Software Engineering Internship At UN Development Programme

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Unit of Information and Technology Management (ITM) in Copenhagen is responsible for supporting UNDP Country Offices around the world with ICT and Green Energy solutions. Our Unit offers a stimulating and versatile internship in an international environment with contact to various partners from some 166 countries with UNDP presence. We are a team who work in a dynamic and informal atmosphere, and we expect our interns to become vital members of the team.

As an intern, you will be given tasks and opportunities that have a direct global impact on the development efforts of the international community. The UNDP/ITM internship programme enhances the academic life experience of passionate students as interns and empowers them to become socially responsible, innovative, and environmentally conscious leaders of tomorrow. We bridge the gap between textbook learning and real-life industry experience by taking interns behind the scenes of the world’s leading clean energy and sustainability initiatives, while learning to take into consideration the local context.

Being a part of our dynamic unit, you will also gain worldwide connections with other top-talented interns and UN staff from other agencies; our office is located at the UN City in Copenhagen, giving you the opportunity to interact with people outside the UNDP ITM Unit.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Deploy and support online collaboration tools and business process automation solutions for UNDP Country Offices worldwide within our collaboration platform (Microsoft 365, leveraging SharePoint Online [SPO] and Teams).
• Develop solutions in Microsoft 365 for collaboration and business processes to replace manual and paper-burdened processes with new and evolving cloud-based functions.
• Architect and build automations and integrations with Power Automate. Also build applications that employ Power Apps for mobile-enabled data entry, approvals, and reporting.
• Review and improve solutions and applications that leverage JavaScript (jQuery and other advanced frameworks), HTML5, PHP and/or .NET. Also support in expanding and refining these online business tools that leverage SPO and MS Lists, particularly with view-formatting in JSON. Build Actionable Messages with Adaptive Cards for streamlining interactions in our business processes. Build and manage remote process automation (RPA) utilities with Selenium and equivalent tools.
• Assist the management of our utility scripts written in PowerShell through our private GitHub repository.
• Support the gathering, consolidating, and analysing data for our tracking, analytics, and data visualization using Excel, Power BI, and other business intelligence tools. Also contribute innovative perspectives to improve our online reports and dashboards for internal management and customers.
• Provide insight, support, and guidance on enhancing concepts of digital workspace, including from perspectives of user interfaces/experience (UI/UX), information architecture (IA), and digital employee experience (DEX).
• Refine and continuously innovate (kaizen) our development, delivery and monitoring procedures, instructions and templates from best practice and then disseminate them through our practice community.

Applying your Skills Beyond ICT

• Promote a client service-oriented culture within the unit, connecting the new upcoming UNDP Digital Workspace strategy with current theories and practices in Design Thinking, Service Design, and Customer Experience.
• Explore and pilot alternative tools for enhancing internal operations and tracking, such as chatbots in MS Teams, assisting decision-making through various Microsoft 365 tools (Power Automate, Forms, Power Apps, Adaptive Cards, etc.), and information design (data visualization, view formatting of MS Lists).
• Creatively develop and drive new projects for innovative collaboration and business process automation systems and tools to be disseminated to UNDP offices as best practice for improvement of operations and business efforts.
• Promote the ITM’s overall ICT strategic framework and work plan pertaining to the minimum ICT standards, infrastructure, and connectivity dimensions. The ITM Copenhagen unit is ISO 9001:2015 certified, our work is focused on high quality, continuous improvements, and customer satisfaction.

Competencies

• Has strong abilities in IT with an ability to translate technology to business users and to non-technical language
• Has interest and understanding of customer-oriented service delivery, with focus on innovative enterprise solutions, collaboration, customer experience
• Has interest and motivation in working in an international organization
• Has good analytical skills in gathering and consolidating data for practical implementation
• Is a self-starter and initiative-taking person with a goal-oriented mind-set; good in organizing and structuring various tasks and responsibilities, effective when working in teams and independently
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills & Experience

• You must meet one of the following requirements:
  • You are currently in the final year of your Bachelor’s degree; or
  • You are currently enrolled in a Master’s degree; or
  • You have graduated no longer than 1 year ago from a master’s degree or equivalent studies in the field of Software Development/IT Technician;
• Has good knowledge of web-based development with one or more of the following platforms: PHP, JavaScript, Python or .NET. Also, has experience working with state-of-the art frameworks extending those platforms, such as jQuery, NodeJS, etc.
• Knowledge or experience with specific Office 365 tools (or their consumer equivalents) such as Planner (Trello), Teams (Slack), Yammer (Workplace by Facebook), OneDrive (DropBox, Google Drive), Power BI (Tableau), etc. is a distinct advantage.
• Experience and knowledge in at least one of the following SharePoint areas: site management, document management, list management, and Microsoft Patterns and Practices (PnP) toolsets.
• Knowledge of Microsoft cloud technologies (SharePoint Online, Azure) and back-office platform (SharePoint, SQL) and frameworks (.NET, PowerShell, etc.) is an advantage.
• Experience with relational databases (schemas, design), JSON, and XML is highly desirable
• Has experience and ability in using business intelligence tools, for example: gathering, consolidating, and analysing data from databases and reports, manipulating data in Excel (Pivot Tables, Power Query, and DAX), Power BI, etc.
• Experience with software build management and code repositories such as GitHub or AzureDevOps is desirable.
• Experience with web analytics tools (Google Analytics, Webtrends, Matomo, etc.) is highly desirable.
• Knowledge of HTML5, CSS, graphic design and web standards/best practices is highly desirable.
• Knowledge of Power Automate, Selenium, and/or other process automation is an advantage.
• Fluent in written and spoken English. Knowledge of other UN languages is an advantage

Conditions:

• In accordance with the UNDP Internship policy, UNDP interns are eligible to receive a monthly stipend, with the rate that varies depending on the duty location. The stipend will be paid monthly, and part-time internship arrangements are prorated accordingly.
• Where an intern is financially supported by an institution, government or third party, UNDP will, subject to the rules of such institution, government or a third party, pay the intern the difference, if any, between the external financial support provided and the applicable UNDP stipend.
• Except for the stipend, all other expenses connected with the internship will be borne by the intern, sponsoring government or institutions.
• Interns are not considered staff members and may not represent UNDP in any official capacity.
• Interns are responsible for securing adequate medical insurance for the duration of their internship with UNDP and must provide a medical certificate of good health prior to starting the internship. UNDP will not reimburse the medical insurance of the intern. Any costs arising from accidents and illness incurred during an internship assignment will be the responsibility of the intern.
• The purpose of the Internship Programme is not to lead to further employment with UNDP, but to complement an intern’s studies. Therefore, there should be no expectation of employment at the end of an internship.
• UNDP accepts no responsibility for costs arising from accidents and/or illness or death incurred during the internship.
• The intern is responsible for obtaining necessary visas and arranging travel to and from the duty station where the internship will be performed.
• Interns are not eligible to apply for, or be appointed to, any post in UNDP during the period of the internship.
• The intern must provide proof of enrolment in health insurance plan.
• You are expected to work full time, but flexibility is allowed for your education programme.
• Eligibility for residency and undertaking internship in Denmark.
• The intern will have to make his/her own arrangements for internship, travel, VISA, accommodation etc.