ICT Specialist (Database Engineer), P-3, Fixed-Term, Post no. 18677, ICTD Digital Core, Valencia, Spain

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfil their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up.

For every child, a connected world.

The overarching strategic goal of UNICEF’s Information and Communication Technology Division (ICTD) is to transform and build partnerships with our stakeholders to successfully implement UNICEF programmes globally through innovative technology-enabled solutions.

This position will report to the ICT Manager (Solutions Engineer), P-4, in the Solutions Centre and Support in ICTD’s Digital Core, Valencia, Spain. A key perspective of the Centre’s goals is to provide adequate, user-friendly, and modern business solutions to UNICEF’s different departments and stakeholders as well as to provide guidance, governance, and procedures to several enterprise processes such as data management, integration, collection, program monitoring, digital tools and platforms, and business process optimization throughout the organization. These goals are aligned with the organizational strategy, enterprise architecture, and information management requirements of UNICEF’s different stakeholders.

How can you make a difference?

The ICT Specialist (Database Engineer) coordinates the design, implementation, and operational management of database solutions on cloud and on-premises identified per business needs, including researching and making proposals regarding the methodological framework to ensure data solutions appropriately reflect current and emerging business needs, as well as reviewing and proposing improvements to database coding standards.

This role ensures database structures and data integrity in database environments are maintained. The role supports definition of database administration plans in operations, upgrades, and maintenance, assuring that they are aligned with cross-functional services and the overall ICTD plans and security policies.

The ICT Specialist monitors capacity and performance of database environments, ensuring they are stable, reliable, efficient, cost effective, and provide the required functionality. The incumbent will work with technology teams in ensuring automated code promotion and deployment up the database stack of environments, to have successful, repeatable, consistent quality deployments.

This role also administers and maintains the SWIFT Alliance Services supporting UNICEF’s payment gateway, ensuring financial transactions are transferred timely in an integrated and secure environment. The incumbent designs, builds and implements scalable data integration solutions supporting ETL/ELT processes per business needs. The incumbent also ensures that data confidentiality and data security is maintained in database and financial systems per the UNICEF security guidelines and frameworks for classifying sensitive data.

This role may supervise the work of consultants.

Key responsibilities:

• Perform and coordinate the design and implementation of database solutions and underlying related technological platforms meeting business needs, in accordance with UNICEF policies and industry best standards.

• Plan daily operations, maintenance, and upgrades of all cloud and on-premises database systems. Develop and create all necessary technical utilities, procedures, and processes for the upgrades and maintenance of all database systems. Perform testing and impact analysis of database specific projects, including capacity and performance planning.

• Participate in the development, implementation, and enforcement of coding standards for database systems. Ensure all standards are met for database implementations.

• Support UNICEF’s core banking communication platform. Ensure patching, maintaining, troubleshooting, and testing of the core banking platform. Review and propose improvements to standards for the physical transfer of data between systems in a timely and integrated fashion.

• Design and develop ETL/ELT solutions to facilitate the data transfer process between on-premises systems or cloud-based systems. Provide support to systems analysts and programmers in all matters regarding data transfer including the necessary support in the use of such programs.

• Implement and enable features maintaining data confidentiality and data security in managed database and bank communication systems per the UNICEF data classification guidelines and frameworks.

• Provide second level technical support in troubleshooting and resolutions to database and application errors. Track progress of vendor response when a problem is reported. Provide vendor feedback to all relevant analysts in a timely manner, ensuring all solutions are dutifully applied.

• Verify compliance with license agreements relevant to the database and bank communication system and monitor the level of service provided by the vendors.

• Performance Optimization – Performance monitoring, measurement, and capacity planning of database and bank communication software solutions, reviewing and recommending changes to database solutions and “standardized” configurations.

• Develop detailed and thorough technical documentation. Serve as the back-up to other
team members in their absence.

• Keep abreast of database management and data integration technology advancements as to provide senior managers with adequate recommendations that will influence strategic decisions.

• Perform any other relevant duties as requested by the supervisor.

To qualify as a champion for every child you will have…

Academic Degrees Required:
• An advanced university degree (Master’s Degree or higher) with a specialization in Computer Science, Engineering, Telecommunications, or a related field is required. A first University Degree (Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent) in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Professional Experience:
• A minimum of 5 years of professional working experience at the national and international levels of responsibility in deploying and managing database solutions on cloud and on-premises is required, including:
• Experience in designing and managing mission critical, highly available and highly reliable database environments.
• Experience in installing, maintaining, troubleshooting, and testing SWIFT Alliance Access and SWIFT Web Platform.
• Hands on experience with cloud based ETL (Extract Transform Load) and data integration services.

Skills and Knowledge:
• Solid knowledge of Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Unix/Linux environments is required.
• Good understanding of SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle) is required.

Languages:
• Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of another UN language (Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian, Arabic) is desirable.

 

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability and the core competencies as follows:
• Builds and maintains partnerships
• Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
• Drive to achieve results for impact
• Innovates and embraces change
• Manages ambiguity and complexity
• Thinks and acts strategically
• Works collaboratively with others
• Nurtures, leads and manages people

View our competency framework here

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization. Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

International mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.