The UNICEF Innovation Fund has been specifically designed to finance early stage, open-source technology that can benefit children. The core motivation of the Innovation Fund is to identify "clusters" or portfolios of initiatives around emerging technology - so that UNICEF can both shape markets and also learn about and guide these technologies to benefit children. We invest in solutions that can impact the lives of the most vulnerable children. We find these solutions clustered around $100 billion industries in frontier technology spaces, such as: UAVs, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, nano-satellites, and human dynamics. With SD$35M (+ 2267 ETH + 8 BTC) raised to date, the Innovation Fund is scaling its investment portfolio with the aim of investing in 20 start-ups every year, and provides funding to CO-led projects. The current portfolio of companies consists of several cohorts developing and piloting solutions in virtual and augmented reality, data science and artificial intelligence, blockchain, UAVs, IoT, and in assistive technology.
The Office of Innovation is currently one of the hosting organizations for the Secretariat for the Digital Public Goods Alliance, established in follow-up to the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation. In its report, the Panel recommends as 1B “that a broad, multi-stakeholder alliance, involving the UN, create a platform for sharing digital public goods, engaging talent and pooling data sets, in a manner that respects privacy, in areas related to attaining the SDGs”. Norway, Sierra Leone, UNICEF and iSPIRT, the four initial champions working to implement this recommendation.
As part of facilitating use of digital public goods, the Alliance will help potential users identify and engage with relevant implementation support communities and will also link to relevant policy and regulatory resources. The Alliance also wants to help ensure future development and management of digital public goods, through identifying and developing funding models and business models.
Your main responsibilities will be:
The DPGA Secretariat is looking for a DPG Technical Specialist to focus on the sourcing and assessment of Digital Public Goods nominees, conducting the technical assessment, improving related criteria, providing technical assistance and supporting Venture Fund nominees.
Main Responsibilities will be:
Conducting technical assessment of DPG nominees:
Assessments within stipulated deadlines and timestamping of the DPG technical review process
Detailed documentation and audit trail maintenance for technical reviews that are conducted
Clear, timely and succinct communication with the DPG applicants about the status of their application and clarifications
Work with DPG applicants to communicate clearly and provide resources where solutions do not currently comply with the standard
Follow up with DPG applicants in case they are unresponsive, provide feedback and suggestions on how to improve their documentation for the DPG application
Act as the focal point for coordination of the technical assessment with other technical reviewers
Maintaining digital assets related to the review process on GitHub
Conduct annual re-reviews of DPG solutions
Conduct calls with DPG owners in case an escalation is needed for them to complete their documentation
Identify and maintain priorities assigned by DPGA secretariat and DPGA members for review of applications
Work with the technical team that maintains DPGA web architecture and ensure low latency, bugs and optimized performance for DPGA web assets like website, API, Github Org.
Assist the Product Manager in training DPGA members on the requisites of nominating their products to become DPGs
Participate in the DPGA standards council - sharing insights and making suggests for how to continue to improve the standard, application process, resources, the questionnaire and hints to improve the experience for DPG nominees
Host the DPG Reviewer checkin with a regular cadence to build consensus between technical experts, product resources and reviewers involved in the process
Support Communities of Practice by providing technical reviews of products to be highlighted in DPG reports
Under the guidance of the Venture Fund Technical Lead, provide technical assessment related support to Venture fund projects becoming DPGs.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or in other relevant areas.
A minimum of three (3) years of progressively responsible professional work experience in relevant field. A minimum of five (5) years of work experience in lieu of an advanced degree.
Significant experience in developing and piloting open source technology products, ideally software, data, and content.
Experience with open source community development and track record of engagement with relevant networks
Demonstrated expertise in required technical areas, including software quality assurance, open source license types, documentation and community management.
Experience in delivering guidance, technical support and mentorship to individuals, teams, start-ups or other groups on complex challenges is an asset.
Experience in product management including relevant systems and tools and development of product roadmaps
Experience with professional software engineering practices and best practices for the full software development life cycle.
Exposure to a variety of languages, frameworks, toolchains (e.g. JavaScript, Node JS, React JS, Python, Django, Ruby on Rails, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Azure, etc.)
Experience with agile software development methodologies like scrum, rapid prototyping and evaluation of user feedback.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, excellent technical communication with peers and non-technical stakeholders
Understanding of different contexts and experience working in developing countries desired.
Ability to synthesize technical information and translate it into accessible products and systems.
Knowledge of international development and key challenges affecting children in developing countries is desired.
Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN language is an asset.
