Software Developer

Job Description

Background

Job Purpose and Organizational Context

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). UNDP's 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 UNDP's Strategic Plan.

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 UNDP's 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.

UNDP's 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.

BPPS' Hubs on Nature, Climate, Energy and Waste, with the support from the VF Programme Support, Oversight, and Compliance Unit, 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 UN's largest portfolio of in-country programming nature, climate change, energy and waste.

This multi-billion-dollar portfolio encompasses:

• Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services including forests;
• Sustainable Land Management and Desertification including food and commodity systems;
• Water and Ocean Governance including SIDS;
• Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation;
• Sustainable Energy;
• Extractive Industries;
• Chemicals and Waste Management;
• Environmental Governance and Green/Circular Economy; and SCP approaches.

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 - 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 Unit's 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 services to the vertical funds. 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;
• 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 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.

Duties and Responsibilities

Coordination and Development of Additional Modules and New Features

• Supporting UNDP 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 funds as necessary) operations and analysis;
• New PIMS+ module development/improvement, as requested by the 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, including 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.
• Support the County Office and Regional Bureaus' extra development/improvement requests, incl. Dashboard, ORCA, non-VF where applicable and funded.

Facilitate knowledge and capacity building, knowledge sharing and advocacy relevant to the assigned thematic area(s).

• Identify, synthesize and document best practices and lessons learned that are generated from the project and implementing partners.
• Organize training, workshops, and capacity building activities in a consultative manner, involving technical experts and stakeholders

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Institutional Arrangement

• The Software Developer will work from his/her home base;
• The Software Developer will report to, and be directly supervised by, the Information Management Analyst, based in New York, USA;
• The Software Developer will engage regularly with the supervisor by email and Teams on a weekly and/or as needed daily basis;
• The Software Developer will be given access to relevant information necessary for the execution of the tasks under this assignment;
• The 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;
• Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the Software Developer is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones.

Competencies
Core Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination
Cross-Functional & Technical competencies
Thematic Area Name Definition . click apply for full job details