Information Technology Specialist (Maintenance, upgrading of QuanTB and QuanTB Collector) Roster Recruitment/Retainer Contract, Multiple positions, Multiple positions

UNOPS hosts the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership Secretariat (STBP) as of 1 January 2015, in Geneva, Switzerland. The vision of the Stop TB partnership is to realize the goal of eliminating Tuberculosis (TB) as a public health problem and, ultimately, to obtain a world free of TB by ensuring that every TB patient has access to effective diagnosis, treatment and cure; stopping transmission of TB; reducing the inequitable social and economic toll of TB; and developing and implementing new preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic tools and strategies. The Stop Partnership is uniquely positioned to support the development and further implementation by partners of the current and future Global Plan, acting as a coordinator and catalyst for the range of partners engaged in the fight against TB.

As a key initiative of the Stop TB Partnership, the goal of the Global Drug Facility (GDF) is to facilitate worldwide, equitable access to TB medicines and diagnostics across both public and private sectors. This goal is achieved through management and coordination of market activities for the full portfolio of TB medicines and diagnostics, strategic procurement and innovative logistics solutions, technical assistance and capacity building for TB programmes in better pharmaceutical management practices, and accelerated uptake of new TB medicines, regimens, and diagnostics.

GDF is the largest supplier of quality-assured TB products worldwide in the public sector and, as such, is highly reliant on technology to ensure quick and smooth procurement and supply. GDF has used “QuanTB” tool to project countries’ future demands for TB medicines. Created by the USAID-funded Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceutical and Services (SIAPS) Program, “QuanTB” is a downloadable desktop software that transforms raw data on patients and products into information that is easy to understand and use for decision-making for managing medicines. When used on a regular basis (e.g., monthly, quarterly), “QuanTB” serves as an early warning system, providing information on actual versus planned consumption, potential expiries, and stockouts of medicines. TB programs express high interest in the adjustment of existing TB information systems, to ensure the generation of sound reports that can be entered into the QuanTB or vice-versa – integration of QuanTB into the information systems. 

GDF has developed a Business Intelligence (BI) tool called “QuanTB Collector” that consolidates all “QuanTB” files from different TB programs, merges this with pipeline inventory data from GDF’s Order Management System and generates an aggregated global demand dataset that can be analyzed to coordinate the GDF supply chain. 

With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), STBP GDF would like to establish a roster of IT specialists/ programmers to support the smooth functioning of the tools and upgrade them to improve user interface and experience, performance, accessibility and integration with each other and with other systems and applications.

Functions/ Key Results Expected

The consultants will be engaged as needed. The consultants will telework mainly and may be deployed to countries or be invited to Geneva to attend and/or facilitate working sessions or meetings, as required. 

The consultants will be engaged to support the smooth functioning of the “QuanTB” and “QuanTB Collector” through troubleshooting and debugging. Working with the GDF team and country-based teams, they will also support the identification of improvement areas, propose recommendations for improvement and implement agreed improvement solutions including improvements/upgrades in user interface and experience, performance (analytics and calculation accuracies, visualizations, reports), integration with each other and with other applications such country based TB information management systems. They will also support increasing access to and utilization of the tools by creating platforms that are more accessible to users such as online and mobile applications.

Depending on the specific need raised by users of the tools and by working with relevant GDF staff, the work of the IT Specialist consultant will include the following tasks:

1. Support the regular functioning of the QuanTB collector

   • Collect and/or implement quality checks on collected QuanTB files

   • Aggregate QuanTB files for live or archived analysis

   • Implement demand review processes, analytics and creation of monthly global and/or country demand plans within the “QuanTB collector”.

2. Create and maintain a system for obtaining feedback on bugs, security issues and other improvement areas. Maintain a database of issues and the status of implementation of the improvements.

3. Maintain QuanTB and QuanTB collector to ensure smooth functioning on a regular basis

   • Gather, and evaluate feedback on issues reported by users and GDF staff related to bugs, features and security issues

   • Debug and troubleshoot any issues as necessary

   • Collaborate on the testing of the new versions and conduct refinements based on tester feedback

   • Produce and release (upload) updated versions of the tools

4. By working with GDF staff, identify improvement areas in the tool and propose solutions to increase the usability and performance of the tools 

   • Improve user interface and experience by improving the layout, design, and functionality 

   • Improve performance over time especially with the increased usage and data volumes and other complexities over time through optimizing code, improving database performance and enhancing network and server infrastructure

   • Maintain and upgrade the security of the tools by implementing encryptions, adding authentication and access control, and improving software vulnerability management processes

   • Produce new versions of the tools after implementation of the agreed solutions to improvement areas

   • Collaborate on the testing of the new versions and conduct refinements based on tester feedback

   • Produce and avail upload final and validated versions of the tools 

5. By collaborating with GDF staff and country-based staff including country IT specialists, upgrade the integration capability of the tools with each other and with other software applications/systems including GDF’s Central Datastore and Analyses Platform (CDP), country-based TB information management systems 

   • Investigate integration capabilities of the tools including with related databases, and other applications (desktop, online, mobile applications…)

   • Developing and implementing new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), as needed

   • Improve data exchange protocols

   • Enhance data mapping and transformation capabilities

   • Plan, design, develop, deploy, document and validate specific integration initiatives as requested by GDF and/or country counterparts

6. Develop and provide regular progress reports/updates (including presentations as necessary) on including tickets issued and resolved

• Fluency in English would be preferred but at least an intermediate level of proficiency in English is required.
• Working knowledge of French, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish language is an asset

1. Contract type: Individual Contractor Agreement (ICA), Retainer position 
2. Contract level:  IICA2/ICS-10
3. Contract duration: 1 year - renewable depending on budget and satisfactory performance
   (estimated maximum no. of working days is 180)

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Terms and Conditions 

• 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 (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. For more information on a retainer contract here.

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and 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 personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

• As per UNOPS policy, positions in duty stations where the NPO (National Professional Officer) category has been established by the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), a home-based contract may be issued as a LICA Specialist position.