Org. Setting and Reporting

UNRWA, the largest United Nations operation in the Middle East with over 30,000 staff working across five areas of operation, is looking for highly committed personnel wishing to make a change.

If you are looking for a rewarding opportunity to make a tangible difference for one of the most vulnerable communities in the world, UNRWA would like to hear from you.

The Head Software Development Section and Lead Solution Architect reports to the Deputy Director Digital Impact, Technology & Innovation Department.

Responsibilities

-Technical Leadership: Proactively and holistically leads solution architecture activities. Guides the development and oversight of solutions including projects, systems (applications, technologies, processes, information), and shared application services.

– Business Alignment: Understands and integrates business goals, objectives, and outcomes into an architectural blueprint. Provides essential leadership, analysis, and design support for technology solutions, ensuring alignment with architectural governance and standards.

– Innovation and Strategy: Acts as a change agent within Digital Impact, Technology & Innovation Department (DITID), creating a culture of modern software development and fostering innovation. Develops prototypes using cutting-edge technologies, ensuring that solutions align with UNRWA’s portfolio of current and future approaches. Understands emerging technology trends and disruptions and their practical application to enable new and evolving business and operating models. Analyzes the business-IT environment, detects critical deficiencies, legacy systems, and technical debt, and recommends solutions for improvement. Facilitates the evaluation and selection of software product standards and services, as well as the design of standard and custom software configurations.

– Team Management: Provides supervision to the Software Development and Solution Architecture Section staff in Amman and Gaza, ensuring efficient operations of UNRWA’s software applications. Oversees and manages the application & architecture development and support, including UNRWA’s software factory in the IT Service Center (ITSC) at HQ
Gaza.

– Collaboration: Collaborates with internal teams, field teams, stakeholders, and external partners to translate requirements into functional and technical solutions, thereby ensuring seamless alignment with organizational goals and strategies. Supports a community of practice (CoP) and provides guidance to agile teams and product owners to align with enterprise architecture governance and assurance.

– Technical Execution: Designs and implements new cloud-native applications and modifies existing code to support scalability and integration with emerging technologies, Cloud capabilities, and APIs, ensuring adherence to information security and data privacy
best practices throughout the development process.

Competencies

UN Core Values of Integrity, Professionalism and Respect for Diversity, and Core Competencies of Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results apply by default.

Applying Technical Expertise
Delivering Results
Creating and Innovating
Innovating and Taking Risks
Formulating Strategies and Concepts
Leading and Supervising
Analyzing
Ability to work effectively in a team environment and lead cross-functional teams.

Excellent planning and organizational skills, with a proven ability to collaborate with various stakeholders and align technical solutions with business objectives.

For guidance on how to prepare for competency-based interviews: https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx?viewtype=AYI

Education

An advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) from an accredited educational institution in Data Science, Software Engineering, Software Architecture, Computer Science, Information Systems, or related disciplines.

Job – Specific Qualification

Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert is desirable.

Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert is desirable.

Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) is desirable.

TOGAF Certification (The Open Group Architecture Framework) is desirable.

Project Management (PMP or PRINCE2) is desirable.

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) is desirable.

ITIL is desirable.

Work Experience

At least 8 years of progressively responsible and relevant professional experience in
Information Management, Strategy Development and/or driving digital transformation
through data-driven initiatives is required.

Proficiency in backend development languages such as Java, C#, or Python, with a
demonstrable portfolio of scalable and innovative solutions is required.

Knowledge of frontend web development languages like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS,
emphasizing user-centered design principles is required.

Experience with various database technologies like SQL, MongoDB, or Oracle and a clear
understanding of data architecture and management practices is required.

Strong understanding of system development life cycle methodologies (e.g., waterfall,
agile) including practical experience in implementing and overseeing these methodologies across diverse teams and projects is required.

Familiarity with IT Service Management (ITSM) and IT infrastructure library (ITIL)
frameworks preferably with certification or evidence of hands-on experience is required.

Experience in cloud-based technologies and platforms, such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, reflecting the emphasis on cloud-native solutions is required.

Unless already serving as an international staff member in the UN Common System, at least two continuous years of relevant international experience outside UNRWA, and outside the country(s) of citizenship is required.

Knowledge of the mandate and mission of UNRWA as well as the cultural, political and
social environment in which it operates is desirable

Work experience with public sector (education, health, registration, and social services)
information management systems, and work experience in an international context is desirable.

Languages

Excellent command of spoken and written English.

Assessment

Evaluation of qualified candidates may include an assessment exercise which may be followed by competency-based interview.

Special Notice

Type of Contract and duration: 2 years, with the possibility of further extension.

The incumbent will be required to travel throughout the Agency’s area of operations in the Middle East.

Applicants have to complete the Personal History Profile (PHP) in Inspira in order to be considered. The PHP should be completed with full relevant work experience as per the requirements in the Job Opening, in order to be considered.

UNRWA welcomes applications from qualified candidates with disabilities.

A roster may be created from the selection exercise, and successful candidates may become eligible for appointment to the same post or a similar post.

Join our eco-friendly organization dedicated to environment sustainability and targeting to be plastic free by 2025.

Equivalency:
A first level university degree in combination with additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
NB: work experience alone or formal qualifications with no relevant work experience are not considered an acceptable combination.

UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN member states, regional bodies, business foundations and individual contributions. The mission of UNRWA is to help Palestine refugees achieve their full potential in human development under the difficult circumstances in which they live.

For more details on UNRWA, please visit: https://www.unrwa.org/

United Nations Considerations

Staff members are subject to the authority of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA and to assignment by him or her.

UNRWA is committed to achieving gender parity at all levels of staffing under the current UN-wide gender agenda and strongly encourages applications from qualified applicants from under-represented groups.

At UNRWA, the paramount consideration in the recruitment and employment of staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, with due regard to geographic diversity. All employment decisions are made on the basis of qualifications and organizational needs. UNRWA is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. Reasonable accommodation for applicants with disabilities may be provided to support participation in the recruitment process when requested and indicated in the application.

UNRWA Considerations
UNRWA staff are expected to uphold the highest standards of efficiency, competence, neutrality, impartiality and integrity. This includes respect for and commitment to human rights, diversity and non-violent means of dealing with all kinds of conflict. Only persons who fully and unconditionally commit to these values should consider applying for UNRWA jobs. Candidates will not be considered for employment with UNRWA if they have committed violations of international human rights law, violations of international humanitarian law, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment, or if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have been involved in the commission of any of these acts. Candidates who have committed crimes other than minor traffic offences may not be considered for employment. The Agency may disqualify applicants who have separated for reason of misconduct, who left a UN Agency while misconduct processes were pending, or who appear on the UN Sanctions List.
UNRWA is a non-smoking work environment.

Applicants are urged to follow carefully all instructions available in the online recruitment platform, inspira. For more detailed guidance, applicants may refer to the Manual for the Applicant, which can be accessed by clicking on “Manuals” hyper-link on the upper right side of the inspira account-holder homepage.

The evaluation of applicants will be conducted on the basis of the information submitted in the application according to the evaluation criteria of the job opening and the applicable internal legislations of the United Nations including the Charter of the United Nations, resolutions of the General Assembly, the Staff Regulations and Rules, administrative issuances and guidelines. Applicants must provide complete and accurate information pertaining to their personal profile and qualifications according to the instructions provided in inspira to be considered for the current job opening. No amendment, addition, deletion, revision or modification shall be made to applications that have been submitted. Candidates under serious consideration for selection will be subject to reference checks to verify the information provided in the application.

Job openings advertised on the Careers Portal will be removed at 11:59 p.m. (New York time) on the deadline date.