Information Communication Technology Specialist, Nairobi

Closing date: Friday, 8 May 2015

Information Comm. Technology Specialist, P-3, Nairobi, Kenya, ESARO
Vacancy No: E-VN-2015-000749
Duty Station: Nairobi
Country: Kenya
Region: ESARO
Job Level: P-3
Position: 00090670
Application Close: 08-May-15
Contract Type: Long-term Staff (FT)
Purpose of the Position
Background and Organisational Setting: In addition to regional oversight and innovation functions, and as part of a common services approach, the Regional ICT Section provides support to the UNICEF Kenya Country Office (KCO) and the East and Southern Regional Office (ESARO) in the field of ICT (information and communication technology), including information systems for programmes, internal operations and management. The section is responsible for planning, developing and implementing cost effective, innovative and secure ICT services, namely networks services, security, servers and storage, telephony, video and directory services; for setting and enforcing common ICT standards and for managing central ICT services for the two UNICEF offices.
This position sits within the ESARO Regional ICT Section and manages the ICT Services Team consisting of a customer services function and an ICT Infrastructure function.
The ICT Specialist is accountable for effective technical leadership for ICT systems management and administration in accordance with the UNICEF ICT policy, strategy, security guidelines ensuring the compliance to corporate standard architecture and ICT security.
Specifically, the ICT Specialist is responsible for:

• The overall design, implementation, support and maintenance of the ICT infrastructure for the two offices. As the team lead for the UNICEF Kenya ICT Infrastructure Team, s/he participates in implementation of global ICT projects as well as in the support and operation of the local data centre(s), and network infrastructure.
• Setting standards, providing first and second level support to users' desktop computing environment, delivery of the UNICEF IT training programme and promoting customer oriented services. S/he coordinates the management and implementation of desktop services, including their architecture, processes and policies to meet current and future business requirements. S/he aims at achieving the delivery of agreed levels of services to customers in compliance with best practices defined by international standards, in particular ITIL.

Main Purpose and Role
The ICT Specialist is

1. a manager, providing guidance and managerial support to the team, and planning human, technical and financial resources with a view to achieving efficient and effective results;
2. a communicator, engaging customers and management in dialogue and consensus building;
3. a substantive expert, leveraging knowledge and experience in the field of technical operations and support and on all aspects of ICT Customer Services operations.

Reporting to the Regional Chief of ICT, the ICT Specialist has front line responsibility for management, planning, coordination, communication, documentation, including but not limited to, providing leadership to the UNICEF Kenya ICT Services team; developing work plans and budget, taking the lead in the development / delivery of ICT services through best practices methods, designs techniques for networking implementation and operations, ensuring effective delivery of LAN/WAN, Telephony, Video, Servers/Storage and Directory Services ; developing and implementing processes and operational procedures, developing documentations for RFP and developing and maintaining technical systems documentation.
S/he is also responsible for Customer Service Section taking overall responsibility for the provision of first and second level support for approximately 250 end users.
Internally, the ICT Specialist liaises directly with own Service Delivery Team on a daily basis as well as with end users to clarify, analyse and resolve reported issues. S/he may also liaise with external service providers such as UNON and Mobile Network Operators, as required, to resolve escalated infrastructure issues. S/he ensures that the services provided are monitored and maintained to meet established quality levels and to meet standards as defined within the negotiated and agreed service level agreements. In addition, the ICT Specialist ensures efficient design and delivery of the KCO and ESACO ICT training programme, which covers standard desktop applications and specialized business applications.
Key Expected Results
1. Management

• Provide management to the ICT Services Team, ensuring each person delivers against already defined objectives, in particular providing expert technical guidance and creating an empowering work environment focused on, and coordinated with, ICT priorities, fostering high performance, motivating staff, promoting a culture of innovation, and efficiency towards the delivery of stable and safe ICT services for the UNICEF Kenya and ESARO users.
• Ensure effective knowledge sharing within the ICT Team, recognize and address competency development needs, and ensure that the technical expertise needed for best practice service delivery is continuously maintained; Manage, guide and develop staff and consultants, and plan and monitor the deployment of individuals to ensure that they are contributing effectively whilst developing skills and experience.
• Ensure evaluation of ICT systems to ensure the strategic use of information technology and resources, improved performance and wider learning at Country Office level, Audit recommendations on ICT are properly advised and implemented.

2. Planning, Coordination and Communication

• Develop work plans and budgets for the ICT services, managing expenditures against agreed priorities and ensuring the cost effective use of funds and delivery within timeframe and budget, including integrating knowledge of medium-term technical solutions into business requirements and providing clear, accurate and regular reporting on activities and costs.
• Oversee the planning and management of ICT projects, ensuring the application of sound project management and control methodologies, and coordination with other project resource requirements, collaboration with other UN ICT teams, with particular attention to planning, implementation, validation and further improvement of ICT services collectively, sharing knowledge and experience with counterparts and other UN organizations, with a view to identifying the most cost effective solutions to meet business requirements.
• With guidance and insight from the Regional ICT Chief, develop country specific policies and standards and provide advice to ensure that the ICT plan and policies are integrated into UNICEF's overall ICT strategy and plans.

3. Technical and Strategic Delivery of ICT services

• Ensure effective delivery of ICT services as per agreed Service Level Agreements.
• Take a lead in development and delivery of ICT infrastructure and business solutions, work towards the continuous improvement of performance, security and cost parameters, employ best practices methods, designs, and techniques for solutions implementation and maintenance, meet the needs of UNICEF Kenya and ESARO and ensure the integrity, confidentiality and accessibility of respective data.

4. Service Management

• Assist in defining service catalogue, service level agreements, costing models and provide regular reporting on services as well as recommendations on possible improvements.
• Ensure delivery of standardized desktop and laptop solutions to users, including hardware configurations and software images, to enable effective work across the KCO and ESARO.
• Ensure that service level agreements, contracts and negotiations with both internal and external IT suppliers such as UNON and MNOs meet business needs and that committed service levels are delivered.
• Plan, co-ordinate and control the customer service activities of the ICT Section to meet organizational and operational objectives.
• Actively engage with users at all levels of the organization in the effort to ensure open lines of communication and insightful engagement with all customers.
• Handle user's complaints if the Service Desk staff is unable to solve them or any major incidents, interacting with users in order to provide information in response to inquiries, concerns and requests about IT products and services.
• Identify and implement strategies to improve quality of service and productivity.
• Analyse statistics or other data to determine the level of customer service being provided.
• Assess and document the current and potential future needs for ICT services and solutions within KCO and ESARO; Provide internal consulting support to field operations in Kenya in the identification and documentation of solution requirements as well as support the development, delivery, support and maintenance of appropriate solutions.
• Ensure effective access to and identity management for LAN and corporate applications including Microsoft Office 365.
• Design, implementation and maintenance of all data centre infrastructure components, ensuring adherence to best-practice IT/Cyber security principles and approaches.
• Monitor the ICT infrastructure and systems, to improve up-time, pro-active resolution of potential issues, and timely response to security and operational incidents.
• Monitor the LAN and WAN infrastructure to ensure systems functionality, security and availability.
• Support the effective unified communications and collaborations including voice, data and video, and provide ongoing monitoring of troubleshooting and enhancement of the effectiveness, reliability and broader ICT telecommunications coordination with NYHQ.
• Ensure ICT security level monitoring and escalations procedures/processes; Monitor security related sites for relevant information on new threats / risks which may impact normal ICT operations. Perform periodic reviews / monitoring for non-compliance. Review security logs and report suspicious and/or unauthorized activities.
• Support and implement tools for information/knowledge management and knowledge-sharing to provide the vital and strategic information for managing and supporting the Country Programme the goals and targets of the Country Programme.
• Support KCO's emergency preparedness and response efforts including participation as needed in early warning, contingency planning, preparedness activities, and response from the initial stage of emergency situations to stabilisation.

5. Procurement

• Carry out market research, costing and acquisition of potential Infrastructure, Security and Communications solutions and / or components, recommending hardware and software.

6. Documentation

• Develop and implement processes, SLAs and operations procedures to ensure effective management and operations of UNICEF ICT Infrastructure, Security and Communications, including monitoring and compliance with such and reports to management on regular basis.
• Develop documentation for Requests for Information, Requests for Proposals, Contract Review Committees.
• Develop and maintain up-to-date procedural and technical documentation.

7. Partnerships

• Provide sound advice to senior management for decision making, technical guidance and support to staff in the ICT Section and staff in other KCO and ESARO sections.
• Liaise with ICT colleagues in other UN agencies as part of inter-agency and/or Delivering-as-One activities.
• Compare best practices with external specialists and counterparts in other international organizations, and manage the provision of agreed services with third party service providers such as UNON.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

• An advanced university degree (Master's) in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a directly-related technical field(s) is required.
• A minimum of five (5) years of relevant work experience, at the national and international levels, in Information Communication Technology (ICT) or a directly-related technical field(s), is required.
• Prior experience in project management frameworks such as ITIL and/or PRINCE 2 is desirable.
• Prior work experience in an developing country is considered an asset.
• Prior work experience in emergencies is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English (written & verbal) is required.
• Knowledge of an additional UN Language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) is considered an asset.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

• Communicates effectively to varied audiences, including during formal public speaking.
• Consistently achieves high-level results, managing and delivering projects on-time and on-budget.
• Creates and encourages a climate of team-working and collaboration in a multi-cultural environment.
• Analyzes and integrates potentially conflicting numerical, verbal and other data from a number of sources.
• Demonstrates, applies and shares expert technical knowledge across the organization.
• Translates strategic direction into plans and objectives.
• Has good leadership and supervisory skills; co-ordinates group activities, ensuring that roles within the team are clear.
• Sets clearly defined objectives and plans activities for self, own team or department.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.

More information and application details