ICT Manager - Technology Innovation (Technology Lead)

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners' peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. 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.  

Thailand Multi-Country Office (THMCO)

​​​​​​The THMCO established in 2017, supports, develops and oversees the UNOPS portfolio of projects in South East Asia and the Pacific. With its head office in Bangkok, the Multi-Country Office comprises five main business units: THMCO Thailand, THMCO Indonesia,  THMCO Pacific Operations Cluster, THMCO Papua New Guinea and, THMCO China and provides a wide range of services including Project Management, Transactional HR, Financial, and Procurement to clients that include other UN entities, INGOs and governments/government agencies donors.

The UNOPS Global Pulse project is the United Nations Secretary General’s cross-pillar lead and hub for experimentation and innovation in advancement of the UN Charter. Originally established in 2009 to harness the power of big data and artificial intelligence to protect the vulnerable during crises, Global Pulse’s mission is to accelerate the discovery, development, and large-scale adoption of innovations for sustainable development and humanitarian action. Global Pulse promotes awareness of the opportunities for innovation to advance sustainable development and humanitarian action and it develops high-impact approaches and solutions. Global Pulse operates as a globally distributed network of Pulse Labs to drive broad adoption of innovations across the UN System and beyond.

UNOPS is seeking for its Global Pulse Asia Pacific project a Technology Lead. The UNOPS Global Pulse Asia Pacific project is a Pulse Lab with the mandate to foster innovation and develop solutions in the Asia Pacific region with aspiration for broad, global adoption and impact. The Technology Lead will provide technical guidance and lead the implementation of use cases of Global Pulse’s Global Data Access Initiative (GDAI) with an initial focus of development of solutions for impact in the Asia Pacific region. 

Global Pulse’s GDAI is an initiative managed by UNOPS and the Executive Office of the Secretary General (EOSG) and across Pulse Labs that brings together UN agencies and private, public, and social sector partners for the development of data and AI products as digital public goods (DPGs). GDAI aspires to catalyze the formation of a cohesive and responsibly open ecosystem of data and AI products and services that reduces inefficiencies in the development of digital solutions for sustainable development and humanitarian action—with an initial focus on natural disaster response and recovery—to accelerate attainment of the sustainable development goals. 

The Technology Lead is a key role and instrumental for the success of GDAI. With experience in the development of large-scale, data-driven solutions, the Technology Lead will supervise the development of GDAI’s data access and processing platform and the implementation of pilot use cases that leverage the GDAI platform. The Technology Lead will lead the development of a roadmap of the data and AI products that will need to be created and maintained for each use case in collaboration with the GDAI team. The Technology Lead will be accountable for the quality of data and AI products and co-create and own GDAI’s best practise data and software development protocols. The Technology Lead will onboard, guide, and supervise the work of technical contributors including data engineers and scientists, full-stack and front-end engineers from within Global Pulse and across partner organizations. The Technology Lead may represent Global Pulse and GDAI and participate in panels, working groups, and other relevant forums within and beyond the UN to articulate and propose solutions to overcome technical barriers towards data and AI as digital public goods.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a new initiative and to shape the direction of data and AI products as digital public goods to enable the development of digital solutions for impact at scale. The incumbent of this position will be a personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility.

1. Technical product development
2. Implementation guidance
3. Quality assurance

• Create the roadmap of data and AI products that will need to be created and maintained for use cases in collaboration with the GDAI team
• Guide the design of the cloud-based data access and processing platform that is leveraged by and powers use cases including data processing pipelines
• Discover and translate the needs for privacy protection and other relevant considerations into technical specifications (platform, use cases) in collaboration with the GDAI team
• Translate user needs and product requirements into technical specifications (platform, use cases) from data ingestion to front-end design decisions
• Balance the need for implementation of the platform and use cases on a timeline with the need for robust and scalable infrastructure

• Onboard, guide, and supervise the work of technical contributors from within Global Pulse and across partner organizations, some of whom may join for shorter periods on rotation
• Drive towards decisions regarding key technology components of the platform and in support of use cases in a timely manner
• Serve as a technical advisor to the GDAI team, recognize and bring to bear the expertise of technical contributors to arrive at high quality decisions as a team
• Act as player-coach contributing hands-on to development where necessary
• Manage expectations and the timeline of delivery of data and AI products in coordination with the Delivery Lead and the entire GDAI team including partners

• Create best practice data and software development protocols and ensure consistent quality across work products with technical contributors on (short) rotations
• Put in place processes to plan and deliver work on a predictable timeline, routinely identify areas of improvement, foster a high-trust, high-quality, high-throughput technical development team
• Proactively seek to identify and overcome pain points, keep lines of communication with the Delivery Lead (and Strategy Lead as relevant) very open
• Contribute to a positive, can-do team culture and attitude  

• A master's degree in computer science or a related field;
• A first-level university degree in combination with an additional 2 years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree

Contract type: Temporary Appointment
Contract level:  P3
Contract duration: 12 months

• 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.
• UNOPS embraces diversity and it is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, or disability.
  
• 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.  
• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter, UN Staff Regulations and Rules, UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.
• 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 – an operational arm of the United Nations – supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by successfully implementing its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve peace and sustainable development.

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


Working with us

We are proud of our people. With a wealth of knowledge and skills in various disciplines – engineering, finance, human resources, ICT, leadership, project management, procurement, and more – they help tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time. Their work around the world supports progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).


At UNOPS, we offer a range of short- and long-term opportunities in various environments and duty stations – from Denmark and Kenya to Mexico, Switzerland, Myanmar, Senegal, Uganda, and many more.


Diversity

With over 5,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,400 personnel recruited on behalf of our partners, spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced and diverse labor force — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs. We continually strive to maintain our gender-balanced workplace. We encourage qualified underrepresented groups as per UNOPS Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy to apply for our vacancies.



Work life harmonization

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