DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

9 January 2025-23:59-GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Rome)

WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

ABOUT WFP

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP’s values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website: https://www.wfp.org and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok.

WHY JOIN WFP?

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.
• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.
• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.
• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

Job Title: Foundry Technology Lead

Type of Contract: Regular Consultancy (CST 2)

Unit/Division: Global Data Office, TECX

Duty Station (City, Country): Remote

Duration: 11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. WFP Technology Division (TEC, formerly known as IT) is the digital business engine of the World Food Programme, providing the business with multi-pronged and resilient technical capabilities able to respond with the agility required in humanitarian operations, be they manmade or in a natural disaster setting. TEC Division continues to increase its activities to meet the constantly growing demand from the organization and implement the initiatives related to digital transformation.

WFP has launched its digital transformation program with a strong focus on utilizing data for better informed decision-making. We are investing heavily in our deployment of Palantir Foundry, a leading data integration platform to enable solving optimization problems with data at scale, alongside platforms for deep field data collection, visual analytics, and corporate reporting.

Under the supervision of the DOTS Program Lead, (TEC) Division, the Foundry Technology Lead will be a key team member in leading the design, implementation, operation and optimization of engineering services to support WFP HQ and field offices worldwide. In addition, this role will function as the anchor for the team of developers that are currently part of the Foundry work program. In this capacity, this role will be responsible for setting the bar and ambition for the rest of the team, ensuring the long-term success of the overall output as well as individual growth for members of the team.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Programming & Technical

• Review and design overall Foundry pipeline structure and architecture
• Review all workflow designs and approve budget (relevant to developer and maintenance resources).
• Monitor health checks and performance, and assess pipeline changes on a larger scale, including upstream and downstream implications and communicate findings to engineering team
• Optimize Resource Management of DOTS (computing and storage)
• Own development/coding best practices and standards in the Foundry Platform
• Manage and run the technical part of the release process (i.e. merge to master), follow up on required code changes with developers prior to release
• Work closely with the release manager to bridge the gap between business needs and tasks and technical implementation
• Identify gaps and develop engineering testing processes
• Ensure that the platform is developed with a holistic and long-term approach in mind — tactically this will -among other things, translate to manage the overall tech debt and refactoring efforts needed and weigh that against new developments efforts on a larger scale
• Liaise with non-technical stakeholders such as UI designers, business POCs and surface needs to Foundry program management
• Own the definition of Ready and ensure processes and documentation are optimized for handing over DOTS workflow to maintenance.
• Define the hub and spoke services for engineering to implementation teams and user groups.

Leadership & Management

• Overall supervision of the Maintenance Team working with the Maintenance Lead to ensure alignment across the activities for active projects and maintenance and ensure correct level of knowledge transfer. Optimize the maintenance model together with the Maintenance Lead,
• Manage the developers as they work on projects. Monitor cadence, ensure peer reviews are conducted, run retrospectives, and mentor developers. Provide regular performance assessments.
• Promote transparency and accountability across all developer streams by building and improving standard operating models for engineering team(s)
• Develop methodology and practice to assess engineering team skills meet best practices
• Assigning tasks with the Foundry Release Managers in weekly/biweekly sprints and ensuring that team’s workload is feasible
• Resource allocation across multiple work streams
• Onboarding/offboarding processes for new developers defined and adjusted (running technical interviews, etc.)
• Provide feedback to individual team members on how they can improve their work
• Quarterly feedback to LTA Vendors on performance of contractors.
• Bridge between Platform Governance team(s) and implementation teams – making sure the implementation teams adhere to internal governance standards and proactively communicates problems or improvements that can be made to the existing governance processes that affects technical teams.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• Demonstrated progress on delivery of duties as outlined above, with relevant documentation.
• Processes for developer hiring, onboarding, upskilling and offboarding defined, implemented, and documented.
• Processes for code reviews, code standards, refactoring pipelines, and performance management and monitoring implemented and in continuous improvement.
• Pipeline architecture and structure, Workflow designs and review of data ecosystem application designs reviewed and approved.
• All tasks and workload monitored and tracked consistently in Azure DevOps
• HR resource management:
  • Work with Maintenance Lead to establish workplan and KPI, keep regular meeting to discuss progress and issues, and assess performance.
  • Work with developers to establish workplan and KPI, communicate on progress and mentor and coach developers as they mature their capabilities working on DOTS.
• Weekly updates on progress of activities and escalation of issues and input into monthly updates.
• Other duties as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advanced University Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, Information Management, Data Management, or other relevant disciplines.

Experience, Knowledge & Skills:

• At least 6 years of experience working with software development
• At least 4 years of experience working on data and analytics projects
• At least 4 years of experience with Python, PySpark, Java, or C#
• At least 4 years of leading and mentoring technical team members
• Experience with data integration or analytics solutions such as Palantir Foundry, Alteryx, Talend, SAP Hana, Tableau, etc.
• Experience working with database technologies such as Postgres, Hadoop, Amazon S3, Oracle, SQL Server, etc.
• Experience with agile/scrum methodologies
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent problem solving and analytical skills
• Solid technical understanding of data management & ETL
• Strong Project or Product Management skills.

Languages:

Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or WFP’s working language, Portuguese.

WFP LEADERSHIP FRAMEWORK

WFP Leadership Framework guides to the common standards of behavior that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.

Click here to access WFP Leadership Framework

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

WFP is dedicated to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our recruitment process is inclusively crafted to welcome candidates of all backgrounds, celebrating diversity and ensuring a respectful environment for all. We aim for an accessible and fair recruitment journey. Should you need any reasonable accommodations or have accessibility concerns, please reach out to us confidentially at global.inclusion@wfp.org. Our DEI team is here to ensure your full participation in our recruitment process.

NO FEE DISCLAIMER

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.

REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete, and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.
• Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language
• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter
• Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time
• Please contact us at global.hrerecruitment@wfp.org in case you face any challenges with submitting your application
• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements