INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST, DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA

Closing date: Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Vacancy No: E-VN-2015-000989

Duty Station: Dar-es-Salaam

Country: Tanzania, United Rep. of

Region: ESARO

Job Level: P-3

Position: 00016230

Application Close: 13-May-15

Contract Type: Long-term Staff (FT)

Purpose of the Position

This position is located within the UNICEF Tanzania Operations Section. The incumbent of this post will be accountable for effective technical leadership for ICT systems management and administration in accordance with the UNICEF ICT policy, strategy, security guidelines and will ensure the compliance with corporate standard architecture and ICT security. Specifically, the incumbent of this post will be responsible for: a) the overall design, implementation, support and maintenance of the ICT infrastructure for UNICEF Tanzania and its field offices. The incumbent, as the team lead for the UNICEF Tanzania ICT Team, will participate in implementation of global ICT projects as well as in the support and operation of the local data centre(s), and network infrastructure; b) setting standards, coordinating the provision of first and second level support to users' desktop computing environment, delivery of the UNICEF IT training programme and promoting customer oriented services. The ICT Specialist will coordinate the management and implementation of desktop services, including their architecture, processes and policies to meet current and future business requirements. The incumbent will also aim at achieving the delivery of agreed levels of services to customers in compliance with best practices defined by international standards, in particular ITIL; and c) providing ICT support as part of the Country Office's emergency preparedness efforts.

Key Expected Results

1. Management

• Provide management to the ICT Team, ensuring each person delivers against already defined objectives, in particular providing expert technical guidance and creating an empowering work environment focused on, and coordinated with, ICT priorities, fostering high performance, motivating staff, promoting a culture of innovation, and efficiency towards the delivery of stable and safe ICT services for the UNICEF Tanzania users.
• Ensure effective knowledge sharing within the ICT Team, recognize and address competency development needs, and ensure that the technical expertise needed for best practice service delivery is continuously maintained; Manage, guide and develop staff and consultants, and plan and monitor the deployment of individuals to ensure that they are contributing effectively whilst developing skills and experience.
• Ensure evaluation of ICT systems to ensure the strategic use of information technology and resources, improved performance and wider learning at Country Office level, Audit recommendations on ICT are properly advised and implemented.

2. Planning, Coordination and Communication

• Develop work plans and budgets for the ICT services, managing expenditures against agreed priorities and ensuring the cost effective use of funds and delivery within timeframe and budget, including integrating knowledge of medium-term technical solutions into business requirements and providing clear, accurate and regular reporting on activities and costs.
• Oversee the planning and management of ICT projects, ensuring the application of sound project management and control methodologies, and coordination with other project resource requirements, collaboration with other UN DaO ICT teams, with particular attention to planning, implementation, validation and further improvement of ICT services collectively, sharing knowledge and experience with counterparts and other UN organizations, with a view to identifying the most cost effective solutions to meet business requirements.
• With guidance from the Regional ICT Chief, develop country specific policies and standards and provide advice to ensure that the ICT plan and policies are integrated into UNICEF's overall ICT strategy and plans.

3. Technical and Strategic Delivery of ICT services

• Ensure effective delivery of ICT services as per agreed Service Level Agreements with vendors, contractors and other service providers.
• Take a lead in development and delivery of ICT infrastructure and business solutions, work towards the continuous improvement of performance, security and cost parameters, employ best practices methods, designs, and techniques for solutions implementation and maintenance, meet the needs of UNICEF Tanzania and ensure the integrity, confidentiality and accessibility of respective data.

4. Service Management

• Assist in defining service catalogue, service level agreements, costing models and provide regular reporting on services as well as recommendations on possible improvements.
• Ensure delivery of standardized desktop and laptop solutions to users, including hardware configurations and software images, to enable effective work across the Tanzania Office.
• Ensure that service level agreements, contracts and negotiations with both internal and external IT suppliers such as MNOs meet business needs and that committed service levels are delivered.
• Plan, co-ordinate and control the customer service activities of the ICT Section to meet organizational and operational objectives.
• Actively engage with users at all levels of the organization in the effort to ensure open lines of communication and insightful engagement with all customers.
• Handle user's complaints if first line support staff are unable to solve them or any major incidents, interacting with users in order to provide information in response to inquiries, concerns and requests about IT products and services.
• Identify and implement strategies to improve quality of service and productivity.
• Analyse statistics or other data to determine the level of customer service being provided.
• Assess and document the current and potential future needs for ICT services and solutions within the Tanzania Office.
• Provide internal consulting support to field operations in Tanzania in the identification and documentation of solution requirements as well as support the development, delivery, support and maintenance of appropriate solutions.
• Ensure effective access to and identity management for LAN and corporate applications including Microsoft Office 365 and ERP systems.
• Design, implement and maintain all data centre infrastructure components, ensuring adherence to best-practice IT/Cyber security principles and approaches.
• Monitor the ICT infrastructure and systems, to improve up-time, pro-active resolution of potential issues, and timely response to security and operational incidents.
• Monitor the LAN and WAN infrastructure to ensure systems functionality, security and availability.
• Support the effective unified communications and collaborations including voice, data and video, and provide ongoing monitoring of troubleshooting and enhancement of the effectiveness, reliability and broader ICT telecommunications coordination with NYHQ.
• Ensure ICT security level monitoring and escalations procedures/processes; Monitor security related sites for relevant information on new threats / risks which may impact normal ICT operations. Perform periodic reviews / monitoring for non-compliance. Review security logs and report suspicious and/or unauthorized activities.
• Support and implement tools for information/knowledge management and knowledge-sharing to provide the vital and strategic information for managing and supporting the goals and targets of the CPMP and Country Programme.
• Enhance knowledge management through coordination of office information/data/records management including systems for the acquisition, storage and retrieval of data; management of the local database capacity using standard ICT database. Provide support to ensure the accuracy and accessibility of data sources.
• Provide ICT facilities and technical support for tracking and analyzing key annual programme indicators as required for facilitating the Country Management Team/ Senior Management Team's programme and management planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluations.
• Support TCO's emergency preparedness and response efforts including participation as needed in early warning, contingency planning, preparedness activities, and response from the initial stage of emergency situations to stabilisation.

5. Procurement

• Carry out market research, costing and acquisition of potential Infrastructure, Security and Communications solutions and / or components, recommending hardware and software as appropriate.

6. Documentation

• Develop and implement processes, SLAs and operations procedures to ensure effective management and operations of UNICEF ICT Infrastructure, Security and Communications, including monitoring and compliance with such and reports to management on regular basis.
• Develop documentation for Requests for Information, Requests for Proposals, Contract Review Committees.
• Develop and maintain up-to-date procedural and technical documentation.

7. Partnerships

• Provide sound advice to senior management for decision making, technical guidance and support to staff in the ICT Section and staff in Programme sections.
• Liaise with ICT colleagues in other UN agencies as part of inter-agency or Delivering-as-One activities.
• Compare best practices with external specialists and counterparts in other international organizations, and manage the provision of agreed services with third party service providers.

8. ICT Evaluation and Audit

• Provide technical contribution to the evaluation of ICT systems in the country office, in compliance with the established procedures and guidelines, ensuring that ICT meets quality standards as established in UNICEF ICT Policy.
• Findings, conclusions, recommendations and lessons learnt from ICT evaluation are effectively disseminated to the intended audience with a view to improving ICT performance and contributing to wider learning. Ensure ICT evaluation results are fed into key ICT planning processes including the Annual Reviews and the Mid-Term Reviews, and formulation of the Country Programme Document, the Country Programme Action Plan and the Annual Work Plans.
• Ensure that management responses to the findings and recommendations of the ICT evaluation are monitored for follow-up implementation. ICT evaluation recommendations are submitted to the Country Management Team for follow-up actions.
• Ensure the implementation of agreed audit recommendations. Advise on corrective measures to be taken.

9 . ICT Capacity Building

• Ensure that ICT capacity building strategy is in place and corresponding activities are identified and implemented in the context of the UNICEF corporate ICT plan.
• Ensure that Country Office staff have the basic knowledge and skills to fulfil their ICT requirements, and training is planned and carried out to fill identified gaps. Acts as coach and trainer for the ICT capacity building function.
• Ensure that Country Office staff and national partners are aware of and have access to UNICEF information technology management and learning resources.
• Make contributions to building up learning and development activities for enhancement of information/knowledge management capacity within the country office.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

• An advanced university degree (Master's) in computer science, information systems or a related technical field is required.
• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant work experience, at the national and international levels, in information communication technology (ICT) is required.
• Previous hands-on experience in a supervisory/managerial capacity is required.
• Previous work experience in an emergency duty station is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English (written & verbal) is required.
• Knowledge of an additional UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) is considered an asset.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

• Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including during formal public speaking.
• Consistently achieves high-level results, managing and delivering projects on-time and on-budget.
• Creates and encourages a climate of team-working and collaboration in a multi-cultural environment.
• Analyzes and integrates potentially conflicting numerical, verbal and other data from a number of sources.
• Demonstrates and shares detailed technical knowledge and expertise.
• Translates strategic direction into plans and objectives.
• Has good leadership and supervisory skills; co-ordinates group activities, ensuring that roles within the team are clear.
• Sets clearly defined objectives and plans activities for self, own team or department.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.

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