Software Developer

Background

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 provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages; represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora, including public-private, government and civil society dialogues; and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.

BPPS’s Hubs on Nature, Climate, Energy and Waste, with the support of the Vertical Fund Programme Support Oversight and Compliance Unit, works 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.

In addition to UNDP’s bilateral partnerships in Nature, Climate, Energy and Waste, UNDP is an accredited multilateral implementing agency of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Multilateral Fund (MLF), the Adaptation Fund (AF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). As part of UNDP’s partnership with these vertical funds (VFs), UNDP’s Vertical Fund Programme Support Oversight and Compliance Unit supports UNDP’s Nature, Climate, Energy and Waste related Hubs and provides countries specialized integrated technical services for eligibility assessment, programme formulation, capacity development, policy advice, technical assistance, training and technology transfer, mobilization of co-financing, implementation oversight, results management and evaluation, performance-based payments and knowledge management services.

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 Environment Hubs 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 Bureaus, 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.  The 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:

1. coordination and development of additional modules and new features,
2. maintenance, support and extension of the existing modules, and overall coordination and project workflow management.

Duties and Responsibilities

Coordination and Development of Additional Modules and New Features

• Assisting 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 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.
• Support the CO and Regional Beaurues’ extra development/improvement request, incl. Dashboard, ORCA, non-VF where applicable and funded.

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
Digital & Innovation	Programming, Web and App Development	Ability to build websites, platforms and apps that are effective and intuitive to use.
Information Management & Technology	IT Customer Support	Ability to support customers on IT related issues and generate and contribute to continuous improvement processes to deliver a great user experience.
Information Management & Technology	Network, Communication and Infrastructure Management	Ability to develop/integrate/operate/manage IT network, communications, Cloud or on-premise infrastructure, and new technologies like IoT.
Information Management & Technology	IT Service Delivery & Operations	Ability to deliver the IT products and services to customers at the right level of Quality and Costs, taking into account user experience.
Information Management & Technology	IT Research and Development	Regular following new technologies and technical trends, research the technologies that are applicable and beneficial to the organization and develop the systems.
Business Management	Communication	Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and  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 Experience

Min. Education requirements	• Master’s degree in computer sciences, web resources development, web design, programming or other closely related field; • Bachelor’s degree in computer sciences, web resources development, web design, programming or other closely related field with 2 additional years of professional experience will also be considered.
Min. years of relevant work experience	• Up to 2 years of experience with a Master’s degree, or a minimum of 2 years’ experience with a Bachelor’s degree, 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)
Required skills	Experience of 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; Experience in ISO 20000; Experience in design and implementation of applications on relational database level – excellent knowledge of SQL; Proficiency in developing with PHP stack using Object-Oriented Programming Experience with PHP application framework – preferred Yii2
Desired skills	Experience in MariaDB/MySQL is an advantage; Professional experience related to the environmental vertical funds (including GEF, GCF and/or AF) is an advantage; Experience with Elasticsearch is a strong advantage; Experience in ISO 9001 desirable; 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; Experience with real time high availability setups and business critical systems is an advantage; Experience in continuous integration and continuous delivery including automated testing for the delivery of clean robust, reliable and extensible software solutions is an advantage; Experience with integration of autonomous information systems (REST / SOAP web services, integration based on manual import of batch files) is an advantage; Experience with modern software development tools chain including Git and automated test is an advantage; Experience with mail processing (IMAP/POP3) is an advantage; Experience with agile approaches to software development, experience with SCRUM methodology is an advantage; Experience with project management tools for software development projects is an advantage.
Required Language(s)	Excellent oral and written communication skills in English language;
Professional Certificates	ITIL certification or similar is desirable; Cisco CCIE CCNP or similar is desirable