Technology for Development (T4D) Specialist, P3, Fixed-term, #115557, ICTD Digital Centre of Excellence at UNICEF

How can you make a difference?

Under the direct supervision of the ICT Manager (Programme Effectiveness), the T4D Specialist provides professional, technical, operational, and administrative support in the identification, assessment, and integration of technology into UNICEF programming. The T4D Specialist works closely with Programme staff and in close liaison with the UNICEF Innovation where applicable. The T4D Specialist is responsible for coordinating and facilitating the mainstreaming effort, and for strengthening internal capacity to lead and support Technology for Development (T4D) and Digital Public Goods related projects, identifying and engaging with key partners, identifying reusable and replicable technical building blocks and maximizing potential for T4D scale-up and roll-out. The T4D Specialist will also support with partnerships management, communications, and resource mobilization for DCOE. 

Key responsibilities: 

Manage the T4D function and provide technical and programmatic support:  

• Business Relationship Management :define high-level requirements; document and match requirements and guide the design, development and deployment of appropriate T4D solutions. 
• Portfolio and Project Coordination : Support deployment of a portfolio approach to solutions prioritized for UNICEF programming (e.g. Digital Public Goods). 
• Support and assist design of T4D interventions : identification, selection, concept design, deployment and sustainability of T4D interventions to address bottlenecks towards the achievement of programme results. 
• Identify and assess new Technology and Digital Innovations 
• Deployment advice and support including technical oversight, troubleshooting and the documentation of challenges and resolutions 
• Design thinking :Support human/user-centred design methods to enable user-acceptance testing, evaluation, documentation and analysis.  

Policy and Strategic Development for Technology-enabled Programming  

• Digital Development and Technology Innovation Strategy including assessment of T4D gaps, opportunities and scale-up strategy in support of CO priorities. 
• Quality Assurance : during planning and deployment of T4D initiatives; participate in establishing and maintaining standards, documentation and support mechanisms for T4D. 
• Support and guide compliance with T4D best practices : Support Regional T4D Governance Committee and ensure compliance of T4D initiatives with the Principles for Digital Development (http://digitalprinciples.org/) and UNICEF T4D best practices.  

Engage and maintain partnerships and networks 

• Proactively build and strengthen strategic partnerships through networking and advocacy with governments, UN system agency partners, donors, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, funding organizations, research institutes and the private sector to build and provide a space to nurture and test new and innovative technologies and build local capacity 
• Support the preparation of communication and information materials for advocacy to promote awareness, establish partnerships/alliances and to support fundraising for further development and deployment of UNICEF’s key DPGs 
• Contribute to effective communication materials and strategies to support advocacy and social mobilization efforts for prospective and current partners of DCOE.  

 Knowledge Management 

• Share lessons learned: Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned from T4D for integration into broader knowledge development planning, advocacy and communication efforts. 
• Landscape mapping :Maintain an inventory of Technology and Innovation interventions, assets, resources and networks.
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning : ensure documentation and clear monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for innovation and T4D projects including baseline data collection, on-going monitoring, as well as first phase data collection and analysis.

Capacity Building  

• Support capacity building of programme staff in analysing the large amounts of data generated through T4D initiatives including the use of data visualization techniques and analytics tools. 
• Work directly with section chiefs and managers to co-create strategies on how technology and innovation can support the regional and country programme. 
•  Participate as resource person in capacity building initiatives to enhance the competencies, capacity and knowledge within the programmes on digital development; train UNICEF staff, partners, government counterparts and other end users in digital development and technology innovation. 
• Develop capabilities within programme staff on appropriate use of frontier technology and innovations such as UAVs, wearables, IoTs, mobile money, blockchain etc. 

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Academic Degrees:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in international business, Information technology, Digital Transformation, Social Sciences, International Humanitarian Law, Development Studies and/or related field
  *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree. 

Required Experience: 

• A minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible professional experience at the national or international levels in strategy consulting and international development is required. Including: 
  • Experience identifying, designing and implementing solutions for large-scale projects with technical components – including supervising external vendors and software developers; responsibility for business analysis, budgets, contracts, project management and procurement, etc. 
  • Experience with ICT, mobile and web-based technologies, particularly designing or deploying tools appropriate to the region 
  • Exposure to UNICEF, UN or other INGO programmatic areas, including health, nutrition, child protection and/or education. 
  • Experience in applying technical solutions to address programmatic issues 

Desirable: 

• Experience in open source, mobile and emerging technology applied to UNICEF programme areas 
• Experience working in T4D/ICT4D program design, service design, and field deployment/implementation in developing countries 
• Experience with RapidPro, Primero, DHIS2, ODK and other global public good technologies, and deploying, maintaining and scaling these technologies 
• Software programming experience, with focus on writing new code to deliver enhancements, new functionality, and defect resolution as well as proficiency with source code and continuous integration solutions (such as GitHub, Circle/Travis, Jenkins, etc.) 

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.