;

• Advanced university degree preferably in Computer Science, Math, Engineering, Design, Data Science, International Development, Business Administration, Economics or other relevant disciplines is required. 
• A first-level university degree in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. 

 Experience required:

• A minimum of two years of work experience in big data techniques, internet technology, design or software development is required;
• Experience working in Linux type operating systems is required;
• Experience with AWS (EC2, S3, VPC, Route 53, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, IAM, etc.) is required;

• Experience developing with opensource software, libraries and frameworks is desirable;
• Experience coding in Python and JavaScript/NodeJS is desirable;
• Experience with container (Docker) development and deployment is an asset;
• Experience with front-end development is an asset; 
• Experience with various container building, deployment and automation solutions (Kubernetes, AWS ECS, AWS Fargate, Azure Kubernetes Service, HashiCorp suite, etc.) is desirable;
• Experience with Machine Learning frameworks (Tensorflow, PyTorch, FastAI, etc.) is desirable;
• Experience with system security development and implementation (risk analysis, forensic analysis, PKI, certificate management, encryption, etc.) is desirable;
• Experience in high availability server/client setup, data lakes setup, management and programming using opensource solutions (HDFS, Spark, MapReduce, Pig, Hive, HBase, Cassandra, Zookeeper, Hue, Kafka, NiFi, Zeppelin, Knox, etc.) is desirable;
• Experience with public and hybrid cloud network planning, setup, configuration, security, supervision and management with other providers (Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Bluemix, Open Stack, etc.) is desirable;
• Experience working with speech-to-text technologies and natural language processing libraries is an asset;
• Experience working in humanitarian context or international development projects is an asset.

Language 

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.