Software Developer (Home-based)

UN News; New York (NY); Remote; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading organization focused on sustainable development is seeking a Software Developer to enhance its project management system. The role involves developing new features, maintaining existing systems, and ensuring effective project oversight. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in full stack development, particularly with PHP and SQL, and a commitment to innovative solutions in a collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years of relevant experience for Bachelor's degree holders.
• Experience in development of robust Web 2.0 information systems.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and develop new modules and features for PIMS+.
• Maintain and support existing modules.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and capacity building.

Skills

Full Stack Development

SQL

Linux Administration

Object-Oriented Programming

Agile Methodologies

Education

Master's Degree in Computer Sciences

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Sciences

Tools

PHP

Yii2

MariaDB

Elasticsearch

Git

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 2022-2025 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
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. Knowledge of ISO 9001 desirable. ITIL certification or similar isdesirable.
Information Management & Technology	Network, Communication and Infrastructure Management	Ability to develop/integrate/operate/manage IT network, communications, Cloud or on-premises infrastructure, and new technologies like IoT. Cisco CCIE CCNP or similar is desirable.
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. ISO 20000 knowledge. ITIL certification or similar desirable.
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	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. Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels
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

Education:

• Advanced university degree ( Master's degree or equivalent ) in Computer Sciences, Web Resources Development, Web Design, Programming or other closely related field; is required, Or
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience:

• Applicants with a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in a relevant field of study are not required to have professional work experience.
• Applicants with a Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) are required to have a minimum of two (2) years of relevant professional experience, 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
• ISO 20000 experience
• Excellent knowledge of design and implementation of applications on relational database level - excellent knowledge of SQL;
• Expert level of proficiency in developing with PHP stack using Object-Oriented Programming
• Experience with PHP application framework – preferred Yii2

Desired skills:

• Knowledge of 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;
• Familiarity 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)

Fluency in English is required.

Professional Certificates

• ITIL certification or similar is desirable;
• Cisco CCIE CCNP or similar is desirable

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination.

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles.

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.