IT Operations Officer, NOB at World Food Programme (WFP)

Requisition ID: 153741

Job type: Fixed Term

Organizational Context

• This job is found in the Country Offices (COs), Regional Bureaux (RBs), and Headquarters (HQ), and typically report to a more senior Information Technology (IT) Officer, Regional/Country Director or the designate.
• Job holders operate with minimal supervision, and provide guidance to junior staff to ensure that objectives are achieved.
• They are responsible for a broad range of daily activities, analytical work and deliver technical support by modifying existing systems, and resolving straightforward issues/problems. They also develop and/or support the usage of systems and applications, data and databases.

Job Purpose

• To deliver efficient and effective IT and Telecommunications (TC) services, contributing to sound, innovative solutions that enable staff to deliver food assistance to beneficiaries, in line with WFP’s strategy.

Key Accountabilities (not all-inclusive)

• Contribute to the development of plans and budgets, and manage the deployment of IT/TC systems aligned with business needs, in accordance with WFP corporate standards.
• Monitor and maintain IT/TC systems and networks, ensuring appropriate data security and access controls considering both local and wide area network issues; and supporting users to get maximum benefits from them.
• Install and configure new computer hardware for improving and upgrading system performance; contribute to technology upgrades as required.
• Contribute to technical specifications and tender documents that support the procurement of IT/TC equipment and services at minimum cost, in line with WFP rules and regulations.
• Collate and analyse data to contribute to the preparation of accurate reports on IT/TC activities, investments and costs, identifying ideas to increase cost-efficiencies where possible.
• Maintain and develop technical expertise and understanding of industry developments.
• Provide advice to managers and users, understanding and resolving issues, and ensuring IT policies, procedures, systems and tools are correctly applied to support them.
• Guide and supervise more junior staff, acting as a point of referral and supporting them with more complex analysis and queries.
• Contribute to the capability building of staff through the review and/or design of appropriate training programs aimed at developing skills/knowledge in IT and Telecommunications.
• Coordinate with other UN agencies in order to align activities and maximise possibilities of inter-agency collaboration in the field of IT and TC.
• Interact effectively with internal and external colleagues and user groups to understand their needs and provide appropriate technical support.
• Follow standard emergency preparedness and contingency planning practices to ensure WFP is able to maintain basic IT services and/or quickly respond and deploy resources to affected areas at the onset of a crisis.
• Contribute to the preparation of operational plans and deliver resource requirements at the onset of an emergency.
• Other as required.

4ps Core Organisational Capabilities
Purpose:

• Understand and communicate the Strategic Objectives: Understands WFP’s Strategic Objectives and the link to own work objectives.
• Be a force for positive change: Flexibly adapts individual contributions to accommodate changes in direction from supervisors and internal/external changes (such as evolving needs of beneficiaries, new requirements of partners).
•  Make the mission inspiring to our team: Recognizes and shares with team members the ways in which individual contributions relate to WFP’s mission.
•  Make our mission visible in everyday actions: Sets own goals in alignment with WFP’s overall operations, and is able to communicate this link to others.

People:

• Look for ways to strengthen people's skills: Assesses own strengths and weaknesses to increase self-awareness, and includes these in conversations on own developmental needs.
• Create an inclusive culture: Participates in open dialogue, and values the diverse opinion of others, regardless of background, culture, experience, or country assignment.
• Be a coach & provide constructive feedback: Proactively seeks feedback and coaching to build confidence, and develop and improve individual skills.
• Create an “I will”/”We will” spirit: Participates in accomplishing team activities and goals in the face of challenging circumstances.

Performance:

• Encourage innovation & creative solutions: Shows willingness to explore and experiment with new ideas and approaches in own work.
• Focus on getting results: Consistently delivers results within individual scope of work on time, on budget and without errors.
• Make commitments and make good on commitments: Commits to upholding individual accountabilities and responsibilities in the face of ever-changing country or functional priorities.
• Be Decisive: Makes rational decisions about individual activities when faced with uncertain circumstances, including in times of ambiguity regarding information or manager direction.

Partnership:

• Connect and share across WFP units: Seeks to understand and adapt to internal or cross-unit teams’ priorities and preferred working styles.
• Build strong external partnerships: Demonstrates ability to understand and appropriately respond to and/or escalate needs of external partners.
• Be politically agile & adaptable: Portrays an informed and professional demeanor toward internal and external partners and stakeholders.
• Be clear about the value WFP brings to partnerships: Provides operational support on analyses and assessments that quantifies and demonstrates WFP’s unique value as a partner.

Functional Capabilities
Capability Name - Description of the behaviour expected for the proficiency level:

• Governance, Strategy and Architecture - Shares knowledge of IT governance process and system architecture development with team and analyses current designs for improvements and enhancements while ensuring compliance with legislation and specifies any required changes.
• Change Implementation, Project Management, Planning and Optimization - Demonstrates the ability to collate time, resource, and budgetary estimates from multiple stakeholders to design plans for complex projects, implementation activities and manages the change control procedure, while ensuring that project deliverables are completed.
• Technical Expertise - Exhibits deep technical knowledge in area of expertise and actively transfers knowledge to strengthen the skill base across the function; considers the most appropriate use of technical resources to ensure skill development and optimization of resource allocation.
• Service Management - Consistently monitors performance and delivers high quality technology and services to meet the needs of customers, taking responsibility for the design, installation, upgrading, operation, control, maintenance and effective use of IT infrastructure components.
• Client Management - Applies thorough understanding of the business, customers, new IT technologies and techniques to implement improved solutions and define service levels, standards and the monitoring process for client service staff.
• Procurement and Contract Management - Able to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of alternative technologies and vendor service level agreements to consolidate options and assess suitability.

Standard Minimum Qualifications

• Education: Advanced University Degree in Computer Science or other relevant field, or First University degree with additional years of related work experience or trainings/courses.
• Experience: 3 or more years of postgraduate professional experience in relevant field.
• Language: International Professional: 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.
• National Professional: Fluency (level C) in English language and the duty station’s language, if different.

Desired Experiences for Entry into the Role:

• Has coordinated and managed small or medium projects at HQ and field Office.
• Has assisted in change management procedures, activities and processes at HQ and field.
• Has assisted in establishing standards and protocols for service excellence within own domain or at a HQ and field Office.
• Has successfully performed installation or testing of new hardware for improving or upgrading systems performance.
• Has proven experience analyzing service management results and developing service enhancement recommendations.
• Has keen ground-level experience implementing IT and telecoms systems in emergencies.

Other Specific Job Requirements

• This section is optional to describe additional responsibilities & knowledge required for the specific job.