System Requirement Specification Consultant at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Duties and Responsibilities:

The consultant will be responsible for:

• Workplan - Develop a detailed work plan for the overall consultancy assignment, identifying the various milestones with clear timelines.
• Baseline/Needs Assessment and Stakeholder Consultation: - Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment to understand the data requirements of various stakeholders. - Engage with GEF Coordination and corporate functions (Reporting, Enterprise Solutions, Safeguards and Gender, Evaluation, Digital Transformation, Business Intelligence, Appraisals, Communications) to familiarize with existing requirements, policies, and databases/systems.
• Engage with technical and operations teams across UNEP's divisions (Industry and Economy, Ecosystems, Climate Change) to gather detailed input on data needs and system functionalities. - Identify and document all types of data collected by user, need, and use.
• Perform a review of existing systems by other agencies as applicable (e.g., OCHA, UNDP) to identify best practices and potential integration points.
• Data Collection and Analysis: - Analyse existing data management practices and tools used within UNEP and GEF projects.
• Identify commonalities, gaps, and areas for improvement in current data management processes.
• Define potential areas for automation, mainly where existing databases collect information, and can substitute manual data entry. - Review and recommend what data and information is worth collecting with some prioritization (by reviewing ‘must have’ and ‘nice to have’), by whom and at what stage.
• System Requirements Specification Development: - Define the functional (e.g., integration, storage, retrieval, reporting, user management) and non-functional requirements (e.g., performance, scalability, security, usability, reliability, compliance) for the centralized database project. - Functionality to capture UNEP's Programme of Work and the GEF results framework. - Define entry points with the UNEP Enterprise Data Warehouse, including for data flow from/to other systems such as Umoja modules, OpenData, PIR, etc. - Establish mechanisms for ensuring data integrity and archiving needs and requirements.
• Develop detailed system schemas, data dictionaries, and functional specifications.
• Validation and Review: - Present the draft SRS to key stakeholders for feedback. - Incorporate feedback and finalize the SRS document.
• Documentation and Reporting: - Prepare comprehensive documentation of the SRS, including user requirements, system architecture, data flow diagrams, and technical specifications. - Provide regular progress reports to the GEF Coordination Office.
• Produce all the required supporting documentation of the systems Reporting Lines: The consultant will report to the GEF Coordinator Ersin Esen but work closely with business owners across the different functions mentioned.

Qualifications/special skills

• A university degree in Computer Science or engineering, Data Science, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, or any related field is required. An advanced degree in any of the disciplines will be an added advantage.
• A minimum of 5 years working as a computer programmer or software engineer is required. Demonstrable work experience in management information systems and data management in the UN system is required. Deep understanding of database development, data modeling, data engineering, etc. Demonstrated proficiency in at least two relational database platforms (Teradata, oracle, SQL server, snowflake, etc) is required.
• Exposure to cloud-based data platforms such as GCP, AWS, Microsoft Azure SQL, Power Apps is required.
• Proficiency in web framework development. At least two of the following: React, Angular, NodeJS, JavaScript for front-end development, and at least one of programming languages in Python, Java, PHP are desired. Solid data review and data architecture design experience along with expertise in IT systems, infrastructure and applications is desired.
• Discretion in handling confidential and sensitive information is desired.