Job Title: IT Officer Organisation: Goodman International Ltd Duty Station: Kampala,…
Lead Programmer / Mobile Software Team Leader IT Degree Job at UNICEF
Job Title: Lead Programmer/Mobile Software Team Leader
Organisation: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Level: L3/NOC Duty Station: Kampala Duration: 11 months,
Background (attach documents if necessary):
Overview:
UNICEF Uganda in Kampala desires to recruit a Lead Programmer/Mobile Software Team Leader consultant to its Technology for Development Unit. The candidate should have proven experience in the application and development of mobile and associated web technology to support the work of an international organization.
The consultant will be responsible for serving as Lead Programmer/Mobile Software Team Leader to the Technology for Development (T4D) Unit, technically advising and leading software development across all mobile technology based projects taken on by the Uganda Country Office’s Country Program, with a special focus on mobile technology for health facilities and community workers, education monitoring, registration, supply monitoring and social mobilization, but with ability to remain flexible and adjust to the evolving needs of the country program and partner’s needs, including the Government of Uganda, youth organizations, community-based and faith-based organizations.
The consultant may also be asked to train and guide other outside consultants in the development of web platforms and dashboards that show data and messages gathered via mobile phones.
The consultant will assist in the creation and implementation of training/capacity-building plans for local developers, and outreach to local software companies, incubators, and educational institutions.
Purpose of Assignment:
Consultant will act as working manger, coordinating the work of in and out of house developers, as well as doing direct programming as needed.
· Working with ALIVE team and the T4D Project Management Specialist, lead small team of software programmers to expand mobile health reporting in Uganda, with a focus on scaling up, integration with the Ministry of Health DHIS2 database and on the long-term goal of creating of a sustainable suite of mHealth applications for VHTs and Health Centres (following on work done in 2010 and 2011)
· In consultation with LEARNING team, education partners and user groups, lead a team of software programmers to expand mobile based education monitoring and reporting in Uganda, with a focus of scaling up to additional districts in Uganda (ongoing from 2010)
· In consultation with the U-report project manager and other partners, lead a team of software programmers to expand the U-report crowd sourcing software, with a view of scaling up to bigger volumes of reporters and involvement of other interest groups.
· Coordinate work with consultants (e.g. Equatel) and other partners (telecoms) to establish and support software for publicly accessible USSD enabled phone booths which will be used by communities and individuals without mobile devices to participate in UNICEF programs like U-Report, MTrac etc
· As needed, regional support for UNICEF Uganda-based software that is needed by other country offices
· Provide local training, capacity building, and technology partner outreach to the Ugandan technology community (ongoing from 2010)
Description of assignment: (provide detail and in quantitative terms, add pages if required) Tasks/End
Product/ Deliverables
1. Oversee and review/sign-off on tasks of internal software developers, including feature development for U-Report, EdTrac, MTrac and CVS / Monthly reports by junior developers, signed off on and submitted to head of T4D and Communications
2. Contingent on agreements with MoH, collaborate with Resource Center technical specialists to draft recommendation for standard API data exchange/aggregation for mHealth-related projects / 3-5 page technical recommendations submitted to MoH and T4D, with accompanying clear non-technical explanations for each recommendation
3. Work with internal T4D technical team to establish an integrated and robust diagnostic or early warning system that alerts UNICEF/T4D team of any technical break down in communication between UNICEF systems, SMS aggregators and the Telecoms/ 3-5 page technical documentation of the early warning system. Software code, test coverage and documentation uploaded to github and RapidSMS Google group.
4. Work with internal T4D technical team to establish a robust and integrated systems backup solutions and high availability mirrors/redundancy for internal Unicef hosted systems using leading and reputable technology and techniques / 3-5 page technical documentation of the Unicef T4D systems high availability setup and backup solutions. Software code, test coverage and documentation uploaded to github and RapidSMS Google group.
5. Work with internal T4D team of developers and system administrator to establish robust hosting solution for the U-Report system including fine-tuning the backend PostgreSQL database, query analysis and optimization to greatly improve the responsiveness of the current U-Report application / 3-5 page technical documentation of the new U-Report hosting server including system administration manual, deployment and maintenance guides for the server. Software code, test coverage and documentation uploaded to github and RapidSMS Google group.
6. Coordinate and supervise external consultant in the design and establishment of a Health Patient Tracking system including the piloting of the project in at least 2 districts / 2-3 pages technical recommendations submitted to UNICEF and report on progress of work on works carried out on the Health Patient Tracking system
7. Provide technical guidance and oversight of the development of the 1000 Days mHealth tool, including regular code reviews of any software developed by external parties / 2-3 pages technical recommendations submitted to UNICEF and report on progress of work on works carried out on the 1000 Days mHealth tool
8. Provide technical support to UNICEF ALIVE team with hosting solutions for initiatives including mTrac and 1000 Days / 2-3 pages technical recommendations for hosting of mTrac and 1000 Days mHealth tool submitted to UNICEF 9. Provide technical support to UNICEF ALIVE team with the MoH’s eHealth interoperability strategy, including guidance on development of health facility, provider and client registries, and integration of UNICEF systems with external tools including DHIS2 and OpenMRS / 3-5 page technical recommendations submitted to MoH and T4D, with accompanying clear non-technical explanations for each recommendation
10. Coordinate development of API’s and software updates to support integration and data sharing between existing UNICEF T4D applications, such as U-report, mTrac, EduTrac and DevTrac / 3-5 page technical documentation of the interoperability and data sharing layers. Sofware code, test coverage and documentation submitted to github and the Rapidsms Google group.
11. Work with the T4D software team and the hardware innovations team to develop and deploy toilet usage and hand-washing tracking module and integrate it in the existing education monitoring system (EduTrac) / 2-3 page technical documentation of the toilet tracking system. Software code, test coverage and documentation submitted to github and the Rapidsms Google group
12. Improve the design and navigation of the current education monitoring system including a thorough cleanup of the data visualization modules and the backend formulae for data aggregation / Software code, test coverage and documentation submitted to github and the Rapidsms Google group
13. Working with the T4D internal software development team and the Unicef LEARNING section, facilitate the roll out of the EduTrac system to 21 more districts on top of the current 14 districts in Uganda / 3-5 page report on the roll out process and lessons learned. Technical documentation detailing recommendations for improvement, sustainability and scalability plan for the EduTrac system
14. Working with the T4D internal software development team, design and deploy data sharing linkages between the Education monitoring system; EduTrac with Emis and DEMIS / 3-5 page technical documentation of the interoperability and data sharing layers. Software code, test coverage and documentation submitted to github and the Rapidsms Google group
15. Sustainability strategy and report to upper management to strengthen UNICEF and partner technical capacity ability to support ongoing and implement new T4D projects, including identification of key outsourcing resources and strategic partnerships / 4-6 page report, with annexes
Payment plan
Monthly payment based on deliverables, certified upon monthly review with supervisor. 5. Other A laptop, desk, phone, unicef.org email address and related standard office supplies will be provided.
For work-related travel, DSA will be paid at the standard rate.
Consultant must provide his/her own insurance
Qualifications, Skills & Experience:
Education and experience required:
· At least 5 years experience with software team management
· Experience in at least one modern object-oriented programming language.
· Experience in developing and maintaining applications using a modern web framework.
· Experience with mobile technology: kannel, IVR, etc. RapidSMS experience a plus
· Capable of deploying and maintaining software remotely on an Ubuntu Linux server. Knowledge of other distributions is advantageous.
· Knowledge of development framework in which UNICEF operates, and understanding of the constraints of working in a developing-world environment. This should include experience developing low-bandwidth applications in difficult work environments.
· Ability to align technical goals with UNICEF strategic goals – that always will mean prioritizing UNICEF’s mission over any particular technology
· Willing to travel (sometimes on short notice) and develop software in the field, directly with end-users Desired:
· Experienced in evaluating the technical competency and capacity of other developers and companies
· Experienced developing software as part of a distributed team using Git or Subversion, especially in an open-source environment
· Have at least two years of experience developing software in East Africa, and live in the region
How to apply:
Send letter of interest, CV and links to relevant examples of code to ugderecruit@unicef.org
Applications must be received by 7 October 2012
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