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Qualifications

Overview of the programme

WHO India Country Office collaborates with the Government of India and relevant stakeholders within the framework of the collaborative Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS), to actively support the development and implementation of national health policies, strategies and plans aiming at promoting access to and utilization of affordable and quality health services and improving financial protection against health-related risks.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare – Government of India (MoHFW), with WHO technical support, has developed and implemented a web-enabled, near real-time electronic information system, called the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP). The vision of IHIP is an essential part of India’s National Digital Health Plan. IHIP is designed to serve as a single, centralized mechanism to integrate health information across all health and health-relevant data from various national programs and entities.

Underlying Values and Core Functions of WHO

WHO’s mandate revolves around six (6) leadership priorities specifying (i) advancing universal health coverage (ii) health related sustainable development goals (iii) addressing the challenge of non-communicable diseases and mental health, violence and injuries and disabilities (iv) implementing the provisions of the International Health Regulations (2005) (v) increasing access to quality, safe, efficacious and affordable medical products (vi) addressing the social, economic and environmental determinants of health.

The South – East Asia Region (SEAR) of WHO is made up of 11 countries, with over 1.8 billion people, with India’s population of 1.3 billion. All the Member States of WHO/SEAR (Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, Maldives, Timor Leste, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Thailand), share the common value of the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental human right. All of WHO actions are based on this and rooted in the underlying values of equity, solidarity and participation.

Mission of the WHO Country Office for India

The mission of WHO India is to improve quality of life of the 1.3 billion people in India by supporting the government in eliminating vaccine preventable and other communicable diseases, reducing maternal and neonatal mortalities, promoting healthy lifestyles, addressing determinants of health, preparing and responding to health emergencies and strengthening health systems for UHC.

WHO Country Office for India has supported the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to design, develop and deploy the Integrated Health Information Platform. Currently under IHIP three modules are functional:

Health Management Information System (HMIS): It is a Government to Government (G2G) web-based Monitoring Information System that has been put in place by MoHFW to monitor the National Health Mission and other Health programmes and provide key inputs for policy formulation and appropriate program interventions.

Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP): This is the module developed within IHIP which enables real-time disease surveillance and reporting from any electronic device for 33 major outbreak-prone diseases.

Malaria (VBDC) module: IHIP module to monitor the malaria cases & control activities.

The current vacancy is to strengthen the IHIP IT team support to the MoHFW.

Description of Duties:

The incumbent will work under the overall guidance of the WHO Representative, Deputy Head of WHO Country Office for India, direct supervision of National Program Officer (Health Emergency & Response) and overall supervision of Team Leader – (Health Security and Emergency Response). S/he will have the following responsibilities in her/his assigned area of work:

A professional Database Administrator (DBA) will keep the database up and running smoothly 24/7 to provide a seamless flow of information throughout the platform & related applications, considering both backend data structure and frontend accessibility for end-users. The specific job responsibilities are:

1. Work in close coordination with IHIP IT team to understand the existing IHIP architecture, and to use the same for the new applications development
2. Build database systems of high availability and quality depending on each end user’s specialised role
3. Design and implement database in accordance to end users information needs and views
4. Define users and enable data distribution to the right user, in appropriate format and in a timely manner
5. Use high-speed transaction recovery techniques and backup data
6. Minimise database downtime and manage parameters to provide fast query responses
7. Provide proactive and reactive data management support and training to users
8. Determine, enforce and document database policies, procedures and standards
9. Monitor database performance, implement changes and apply new patches and versions when required
10. Provide technical and operational support for Database Servers, including logical and physical database design support, troubleshooting, performance monitoring, tuning, and optimizing.
11. Develop Stored Procedures and Database Triggers in support of application development.
12. Participate in the creation of development, staging, and production database instances, and the migration from one environment to another.
13. Responsible for writing, monitoring and maintain required shell scripts, batch jobs and system performance on Linux/Ubuntu Operating Systems.
14. Responsible for developer SQL code review to ensure queries are optimized and tuned to perform efficiently prior to production release.
15. Responsible for regular maintenance on databases (e.g., Vacuum, Reindexing, Archiving).
16. Responsible for pro-active remediation of database operational problems.
17. Responsible for Query tuning and preventative maintenance.
18. Other related duties as deemed essential to support IHIP lead technical architect.
19. Undertake any other activities / tasks as assigned by the supervisors.

QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED

Education:

Essential: Bachelor’s Degree in computer science or a Bachelor’s degree in computer applications or any related field.

Desirable: Post graduate degree in computer science and engineering or in any of the fields related to the functions of the post

WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from accredited institutions. The list can be accessed through this link: http://www.whed.net/

Experience:

Essential: One Year of Production Support experience in managing multi-server Database instances with PostgreSQL in Ubuntu environment, serving Java Spring Boot based Web applications out of which some experience of working with Health Information Systems for Government or similar requirements

Desirable:

• Experience designing database as per functional requirements, writing database functions for highly responsive queries, reports, dashboards.
• Familiar with Java Spring Boot, Angular Stack – to facilitate and support changes to development teams.
• Experience in production support for Government portals, managing cyber security threats with Server configurations and firewalls

Competencies:

• Teamwork
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Communication
• Producing results
• Moving forward in a changing environment
• Building and promoting partnerships across the organization and beyond

Functional Skills and Knowledge:

• Excellent understanding of IHIP or similar Health Information Platform
• Proven working experience as a Database Administrator
• Hands-on with database standards and end user applications
• Excellent knowledge of data backup, recovery, security, integrity and SQL
• Familiarity with database design, documentation, and coding
• Problem solving skills and ability to think algorithmically
• Hands on with PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Developer, PGADMIN, DBeaver,  Putty and Jasper Reports and other tools.
• Experience in use of APIs, Json data structures for data integrations with external systems.
• Hands on with Linux /Ubuntu Operating systems usage for writing shell scripts, scheduled jobs, monitoring VM performance.

Language Skills

Essential: Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English and working knowledge of at least one other national language will be an asset.

Remuneration:

Monthly remuneration is INR 1,48,472 taxable as per Indian laws and the appointment will be through Special Services Agreement (SSA) extendable subject to satisfactory performance and continuing need for the function. S/he could be posted anywhere in India as per the project needs.

Integrated Health Information Platform – Database Administrator is a national of the country (India) in which he/she is to serve, is recruited locally and is not subject to assignment to any official station outside the home country. Only Indian nationals should apply.

Additional Information:

• This Vacancy Notice may be used to fill similar positions at the same level.
• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test and interviews will be used as a form of screening
• WHO is committed to workforce diversity.
• WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter into practice.
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco.
• This post is subject to local recruitment and will be filled by persons recruited in the local commuting area of the duty station.
• In the event that your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO 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 through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.
• For information on WHO’s operations please visit: http://www.who.int.
• WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of final candidates.
• Any extension of appointment would be subject to programmatic requirements, performance of the incumbent and availability of funds.
• Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply.