IT Support Officer

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING APPLICATION DEADLINE:  please note that the deadline for applications is indicated in local time as per the time zone of the applicant’s location.

1.      Organizational Context

a.    Organizational Setting

The position is located in the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).

In accordance with the UPOV Convention, the main objectives of UPOV are (i) to provide and develop the legal, administrative and technical basis for international cooperation in plant variety protection; (ii) to assist States and organizations in the development of legislation and the implementation of an effective plant variety protection system;  and (iii) to enhance public awareness and understanding of the UPOV system of plant variety protection.  UPOV's Secretariat is the Office of the Union which carries out all the duties and tasks entrusted by its governing body:  the UPOV Council.

b.    Purpose Statement

The incumbent acts as IT Support Officer for UPOV and is responsible for planning, managing and ensuring the provision of IT support and the maintenance of UPOV’s complex web-based applications and databases, ensuring the integration of users’ needs and requirements.

c.    Reporting Lines

The incumbent works under the direct supervision of the Head of IT.

d.    Work Relations

The incumbent interacts with all colleagues within the UPOV Office, with end users and with a range of staff in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

2.      Duties and Responsibilities

The incumbent will perform the following principal duties:

a.   Design and develop a structured mechanism and procedures for the provision of IT support for UPOV, including the reporting of issues, trouble-shooting, technical and process resolution, resource requirements, tracking and follow up, and reporting.

b.   Consult with the Head of IT, WIPO IT colleagues and external IT consultants to resolve complex technical issues, and hire and manage the work of outsourced technical specialists, as required.

c.   Develop and propose an IT support strategy for UPOV for the review of the Director of Legal Affairs and the Head of IT, to be adopted by the Vice Secretary-General.

d.   Prioritize, plan and resolve issues reported by end users of UPOV’s web-based applications and databases in a timely manner.

e.   Provide expert technical support, advice, assistance, and customer service on IT matters to end users and UPOV staff, including applications enhancements, database improvements and other user-driven requirements.

f.    Participate in the deployment, complex configuration, support and further development of the cloud system.

g.   Design, operate and maintain the UPOV cloud infrastructure using a fully automated approach.

h.   Assist in building and migrating applications, software and services following the principles cloud architecture frameworks.

i.    Assist in the implementation of tools for automation of configuration management, service catalogues and other processes.

j.    Provide operational support to development teams for the staging and production deployment of applications.

k.   Create, develop and maintain support and instructional documentation, training materials, and relevant technical and user documentation on UPOV’s web-based applications and databases; plan, coordinate and train or ensure the training of staff and users on these applications and databases.

l.    Perform other job-related duties as required.

3.      Requirements

Education (Essential)

First-level university degree in information systems covering web technologies or related field.

AWS Solution Architect Certification; Associate or Professional.

Education (Desirable)

AWS DevOps Certification.

Experience (Essential)

At least six years of experience in the provision of IT services, including at least three years of working with the development and deployment of major IT systems.

Significant experience in managing multinational projects and teams, including internal staff and external contractors, to deliver complex software products.

Significant experience in Solution, Technical, Integration and/or Security architecture and methodologies.

Familiar with ITIL processes: Incident, Change and Problem Management.

Experience with AWS (Amazon Web Services) Cloud solutions.

Experience (Desirable)

Troubleshooting complex CI/CD issues.

Configuration management tools.

Deep knowledge of containerization techniques and best practices.

Expertise in container orchestration tools such as Fargate, ECS.

Strong hands-on experience in infrastructure automation tools such as CloudFormation, Terraform, Ansible etc.

In-depth knowledge of AWS and cloud best practices.

Interpersonal skills for providing smooth customer service together with the ability for rapid problem identification, analysis, and resolution.