Urban Land Adjudication and Registration Technology Development and Pilot Testing Expert– Feed the Future Ethiopia Land Governance Activity (LGA)

The USAID-funded Feed the Future Ethiopia Land Governance Activity (LGA) project in Ethiopia, implemented by Tetra Tech International Development (www.tetratech.com/intdev) is currently accepting expressions of interest for an Urban Land Adjudication and Registration Technology Development and Pilot Testing Expert.

LGA is supporting the Ministry of Urban Development and Construction (MoUDC) to develop, pilot, and test a “fit-for-purpose approach” for improving the Urban Land Adjudication and Registration (ULAR) system. Ethiopia’s MoUDC is interested in using innovative land information systems and technologies for improving the accuracy, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of ULAR, particularly the process of systematic adjudication.

The job of the ULAR Development and Pilot Testing Expert (Expert) includes all the activities that are required to produce technical outcomes that will define the ULAR system and its development, testing and deployment.

The system development and deployment group of activities are all related to controlling and accepting the development and deployment by the GoE stakeholders. The rules for acceptance will already have been laid out by ULAR LIS software developer. The responsibility of the Expert will be to work with the ULAR LIS software developer in refining design issues by eliminating bugs and technical issues that may arise for improving the system.

Testing the ULAR LIS will have tasks called Alpha, Beta, and Final Versions that mark the expected time frames of delivery in the course of refinement. The alpha version will be a number of deliveries of elements of the system that only demonstrate how it would work. Beta versions are similar deliveries; only that the software elements now function and can be tested not just analysed, and final versions are the deliveries of elements that are ready for deployment and are to be tested in the field before acceptance. A detailed protocol for conducting the development and testing of the ULAR system in the field at Dukem Town will be prepared, which the Expert must follow.

Responsibilities:

* Work with the ULAR LIS developer as required;

* Monitor and respond quickly and effectively to requests received through the clients, MoUDC and Oromia LAUB;

* Monitor for tickets assigned to the queue and process of ULAR LIS software development;

* Provide support and resolve problems to the end user’s satisfaction related to ULAR LIS development and piloting;

* Collect, record, categorize and prioritize received user feedback and requests, resulting from test and operational use of ULAR LIS;

* Utilize, maintain, and track the ULAR LIS software after it is developed and tested during piloting phase;

* Modify configurations, utilities, and software to respond end users request/GoE stakeholder’s demand;

* Learn how to use ULAR LIS as end user and administrator;

* Learn overall procedures of the land adjudication process and how ULAR LIS supports it;

* Install, test, and configure the new release of the ULAR LIS software;

* Contribute to ULAR LIS documentation to improve it for end users and administrators;

* Provide user and administrator trainings;

* Perform new installations of ULAR LIS;

* Configure and manage ULAR LIS users, settings, business rules and projects;

* Prepare and publish various map layers, used by ULAR LIS and its mobile clients;

* Create and publish new reports for ULAR LIS;

* Analyse and provide required statistics from ULAR LIS database;

* Report critical issues to the ULAR LIS developer for escalation;

* Manage related software development and installation activities;

* Pass on collected feedback and requests by GoE stakeholders to the appropriate LGA management and technical team and ULAR LIS developer;

* Produce timely monthly, quarterly and annual reports

* Contribute to the development of and writing LGA success stories for the project’s physical and virtual library; and

* Perform other tasks as reasonably assigned by the DCOP.

Qualifications:

* M.Sc. or B.Sc. degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Land Information System, Geographic Information System, Information Technology, or related field;

* At least 7 years for B.Sc. or 5 years for M.Sc. of relevant work experience in a software developer role;

* Training / certification in industry standard related to software development;

* Working knowledge and experience with installation, configuration, and maintenance of Java Development Kit, Glassfish/Payara application server, Jasper Reports server, GeoServer, PostgreSQL server and Docker containers;

* Working knowledge and experience with Cloud platforms, such as Amazon AWS to setup and configure new RDS and computing instances, including definition of user access, local ports access, installation and configuration of Linux/Ubuntu OS and required tools and services for running ULAR LIS;

* Ability to prepare and publish raster and vector layers on GeoServer;

* Ability to produce mbtiles layers from available raster and vector sources;

* Good knowledge of relational databases and ability to write SQL queries for PostgreSQL database, including the use spatial functions of PostGIS;

* Ability to create and publish Jasper reports, querying PostgreSQL;

* Good understanding of spatial systems, mobile devices, and other tech products;

* Ability to diagnose and resolve basic technical issues;

* Ability to multitask – Sense of urgency; maintain a positive attitude;

* Establish and maintain a more agile group communication channel among ULAR LIS software developer, ULAR stakeholders and Dukem town piloting crew with organized follow-up skill;

* Excellent communication skills and teamwork;

* Customer-oriented and cool-tempered;

* Proficiency in English;

* Oromifa language is a plus;

* Ability to work under pressure to deal with problems and achieve immediate results in all situations.