Job Vacancy at UNOPS

Duty Station: Home-based

Background Information - Job-specific

• Somalia is amid major new political and security developments that will offer a greater possibility for peace and security than the country has seen in over 20 years.
• On 16 September 2013, the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and the international commu nity endorsed the Somali Compact, which provided an overarching strategy setting out Somalia’s peace building and state building priorities between 2014 and 2016. The Compact also enshrined principles for a renewed partnership between Somalia and the international community based on the Busan “New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States” agreement. This New Deal Compact has been central to the re-building of functioning government institutions and processes and return of stability and security in Somalia at all levels.
• Having the Compact expired in late 2016, it was replaced by the Somalia National Development Plan (NDP) covering the fiscal period 2017 to 2019. Build on the solid foundations laid by the Compact, this it is the first NDP crafted by the Central Government of Somalia since 1986.

Stabilization and the International Donor Context

• Regular salary payments to the security forces are essential for creating stability in the government and in ensuring improvements in the security situation within the country.
• To strengthen peace building, the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), European Commission (EC), Italy, Japan and several other donors over the past years have been supporting the stipend payments of the Somali Security forces through independent mechanisms.
• However, financial support to the security forces is coming under increasingly greater scrutiny based on concerns raised around accountability of high value equipment and financial systems to address corruption and duplication concerns.
• To build the capacity of Somalia’s new federal system of government by establishing and improving systems for tax, spend and civil service management at all levels, Public Resource Management in Somalia (PREMIS) supports the establishment of core Public Financial Management laws, processes, systems and institutions, with a view to strengthen the ability of Federal Member States to raise, manage and account for domestic resources. It aims at bringing all security and non-security expenditures under a common and proper public resource management system. Support is primarily delivered in the form of technical assistance and training, allowing access to high quality international and Somali expertise and advice on tax administration; planning and budgeting; public sector accounting; procurement; financial management IT systems, and civil service management.
• Security consumes a large portion of public resources, at the Federal and State levels, with its costs accounting for more than 50% of the executed budget in some case. Thus, there is need to ensure that payments are undertaken according to a proper and accountable system with both payroll and procurement processes in place, improving systems and controls are part of a broader engagement with the security sector. In situ reviews have highlighted opportunities exist to put in place carefully sequenced reform in respect of payroll administration, even if further dialogue will be needed around fiscal sustainability.

UNOPS’ Role:

• In June 2014, The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) Kenya Operational Hub (KEOH) embarked on a Somali Security Institutions Human Recognition Project (SSIHRP), which entails the biometric registration of Somali National Armed Forces (SNAF), the Federal Somali Police Force (SPF), some of the Regional Police Forces and the Custodial Corps.
• The SSIHRP was the first step towards creating a transparent, accountable and efficient human recognition and resource management system for the Somali Security Institutions, which would be utilized to effectively manage stipend and salary payments. However, fundamentals such as reliable payroll financial management systems for the police continue to be lacking.
• As the stipend payment process, has become progressively more robust, with registration and payments, both the Federal Government of Somalia and the international donors have been looking towards the system to deliver wider reaching solutions.
• From a personnel database recording payroll disbursements to a HR management system – For example, there is a desire for it to transform from a personnel databaseand payment system into an administrative human resource management system that embeds a payroll management system
• Restructuring the IT platform – This is a big step because both the platform, software and equipment was not originally designed for such application.
• Handover to Government and sustainability – More importantly, there is a desire on all sides for any solution to be available for handover to the Somali Government and accordingly, be financially unencumbered, or having a high likelihood of sustainability.
• Over the past few years, to support the requirements asked of the system, UNOPS has engaged in periodic upgrades of the platform to meet the requirement for such a system to either be part of a Human Resource and Payroll system or to have common interfaces.

Functional Responsibilities:

Specific background of responsibility

• A complete system audit was conducted in 2017, highlighting security, transparency and standardisation issues, and also making these factors as showstopper for transition of the system to the FGS. Recommendations were also made to streamline the financial procedures to ensure maximum transparency and security.
• At this point, UNOPS decided to revamp its system in accordance with the recommendations of the audit report through its in-house technical advisory team , responsible for establishing an in-house customised solution to strengthen the system’s transparency, and security, and reduce O&M costs as to maximise the utilisation of financial resources, as well as for engaging the services of a technical Software Development Team to technically develop and implement such solution. This should allow a smooth transition of the system to Federal Government of Somalia.
• The system’s review focused on what the system should look like, how it should be structured, what are the technical requirements, what it should deliver and how it should be supported and funded. The result has been the User Requirement Specification (URS) document “Internalising stipend payment systems and their management by UNOPS URS v1.0”.
• UNOPS needs to implement the requirements set in the URS. The complete project life cycle will consist of below mentioned tasks that need to be carried under the flagship of ICT Advisory Team, which will be responsible to delegate the following tasks to the relevant technical resources:

1. Requirement Analysis: Including requirement analysis, preparation of URS documents, scope locking and briefing to software development teams.

2. System Design Process: Including high-level system architecture design overview, design and implementation of projects, projects reviews, evaluating and finalizing change requests (CRs).

3. Implementation: Involving development of client applications, middleware services development and database development as per requirement mentioned in scope of work.

4. Deliverables (according to the phases of the software development project): a) detailed project plans (preferably in MS Project) with milestones, activities and tasks; b) URS Documents; c) high-level design & implementation of projects; d) user guides, troubleshooting guides; e) test cases; f) solution deployment; and, f) evaluating and finalising change requests (CRs).

5. Train-the-Trainers/ Master Training: This involves training to the trainers.

6. Infrastructure Evaluation: Evaluating the existing infrastructure on the server side (on which the solution will be hosted), client side (Registration & Payment terminals), and DR site. After evaluation of the infrastructure, the ICT Advisory Team will come up with its recommendations for inclusion/ procurement of new infrastructure where and when required.

• UNOPS payments systems, based on human recognition systems and adequate respective reconciliation of payments – including mobile –, have established a proper public resource management system in the security sector which should be the model leading PREMIS once transferred to the FGS.As part of the ICT Advisory Team, under the direct supervision of the Chief, SSSJP, and keeping abreast of new advancements, trends and best practices/standards in the technology landscape, The Intelligent Process Automation and Hardware Integration Specialist (the “Specialist”) will be responsible for the following:
• Bridging all potential technological and business gaps in the URS documents.
• Managing the Software Development team developing the technical solution.
• Provide high-level support and advice to the Chief, SSSJP for the implementation of the above tasks.
• Ensuring technology standards, Information security standards and best practices are met.
• Ensuring that proper automation tools are used for functional, penetration, information security, white box, and performance testing.
• Evaluating existing infrastructure, and implementing new systems and infrastructure as per project requirements
• Supervising the design and development methodologies, including embedded systems, quality assurance processes, software/ hardware integration, and release model.
• Supervising that the industry standards are met by the implementation team during the implementing the biometric registration, verification and identity management system.
• Supervising that the industry standards are met by the implementation team for the complete financial system.
• Tracking, analysing and monitoring business strategies, plans, procedures and performance metrics.
• Ensuring that complete disaster and emergency recovery plans are properly in-place.
• Establishing architectural attributes for performance, scalability, reliability, maintainability and accessibility.
• Handling of critical operational bottlenecks.
• Looking for product development on embedded Linux, Windows, iOS, and Android platforms.

Education:

• Advanced Degree (Master’s) or equivalent in Software Engineering and/ or Computer Science or related field;
• A First level university degree in combination with additional 2 years experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced(Masters) university degree.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years’ experience in technology design & development including hardware, software and embedded systems.
• Experience in implementation exposure of Biometric identity management systems is required.
• Experience in industry standards ISO/IEC 27001, OWASP and NIST Standards is required.
• Experience in implementation of payment systems, disbursement of stipend/payroll using biometrics verification is required.
• Technical grip on conventional banking cores is desired.
• Knowledge in tools including Burp Suite, Kali Linux, Apache JMeter, Logic Analyzer and LabVIEW is desired.
• Experience in embedded systems development using SOC(System on chip), microcontrollers, softcore Processors, hard-core processors (Power PC, ARM) is desired.
• Knowledge of eEmbedded C, .NET Framework, JAVA and smart phone apps is desired.
• Experience in embedded Linux, Windows, iOS and Android platforms is desired.
• Expertise in information security management and information security governance is an added advantage.
• Proficiency in different underlying protocols: JESD, SPI, CAN-Bus, PPI, UART, USB, TCP/IP, UDP, WAP, RESTFUL, SOAP, SMPP, SMTP, HTTP, HTTPS, TLS, IEEE802.11, IEEE802.15.1, IEEE802.16 is an added advantage.
• Skills in architecture Planning, enterprise System Design and Implementation and Computer Science & Engineering are required.
• Abreast knowledge of mobile banking platforms is desired.

Languages:

Fluency in written and oral English required

Contract type; International Individual Contractor Agreement
Contract level: IICA 3
Contract duration: Ongoing ICA – ‘Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance.’