Systems Development Officer - Special Advisory Services Division, Debt Management Section

Reference: 120900427
Location: London, UK | Salary: ££55,609 per annum gross
Closing Date: 26 Oct 2012

Job Summary

The Debt Management Section (DMS) is led by an Adviser and Head and comprises an Advisor & Team Leader (IT Systems), Debt Advisers, Business Analyst, Systems Development Officers, Programmers, Test Analyst and programme assistants. The section also engages external short-term consultants from time to time.
Reporting to the Adviser & Team Leader (IT Systems) of DMS and working as part of a team of economists, debt specialists and IT professionals, the Systems Development Officer is responsible for systems analysis and application design, development, testing, documentation and maintenance of the Secretariat debt management Software. The job holder also undertakes training and support of software clients and is expected to travel on technical missions.
The main duties of the Systems Development Officer are:

• Work closely with DMS business analysts and relevant domain experts to develop and document functional design, system/solution specifications from Business Requirements Specifications (BRS);
• Design databases, prototypes/screens/forms and other software artefacts;
• Work closely with programmers to guide them on software coding based on the technical/software design specifications;
• Develop software and conduct unit testing and integration testing for the enhancement and maintenance of the debt management software;
• Participate in peer review of software requirements, software design, prototypes, source code and other software artifacts;
• Configure appropriate system environments for programming and testing;
• Generate regular software builds for testing and for subsequent release;
• Collaborate with tester, DMS business analyst and debt advisers for the design and development of test cases;
• Assist in the building and maintenance of test databases and test the debt management software for conformance with user requirements, performance, security and other software quality attributes; log all software defects in DMS’ incident tracking system and follow up on fixing of the incidents;
• Prepare and update relevant technical and user documentation and produce online help promptly to keep them in sync with all software changes;
• Advise on documentation, coding and testing standards, methodologies and technologies;
• Make recommendations on acquisition of appropriate development, documentation and testing tools;
• Prepare and submit weekly reports on work progress.

• The Systems Development Officer assists the Advisor and Team Leader (IT Systems) with the deployment and implementation of new releases of the debt management software to user countries by:

• Advising user sites on the hardware and system software requirements for implementing the Secretariat debt management software;
• Assisting user sites with the installation and configuration of the debt management software and relevant hardware and system software remotely or by undertaking missions to Commonwealth countries;
• Assisting software clients with data validation and migration of databases;
• Maintaining regular contact with user sites and monitoring country implementations to assist sites to remain operational;
• Providing user/technical training to software clients and their IT support staff by participating in the organisation and delivery of training workshops and facilitating user attachments in London;
• Preparing and maintaining training materials on the debt management software;
• Participating in the on-going update of the DMS website as a vehicle for software support and disseminating debt management information to Commonwealth countries; providing regular inputs in the preparation of DMS quarterly newsletters.

• The Systems Development Officer also provides on-going technical support to users by:

• Logging and tracking all user support calls into DMS’ incident tracking system and providing timely responses to users;
• Following up with users on the satisfactory resolution of issues raised.   

• The Systems Development Officer also assists the Advisor & Team Leader (IT Systems) with project planning, organization and monitoring and the recruitment of consultants.
• Perform any other duties as may be required from time to time.

Qualifications and Work Experience

• Essential:  A degree in Computer Science or any other degree with a major part relevant to computing
• Five years financial or business software development experience including:

• solid experience producing technical design/specifications including database design, use cases and functional specifications from business requirements;
• strong experience in object oriented design and analysis;
• good programming skills in web-based environment using technologies including Visual Studio, ASP.NET, c#.NET, Silverlight;
• hands-on experience of SQL and stored procedure programming using Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle; 
• user training and support, with good knowledge of contemporary IT technologies and methodologies;
• project management experience.
• Desirable: Knowledge of public debt management. Proficiency in French language.

About the Special Advisory Services Division, Debt Management Section

The Special Advisory Services Division (SASD) is a major development co-operation instrument of the Commonwealth Secretariat, supporting the development efforts of member countries through technical assistance and capacity building. The division has four sections: the Economic and Legal Section, the Trade Section, the Enterprise and Agriculture Section and the Debt Management Section.

The Debt Management Section (DMS) offers an integrated capacity building programme in debt management to Commonwealth member governments. The programme is based around the Commonwealth Secretariat Debt Recording and Management System (CS-DRMS) developed by SASD/DMS to assist in the recording and management of debt.  The software, which has emerged as a market leader in the debt arena, has been installed in around 60 Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth countries around the world. A French edition of the software has also been deployed.

Further Information

How to apply
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Job Description for Systems Development Officer - Special Advisory Services Division