Senior IT 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 Senior IT Officer for UPOV and is responsible for the design, implementation, maintenance and effective performance of UPOV’s web-based applications and databases.

c.    Reporting Lines

The incumbent works under the direct supervision of the Head of IT of UPOV and the overall supervision of the Vice Secretary-General.

d.    Work Relations

The incumbent interacts with all colleagues within the Office of the Union and with a wide range of senior staff in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).  The incumbent also regularly interacts with persons in States, intergovernmental organizations and service providers in their work.

2.      Duties and Responsibilities

The incumbent will perform the following principal duties:

a.   Manage software development projects to deliver IT tools by liaising with business users, UPOV staff, WIPO staff (particularly including ICT and Finance staff), and external companies providing software development services.  Provide technical guidance to others involved in these activities, ensuring the resolution of issues to meet deadlines, and by following established project management and software development lifecycle methodologies.

b.   Manage and maintain UPOV services, including the UPOV PRISMA, TG Template, GENIE database, PLUTO database and UPOV e-PVP modules.

c.   Identify, plan and deliver improvements to enhance the performance of UPOV services listed above.

d.   Work with the Head of IT, WIPO IT colleagues, and external consultants to resolve complex technical issues and manage outsourced technical resources.

e.   Develop an IT support strategy for review and adoption by senior management.

f.    Participate in the deployment, configuration, support, and further development of cloud-based applications.

g.   Design, operate, and maintain the UPOV cloud infrastructure using automated approaches.

h.   Create and maintain support and instructional documentation, training materials, and technical/user documentation.

i.    Keep abreast of the latest technologies and methodologies, provide expertise on technological changes, and propose strategies for implementation.

j.    Perform other related duties as required.

3.      Requirements

Education (Essential)

Advanced university degree in information systems covering web technologies, large databases searches or related field.  A first-level university degree plus two years of relevant professional experience in addition to the required experience mentioned below may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Education (Desirable)

Project management certificate.

Cloud Certifications such as AWS Solution Architect Certification; Azure.

Experience (Essential)

At least seven years of relevant experience in software engineering, including extensive experience in managing the development of web-based software applications, reporting tools and databases.

Experience with data architecture; customer-centric design, AWS (Amazon Web Services) Cloud solutions, preferably in the field of intellectual property.

Significant experience in project management, particularly in managing out-sourced projects and project teams.

Experience (Desirable)

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

Language (Essential)

Excellent knowledge of English.

Language (Desirable)

Knowledge of other UPOV official languages.

Job Related Competencies (Essential)

Strong knowledge of Amazon Web Services technologies, including experience in several of CloudFormation, AWS Security Model and IAM, DynamoDB, serverless services such as Lambda, Fargate and API Gateway.

Strong software development skills, including several of the following languages/frameworks: Angular, JAVA, as well as CI/CD, containerization, testing.

Excellent analytical, organizational and communication skills.

Ability to work in a multicultural environment with technical, legal and operational staff at different levels.

Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to maintain effective partnerships and working relations with sensitivity and respect for diversity.