ICT Advisor – Product Strategy and Customer Success Lead – Home based – IICA 3

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UNOPS South East Asia Multi-Country Office (EAPMCO)

The South East Asia and Pacific Multi Country Office (EAPMCO) supports, develops and oversees the UNOPS portfolio of projects in South East Asia and the Pacific. EAPMCO was established in January 2023 following the merger of the Thailand Multi-Country Office, which covered 20 countries across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific, and the Cambodia Multi-Country Office, which covered 4 countries South East Asia – 3 countries in the Mekong Sub-region (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam) and the Philippines. EAPMCO currently covers 24 countries across North East Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific. With its head office in Bangkok, the Multi-Country Office comprises eight business units: SEMCO Thailand, EAPMCO Indonesia, EAPMCO Pacific Operations Cluster, EAPMCO Papua New Guinea, EAPMCO China, EAPMCO Vietnam, EAPMCO Mekong, and EAPMCO Philippines.

In 2023, the UNOPS EAPMCO implemented projects worth more than USD 75 million, in the areas of Energy Transition, Digital Transformations, Sustainable Environmental Management, Climate Change, Waste Management, Rule of Law and Access to Justice, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Post Conflict Reintegration, Emergency Relief, Post COVID19 Economic Transformations, and Health, through HR, procurement, construction, contract management, fund and program management services.

The Multi Country Office head office in Bangkok provides strategic direction, operational support, delivery oversight and assurance of the excellence of business processes and quality standards across all of the entire Multi Country Office locations. It is also responsible for developing, delivering and managing the portfolio of engagements in the country of the MCO location itself.

Project Background:

UN Global Pulse (UNGP) is an initiative of the Executive Office of Secretary-General (EOSG) founded in 2009. We work in support of the Secretary-General’s priorities, in advancement of the UN Charter. UNGP serves as a cross-pillar lead and hub for experimentation and digital innovation. We have a globally distributed team in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. The teams work with digital innovation, strategic foresight, real-time data and artificial intelligence to further sustainable development, humanitarian and peace outcomes. Our vision is ‘A world in which responsible and inclusive digital innovation serves to empower people and protect the planet’. Our mission is to work at the intersection of digital innovation and science to inform, inspire and support the entire UN and those it serves, to anticipate and respond to the challenges of today and tomorrow.

The goals of the UN Global Pulse Network are: i) to generate knowledge, capabilities and approaches that support the transformation of the United Nations into a more agile and resilient ‘next-generation’ institution; ii) to create and accelerate the development of globally accessible approaches that help communities and partners anticipate and address emerging global challenges; and iii) to advocate for the global transformation of policies, practices and culture required to maximize the impact of digital innovation, minimize its risk of harm, and ensure pathways to scale and sustainability.

UNOPS has signed an agreement to operationally support the implementation of the UN Global Pulse’s Data Insights for Social and Humanitarian Action (DISHA) project.

The incumbent of this position will be personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility.

UNOPS is seeking a Product Strategy and Customer Success Lead for UN Global Pulse’s Data Insights for Social & Humanitarian Action (DISHA) project.

DISHA (https://disha.unglobalpulse.org/) aims to accelerate ethical and responsible access to data and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to unlock social impact at scale. By facilitating the availability of reusable data through reliable models, standardised approaches and frameworks, DISHA enables the creation and expansion of actionable insights. These insights are designed to support more effective and inclusive efforts in humanitarian work, peacebuilding and development.

The Product Strategy and Customer Success Lead is responsible for bringing the voice of the users to the development teams whether internal to UN Global Pulse or external pro bono partners, or a mix of both. The Product Strategy and Customer Success Lead works with the Impact and Scaling Lead to evolve the vision and objectives for user needs and alongside technical staff to implement the vision within budget and other constraints.

They foster goal-oriented collaboration and excel at bringing people together whether for open discussion of challenges or focused decision making.

Ultimately, they ensure that the project outputs are delivered to and for the benefit of users within the constraints of time and cost, whilst managing scope, risk, and benefits and ensuring a high quality and ethically safe outcome. Building the right thing, building it right.

The day to day management and supervision of this position is under the responsibility of the Impact and Scaling Lead. This position will need to work across time zones from East Asia (Jakarta) to East US (New York) in a balanced working pattern across the week.

Functional Responsibilities

Summary of functions:

Guides the establishment of robust team practices for gathering and internalizing user needs in social and humanitarian action
Develops product vision and development pipeline
Oversees end-to-end DISHA user journey and ensures customer success
Structures the collaboration with pro-bono partners in service of product delivery and UN capacity building
Develops robust and practical processes for managing risks arising from using data and AI-enabled products in humanitarian contexts
Develops sustainable long-term product vision and value proposition for DISHA and contributes to addressing other strategic questions as appropriate
Guides the establishment of team practices for robust gathering and of user needs in social and humanitarian action

Guides the DISHA team in coordinating research with key user groups to understand and capture the evolving user needs for the strategic focus within the area of data insights for social and humanitarian action
Guides the DISHA team in establishing regular dialogue with key user groups to test the success or failure of meeting prioritized needs during the development of products through user testing, qualitative and quantitative monitoring following continuous delivery principles.

2. Develops product vision and development pipeline

Leads the drawing together of user needs in a cohesive, evolving, sustainable and implementable product designs in collaboration with the other DISHA Leads and with support of pro bono partners.
Guides the DISHA team in developing product vision, objectives, user benefits.
Advises the DISHA team on the creation and execution of the software development pipeline in alignment with the product vision.
Works with Tech Lead and Engineers to break down work into implementable pieces.
Guides the regular prioritization of pieces of work in collaboration with Tech Lead(s) to ensure delivery of the most desirable, viable and feasible technology as fast as possible for users’ needs, i.e. following a lean /agile approach. Including bringing user testing feedback into the loop of developing the software and AI.
Advises the development of product testing protocols and practices.

3. Oversees end-to-end DISHA user journey and ensures customer success

Supervises the delivery of an excellent end-to-end user experience with the DISHA product from expression of interest, to application, vetting process, onboarding, monitoring ongoing use experience and engagement, to reporting and resolution of user issues.
Brings customer focus into every decision, product and technical choice DISHA team makes.
Develops an in-depth understanding of customers’ goals and challenges and ensures DISHA’s products and conceived, shaped, and delivered in support of those.

4. Structures the collaboration with of pro-bono partners in service of product delivery and UN capacity building

Advises the Head of DISHA in initial engagement and set up of partnership working with pro bono partners from the technology industry and academia.
Advises the development and design of the respective roles and responsibilities of the partners/stakeholders for effective collaboration and project success.
Advises the Head of DISHA on the development of pro-bono partner engagement strategy that is sustainable and allows for a delivery of high-quality dependable products.
Builds capacity of UN Global Pulse colleagues in AI Product Management, user research, other modern technology practices to support the long-term and sustainable capacity of staff.
Develops methods to encourage pro bono technology partners to share their expertise and support capacity building.

5. Develops robust and practical processes for managing risks arising from using data and AI- enabled products in humanitarian contexts

Collaborates with DISHA Policy Lead and on designing and implementing a robust and practical process for managing human rights and legal risks associated with the use of data and AI-enabled products in high sensitivity contexts
Collaborates with DISHA Policy Lead on gathering appropriate stakeholder feedback on the risk management process
Advises the implementation of the risk management process to ensure follow-through by in-house and pro-bono development teams
Guides the development of adequate risk mitigation practices to ensure DISHA products are safe to use in a humanitarian context, and their limitations are well understood by the users

6. Develops sustainable long-term product vision and value proposition for DISHA and contributes to addressing other strategic questions as appropriate

Develops long-term product vision and user value proposition for the DISHA project
Contributes to the development of the pathway towards a sustainable operating and funding model for the DISHA project, including models for long-term service maintenance, support, and scale.
Advises the development of ongoing practices for impact measurement and reporting.

Impact of Results:

The effective and successful achievement of DISHA objectives could accelerate the ability of social and humanitarian actors to utilize the benefits of AI and big data at a faster pace in these unprecedented times of fragility and uncertainty of climate-fuelled natural disasters and intense conflicts.

Education/Experience/Language requirements

Education:

An advanced University Degree (Master’s or equivalent) or higher degree is required, preferably in computer science, social sciences, business management, economics, or other relevant disciplines.
A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent) in the above-mentioned fields with an additional two (2) years of relevant experience may be considered in lieu of an advanced degree.

Experience:

A minimum of 7 (seven) years experience in product management of software technology or similar role is required.
Experience coordinating, gathering and analyzing user needs, user testing and feedback and synthesizing them into prioritized objectives and a coherent design in collaboration with engineers is required.
An understanding from end-to-end of the software delivery cycle including at least one experience of deployment or go-live is required.
Experience in designing, coding and deploying data-driven applications is preferred.
Experience of successfully working as a part of distributed, international teams is desirable.
Experience in satellite image analysis or remote sensing is an asset.
Experience in data analysis, data science or AI is desirable.
Experience of implementing innovation or technology in social or humanitarian sectors is desirable.
Experience supporting software teams and management in adopting mindset shifts towards modern technology practice e.g. agile, continuous delivery, DevOps is desirable.
Prior experience in coordinating international, multi-partner supported projects including stakeholder management is desirable.

Language Requirements:

Full working knowledge of English is required;
Knowledge of another official UNOPS language is an asset.

Certification:

Any internationally recognized Product Manager or Project Manager certification is desirable but not essential.

Contract type, level and duration

Contract type: International Individual Contractor Agreement (IICA)
Contract level: ICS 11 / IICA 3 / LICA 11
Contract duration: 6 months with a possibility of extension subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance

For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link:
https://www.unops.org/english/Opportunities/job-opportunities/what-we-offer/Pages/Individual-Contractor-Agreements.aspx