Background
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are core principles at UNDP:ย we value diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate, we foster inclusion as a way of ensuring all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, and we ensure equity and fairness in all our actions. Taking a โleave no one behindโ approach to our diversity efforts means increasing representation of underserved populations. People who identify as belonging to marginalized or excluded populations are strongly encouraged to apply. Learn more about working at UNDP including our values and inspiring stories.
UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
Office/Unit/Project Descriptionย
UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDPโs policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels offers a spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in its Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in UNDPโs Strategic Plan.ย
ย Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDPโs Strategic Plan. BPPS staff provide technical advice to Country Offices, advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represent UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private, government and civil society dialogues, and engage in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.ย
ย UNDP's 2022-2025 Strategic Plan highlighting our continued commitment to eradicating poverty, accompanying countries in their pathways towards the SDGs and working towards the Paris Agreement. As part of the Global Policy Network in the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP's Nature, Climate Change, Energy, and Waste (NCE&W) Hubs promote and scale up integrated whole-of-governance approaches and nature-based solutions that reduce poverty and inequalities, strengthen livelihoods and inclusive growth, mitigate conflict, forced migration and displacement, and promote more resilient governance systems that advance linked peace and security agendas.
ย BPPSโ Hubs on Nature, Climate, Energy and Waste work with governments, civil society, and private sector partners to integrate nature, climate, energy and waste related concerns into national and sector planning and inclusive growth policies, support country obligations under Multilateral Environmental Agreements, and oversee the implementation of the UNโs largest portfolio of in-country programming nature, climate change, energy and waste. This multi-billion-dollar portfolio encompasses:ย
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services including forests;ย Sustainable Land Management and Desertification including food and commodity systems;ย Water and Ocean Governance including SIDS;ย Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation;ย Sustainable Energy;ย Extractive Industries;ย Chemicals and Waste Management;ย Environmental Governance and Green/Circular Economy; and SCP approaches.ยย This work advances crosscutting themes on innovative finance, digital transformation, capacity development, human rights, gender equality, health, technology, and South-South learning.
UNDP is at a strategic position to provide this support to countries using evidence-based policy making backed by data. The portfolio of projects overseen by UNDP, with financing from vertical funds, is immense โ spanning more than 1,100 active projects across 140 countries. The data generated by these projects is equally immense. The BPPS VF Program Support Oversight & Compliance Unitโs Project Information Management System (PIMS+) gathers project results and progress data from projects underway in 140 countries.
PIMS+ is a comprehensive project cycle management tool designed to support the VF Program Support Oversight & Compliance Unit in providing high-quality oversight and compliance services to the environmental vertical funds.ย Over the upcoming years, the VF Program Support Oversight & Compliance Unit is committed to improve PIMS+ dashboards for Country Offices and Regional Bureaux, and continue to build the overall system to support effective monitoring of the portfolio of projects to improve oversight, support, and reporting.
PIMS+ is a large-scale custom information system. Following is a summary of the technical stack of the application:
Consists of three web applications, one REST API Endpoint; Built on PHP 8 engine with Yii2 PHP Framework and libraries including PHPOffice, HighCharts, SAML, MapBox, Select2, AutoNumeric, TinyMCE, GuzzleHTTP, SwiftMailer, etc.); JS client-side scripting with jQuery; HTML, CSS with Bootstrap 3 and BEM (Block Embedding Methodology) SCSS framework; MariaDB Database Server - InnoDB Storage Engine, Shared file system storage for documents management; Elasticsearch for advanced search function with possible extension towards AI / ML;ย The system runs on 4 virtual servers (Centos 7), resources are managed with Pacemaker CRM; Other technologies and tools that require maintenance: Apache HTTPD Web server, Gitlab with CI/CD pipelines, Zabbix monitoring toolkit, Postfix & Dovecot mail components, Redmine.Within this overall background, reporting to the Information Management Analyst, the Lead Software Developer will be responsible for i) coordination and development of additional modules and new features, ii) maintenance, support and extension of the existing modules, and iii) overall coordination and project workflow management.ย
Duties and ResponsibilitiesCoordination and Development of Additional Modules and New Features
Advising and assisting VF Program Support Oversight & Compliance Unit on best practices in software development to achieve the desired goals in the most efficient manner (from its underlying bottom level system development to top level system architecture); Milestones/timelines related development to support VF (and additional fund as necessary) operations and analysis; New PIMS+ module development/improvement, as requested by Business Owner, and closely cooperate with them from the design to validation and maintenance; Reports/Data visualization, improvement, and development together with the Data Visualization Expert; Staff timesheets system improvement, maintenance, and possible migration work to Quantum; Integration with 3rd party information systems, incl. Quantum introduction, donor portal integration, Data Warehouse, etc.; User interface enhancements and maintenance, incl. Table type UI for taxonomy and others.Maintenance, Support of new features and Extension of Existing Modules of existing features
Optimizing the overall performance of the implementation, caching of the content and code refactoring; Providing recommendations for future enhancements and implementing agreed recommendations, in order to achieve a product that will have a positive and significant impact; Investigate and resolve reported user experience issues; Overall coordination and workflow management; Maintain, support and extend the existing modules; Support the PIMS system documentation.Overall Coordination and Project Workflow Management for new and existing features
The Lead Software Developer is expected to coordinate the workflow of all elements of system development, including the inputs of other software developers involved in the project, to deliver in a timely and efficient manner.ย Coordination functions will also include:ย
Lead and implement a project management methodology, document and manage workflow procedures and responsibilities at each stage, including testing and roll-out; Coordinate other system elements developed by other programmers; Improve format, function and design of the system (update system components and features relating to format, functionality, design and overall user experience).Institutional Arrangement
The Lead Software Developer will work from home;ย The Lead Software Developer will report to, and be directly supervised by the Information Management Analyst, based in New York, USA; The Lead Software Developer will engage regularly with the supervisor by email and Teams on a weekly and/or as needed daily basis;ย The Lead Software Developer will be given access to relevant information necessary for the execution of the tasks under this assignment; The Lead Software Developer will be responsible for providing her/his own work station (i.e. laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer, etc.) and must have access to reliable internet connection;ย Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the Lead Software Developer ย is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones. Competencies Core Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impactย Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problemsย Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demandsย Act with Determination:ย LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity ย Cross-Functional & Technical competenciesย Digital & InnovationProgramming, Web and Appย
Development
Ability to build websites, platforms and apps that areย
effective and intuitive to use.
Information Management &ย
Technology Solutions Architecture
Ability to design and manage the Information systemย
architecture supporting corporate business processes. Design integration strategies and approaches to integrate of one or more applications or services to maintain a coherent and effective IT architecture. Knowledge of ISO 20000 and IT operations.ย
Information Management &ย
Technology IT Security Management Knowledge of Cyber Security technologies, processes, techniques and tools. Apply practical innovations to solve cybersecurity problems. Capability to keep UNDP systems and data safe.ย
Information Management &ย
Technology Data Management & Analytics Knowledge in data management, data sciences, ability to structure data, develop dashboard and visualization. Design data warehouses, data lakes or data platforms concepts. Familiarity with Machine leaning, natural language processing or generation and the use of artificial intelligence to support predictive analytics.ย Business Development Collective Intelligence Design Ability to bringing together diverse groups of people, data, information or ideas, and technology to design services or solutions. Business Management Communication Ability to communicate in a clear, concise andย unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience. Business Management Customer Satisfaction/Client Management
Ability to respond timely and appropriately with a sense of urgency, provide consistent solutions, and deliver timely and quality results and/or solutions to fulfil and understand the real customers' needs. Provide inputs to the development of customer service strategy. Look for the ways to add value beyond clients' immediate requests.
Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.
Required Skills and Experienceย Min. Education requirements
โข Masterโs degree in computer sciences, web resources development, web design, programming or other closely related field
โข Bachelorโs degree in computer sciences, web resources development, web design, programming or other closely related field with 2 additional years of experience will also be considered
Min. years of relevant work experienceย โข Minimum of 5 yearsโ experience with Masterโs degree, or 7 yearsโ experience with a Bachelorโs degree, of overall professional working experience in development of robust Web 2.0 information systems (projects of large scale - database model larger than 200 relational entities, complex role based access control)ย Required skillsยโข Experience with full stack developer (frontend design, backend development, SQL, Linux administration) and in software analysis and design, including knowledge of analytical methodologies and approaches such as Use-Case analysis and use of UML;ย
โข Expert level of proficiency in developing with PHP stack using Object-Oriented Programming;
โข Experience with PHP application framework โ preferred Yii2;
โข Experience leading the software development and developer team.
Desired skillsยโข Excellent knowledge of design and implementation of applications on relational database level - excellent knowledge of SQL; knowledge of MariaDB/MySQL is an advantage;
โข Professional experience related to the environmental vertical funds (including GEF, GCF and/or AF) is an advantage;
โข Experience with Elasticsearch is a strong advantage;ย
โข Experience with Linux (experience with CentOS/RedHat and Debian is a strong advantage) and other system modules and tools used in PIMS+ (subnetting, Active IP Failover, Pacemaker, Apache HTTPD, MariaDB, Postfix, Dovecot, XFS filesystems, MS Azure Clour services) is an advantage;ย
โข Experience with real time high availability setups and business critical systems is an advantage;ย
โข Experience in continuous integration and continuous delivery including automated testing for the delivery of clean robust, reliable and extensible software solutions is an advantage;ย
โข Experience with integration of autonomous information systems (REST / SOAP web services, integration based on manual import of batch files) is an advantage;ย
โข Experience with modern software development tools chain including Git and automated test is an advantage;
โข Experience with mail processing (IMAP/POP3) is an advantage;ย
โข Familiarity with agile approaches to software development, experience with SCRUM methodology is an advantage;ย
โข Experience with project management tools for software development projects is an advantage;ย
Required Language(s)ย Excellent oral and written communication skills in English language Professional Certificates The Open Group TOGAF9 or Open CA, ITIL Master certification, or DevOps or similar certification desirable; Knowledge of ISO 27001 principles. CSSIP, CSIM, CISA or equivalent certification desirable; CDMP or equivalent certification desirable. Disclaimer ย Important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders)ย ย Under US immigration law, acceptance of a staff position with UNDP, an international organization, may have significant implications for US Permanent Residents. UNDP advises applicants for all professional level posts that they must relinquish their US Permanent Resident status and accept a G-4 visa, or have submitted a valid application for US citizenship prior to commencement of employment.ย ย UNDP is not in a position to provide advice or assistance on applying for US citizenship and therefore applicants are advised to seek the advice of competent immigration lawyers regarding any applications. ย Applicant information about UNDP rosters ย Note: UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.ย We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements. ย Non-discriminationUNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and misconduct, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.ย ย ย UNDP is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer that does not discriminate based on race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.ย ย Scam warning ย The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.