Consultant- Information System Solutions Architect (Local) At UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

CONSULTANCY – TERMS OF REFERENCE

UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance and emergency assistance. UNRWA is the largest UN operation in the Middle East with more than 30,000 staff. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.

Consultant- Information System Solutions Architect (Local)

BACKGROUND

UNRWA will be modernizing its Refugee Registration Information System (RRIS) to align with updated international standards for civil registration to ensure unhindered, secure, and protected access to UNRWA’s services. This project also entails better integration of the refugee registration information system with other service databases at UNRWA as well as the development of an online refugee verification portal and the full integration of an existing online remote registration system for refugees. To this end, UNRWA is seeking the consultancy services of a Refugee Registration System Solutions Architect that will be working within the relief and Social Services Department and in close collaboration with the Information Management and Technology Department.

Legacy RRIS was developed in C# .NET, ASP.NET and SQL Server.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The consultant will be responsible for the software solution architecture of the new Refugee Registration Information System (RRIS) in accordance with UNRWA’s Enterprise Architecture and Information Security Standards (e.g., Microservices Architecture, SOA, Integration APIs, oAuth, SAML, etc.).

Under the direct supervision of the Head, Enterprise Architecture Office, and the overall supervision of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Director of the Information Management and Technology Department (IMTD), in close collaboration with the Relief and Social Services Department (RSSD), the selected candidate will work closely with other project stakeholders to undertake the following activities:

· Analyze and contribute to the design of technical requirements and specifications for the new system including operational facilities (online verification and registration system) and integration within the overall planned architecture of UNRWA information management systems for service delivery.

· Develop, design, and oversee the implementation of applications and API services with the selected backend technology.

· Develop and implement production migration procedures based on software best practices.

· Actively contribute to the design and implementation of SSO using Azure Active Directory Security.

· Provide technical specifications for the acquisition of tools as required.

· Solve technical challenges with industry best practices in close collaboration with the application development teams.

· Participate in the design and analysis of the cloud computing and SaaS licenses models.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

· Advanced University degree from an accredited educational institution in computer science or a related field

· At least 6 years’ of progressively responsible experience in the development and implementation of large-scale software applications, two years of which must have aspects relating to the areas of systems architecture, cloud architecture, and microservices architecture.

· Significant microservices architecture experience within complex embedded applications.

· Experience in building applications based on Containers, Docker, Orchestration Docker Swarm.

· Experience in migrating applications from n-tier architecture to a microservices architecture.

· Experience in testing microservices applications and its integration with DevOps CI/CD pipeline, preferably using Microsoft Azure platform.

· Experience in cloud architecture and implementation features (OS, multi-tenancy, virtualization, orchestration, elastic scalability).

· Experience in modern application development platforms and databases.

· Excellent written and spoken English. Knowledge of Arabic is an advantage.

COMPETENCIES

• Analyzing

• Planning and Organizing

• Learning and Researching

• Coping with Pressure and Setbacks

• Creating and Innovating

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

· The incumbent will be based in Beirut.

· The duration of the consultancy is 8 months with possibility of extension subject to availability of funds.

· The selected candidate will be remunerated at Grade Level 18 with a monthly salary of USD 1,833.40.

· One and a half day annual leave days per month.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Applicants should submit a cover letter and CV or UN Personal History Form clearly demonstrating the knowledge and experience required to meet the consultancy requirements. The cover letter should: i) clearly demonstrate the knowledge and experiences relevant to the planned assessment, ii) include information on availability over the evaluation period, and iii) an expected daily rate for consultancy services. Additionally, relevant samples of work should be submitted.

Please submit this as one package to consultancy@unrwa.org indicating the title of this consultancy, “Information Systems Technical Specialist”. The deadline for submission of applications is 10 July 2021.

UNRWA is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from both women and men. UNRWA encourages applications from qualified women. Only those applicants shortlisted for interview will be contacted. UNRWA is a non-smoking environment.

28 June 2021