UN Global Polse/New York, NYUNOPS helps its partners in the United Nations system meet the world's needs for building peace, recovering from disaster, and creating sustainable development. UNOPS is known for its ability to implement complex projects in all types of environments around the globe. In an effort to promote organizational excellence, UNOPS seeks highly qualified individuals for the following position:
Vacancy Code:
VA/2010/NAO/FTA/EOSG/CP Architect
Post Title:
Chief Platform Architect
Post Level:
P4
Position status:
Fixed-term-appointment, non-rotational
Org Unit:
EOSG/Global Pulse
Duty Station:
New York, USA
Duration:
1 year
Closing Date:
August 14, 2010
Background:
UN Global Pulse: harnessing innovation to protect the vulnerable
Global Pulse is a United Nations initiative to take advantage of the opportunities presented by new sources of information, novel approaches, and emerging technologies close the information gap between the onset of a global crisis and the availability of actionable information to protect vulnerable populations. Global Pulse will bring together the analytical resources and expertise of the UN and its partners to provide high quality, actionable information for the global community. It will design and manage a sustainable open source technology platform to bring together tools, people and information for collaborative analysis, collective decision-making, and agile response to crises. It will develop, implement and scale a model for building sustainable resilience to global crises through a network of regional PULSE Labs. It will serve as a global hub for grassroots innovation in the protection of the vulnerable.
Vision:
Close the information gap between the onset of a global crisis and the availability of actionable information for decision makers.
Mission:
Harness innovation to protect the vulnerable.
More information on Global Pulse is available at http://unglobalpulse.org
Duties and Responsibilities:
The Chief Platform Architect reports to the Global Pulse Project Director. The Chief Platform Architect is an innovator, technical visionary, entrepreneur, strategic systems thinker, team builder, change agent, open source community leader, and hands-on practitioner of the craft of software engineering who will:
â?¢ Serve as overall Engineering Lead for Global Pulse;
â?¢ Advise the Project Director on technical strategy;
â?¢ Design Platform Reference Architecture and core applications for Global Pulse and integrate with existing systems;
â?¢ Create high quality, appropriate open source applications and services in a variety of modern programming languages on multiple platforms;
â?¢ Build and provide overall management of one or more distributed engineering teams;
â?¢ Maintain and share awareness of the latest developments and innovations in relevant technologies and the use of technology for global development
â?¢ Evaluate technologies, standards and data sets for integration into the Global Pulse platform.
â?¢ Assist in the formation of a thriving open source community around the Global Pulse platform and serve as a thought leader and super-connector;
â?¢ Provide technical oversight and mentoring to other engineering staff;
â?¢ Gather system requirements and generate designs in a developing-country setting;
â?¢ Contribute to the development of curricula for initiatives to build capacity for sustainable innovation in developing countries;
â?¢ Interact with end users in developing countries, government stakeholders, UN agency partners, open source community, commercial partners, academic institutions, and technology standards bodies;
â?¢ Represent the team at technical workshops, conferences, hack-a-thons, bar camps, and other public events;
â?¢ Perform other duties as required.
Selection Criteria - Competencies:
Professionalism:
Demonstrated effectiveness in creating users stories, development plans, architectural specifications, policies and procedures; Able to identify technical and project risks and plan architectural approaches to mitigate them; Able to contribute substantively to project proposals and fundraising initiatives; Solid understanding of security, availability, and non-functional requirements; High degree of personal initiative and willingness to accept wide responsibilities; Commitment to implementing the goal of gender equality; Ability to maintain effective working relationships in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.
Planning and organizing:
Experience with project management; Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies; Identifies priority activities and assignments; Adjusts priorities as required; Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work; Foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning; Monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary; Uses time efficiently. Strong time management and organizational skills. Ability to plan, organize and carry out investigations to develop better or new designs to reduce cost and expedite implementation of new projects; Ability to work under tight deadlines and handle multiple concurrent projects/activities
Communication:
Speaks and writes clearly and effectively; Tailors language, tone, style and format to match audience; Demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed. Ability to write reports to justify engineering decisions and to orally convey sensitive issues/positions.
Leadership and Self-Management:
Ability to lead a mission-driven engineering team and motivate them to deliver high-quality tools on time and under budget Ability to motivate others around the world to contributed materially to the achieving the Global Pulse vision; Effective at working on collaborative projects where leadership is defined by influence rather than by ownership. Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude; Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
Education/Experience/Language
Education:
Advanced university degree in Computer Science or related engineering/design field would be preferred. First-level university degree in Computer Science or related engineering/design field, combined with substantial and relevant professional experience, may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
Required Experience:
â?¢ 7-9 years distinguished career creating world-class software;
â?¢ Experience creating frameworks, applications, services, and information architectures;
â?¢ Experience designing and implementing large-scale distributed systems;
â?¢ Experience building and supporting a global community around a successful open source software platform;
â?¢ Experience with Agile/XP or related methodologies and Test-Driven Development
â?¢ Experience with user-interface design;
Preferred Experience:
â?¢ Experience defining and supporting public reference architectures and practicing influence-based leadership to drive development of partner reference implementations;
â?¢ Hands-on experience creating technologies appropriate for users in developing countries
â?¢ Experience with scalable cloud services, transactional systems, and analytic systems;
â?¢ Experience with text mining, search, machine learning, predictive modeling and ontology-based reasoning
â?¢ Experience with database design, data integration, protocols and standards
â?¢ Hands-on experience with quantitative analysis and data visualization
â?¢ Hands-on experience with GIS/mapping technologies, satellite imagery and remote sensing
â?¢ Hands-on experience with real-time communications, collaboration technologies, and social networking
â?¢ Hands-on experienced designing and developing applications for mobile devices
â?¢ Hands-on experience with computational finance or related domain
Language:
For the post advertised, fluency in English (both oral and written) is required. Knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.
Submission of Applications:
Qualified candidates may submit their application, including a letter of interest, complete Curriculum Vitae and an updated United Nations Personal History Form (P.11) (available on our website), via e-mail to hendricksc@un.org . Kindly indicate the vacancy number and the post title in the subject line when applying by email.
Additional Considerations:
- Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
- Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
- Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
- UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a level below the advertised level of the post.
For more information on UNOPS, please visit the UNOPS website at ww.unops.org.
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Source: Venture Beat