ICT Specialist (Data Integration Engineer), P3, Fixed-Term, #15856, ICTD Digital Core – Valencia, Spain

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.
UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

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 providing 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 incumbent of this post is responsible for reviewing, designing, planning, and implementing solutions to store, integrate and manage data for organization, including researching and understanding the business needs, crafting data and integration standards that align with business needs, as well as managing delivery of the core services  that serve as backbone for business process that intersect Enterprise Application ecosystem.

The incumbent will be responsible for designing data strategies that align with business goals shaping the overall organization’s data strategy and ensure that data from disparate sources is coherently combined, leveraging data architecture and modeling principles. 

Incumbent will be responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining integration interfaces and flows for cross system data entities, which will include close coordination and collaboration with cross-functional teams, developers, stakeholders, and external vendors to ensure the solutions are developed to a consistent level of technical standards as set by the Solutions Engineering Team.

The incumbent will be responsible for the entire lifecycle of data to guarantee the integrity and consistency of the information, deploy tools and methodologies to detect and rectify errors ensuring accurate and reliable data.

Incumbent will work and collaborate in establishing and implementing data governance policies to ensure data-driven decision-making is both safe and effective and meets the compliance certifications and data accessibility needs.

The incumbent will also work on designing, building, and implementing scalable data integration solutions supporting ETL/ELT processes per business needs.

The incumbent will also ensure that data confidentiality and data security is maintained in the supported ecosystem per the UNICEF security guidelines and frameworks classifying sensitive data

Key responsibilities

• Perform and coordinate design and architect of scalable, secure, and high-performance data integration solutions and underlying related technological platforms meeting business requirements. 
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical specifications in accordance with UNICEF policies, and following industry best standards.  
• Facilitate successful deployment of data-driven projects with close collaboration with stakeholders leveraging machine learning algorithms and employing data mining techniques to provide business with actionable insights. 
• Participate in the development, implementation, and enforcement of coding standards; assuring that all systems are integrated using standardized API ecosystem. 
• 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.  
• Optimize data integration processes for performance, scalability, capacity, and cost-effectiveness and provide second-level technical support in troubleshooting and resolutions regarding data errors.  
• Provide feedback/ advice to all relevant analysts and external vendors in a timely manner ensuring all solutions are dutifully applied to encountered errors. Verify compliance with license agreements relevant to the data and integration systems and monitor the level of service provided by the vendors. 
• Liaises with UN Agencies to share data interchange procedures, share and establish common frameworks for data administration and standardize concepts and data values for common UN tables. Shares the results of meetings and discussions with UN agencies, to influence decisions that will consider UN common data policies and values, as required at UNICEF. 
• Participates in the development and implementation of data governance policies, including data archiving. 
• Develop and document detailed design decisions, architecture diagrams, data flow diagrams and technical specifications. Serve as the backups to other team members in their absence. 
• Keeps abreast of information technology advances to provide IT Management with adequate recommendations that will influence midterm and strategic decisions. 
• Perform any other relevant duties as requested by the supervisor. 

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

The following minimum requirements:

Education:

An advanced university degree (equivalent to a Master’s) from an accredited institution is required in Computer Science, Engineering, Telecommunications, or equivalent background.
*A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.

Work Experience:

At least 5 years of relevant work experience at the national and international levels of responsibility in creating data and integration architecture, with focus on data analysis, data quality and data lineage. 

Skills

• Sound knowledge in data architecture realization and implementation of scalable data flow design between multiple systems in high-traffic/low-latency environments.
• Experience in data integration, data engineering related roles and strong understanding of data modeling and integration techniques.
• Good understanding of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) lifecycle e.g. Agile and DevOPS methodology for delivering solutions.
• Hands on experience with cloud based ETL (Extract Transform Load) and data integration services.
• Experience being technical link between multiple vendors, technical teams, and the business to assess and make suggestions for improvements in integration landscape.
• Experience with SQL, Python, R, Java, C# or other programming languages.
• Experience with cloud-based Integration services and Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) such as MuleSoft, SAP BTP Integration Suite, Azure Integration Services.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

The following desirables:

• Desired Experience with serverless, low-code integration workflows such as LogicApps, 
• Good understanding of deep learning frameworks and big data technologies preferred.
• Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others.

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

Additional benefits for eligible international professional staff members include: 

• Paid holidays and leave, including 2.5 days of annual leave accrual per month and 10 official holidays per year 
• Paid parental leave (maternity, paternity and adoption) 
• Dependency allowance  
• Rental subsidy  
• Relocation support and lump sum 
• Home leave travel (air tickets or lump sum) 
• Education grant for children in school 
• United Nations-sponsored medical and dental insurance plan, pension plan, and optional life insurance plan  
• Access to professional development and learning programs, online learning, and learning path  
• Access to staff well-being and career development support  

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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 is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF’s active commitment to diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable women are encouraged to apply.

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

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.