SMS and Voice App Developer, Arusha, Tanzania

Farm Radio International (FRI) is a Canadian organization that promotes radio as a tool to meet the communication needs of smallholder farmers across Africa. In partnership with our 400 and counting radio station partners across sub­Saharan Africa, we combine radio with modern ICTs such as mobile phones, MP3 devices and online services. With these tools, FRI offers radio stations and rural development initiatives a way to communicate with smallholder farmers and rural households. Interested? Learn more at www.farmradio.org

An excellent opportunity has arisen for the right, bright, interested professional. FRI seeks an experienced and dynamic voice & sms app developer in an exciting opportunity. Do you want to use your skills over a four­month stay in the pulsing heart of East Africa? Can you help us strengthen and innovate our voice & sms toolkit for farmers and farm radio broadcasters? The four month position will be based at Farm Radio's regional office in Arusha, Tanzania (see map: http://bit.ly/fri­arusha). There will be opportunities to travel within Tanzania and other countries in the Great Lakes region, where you will meet and work with radio stations, broadcasters, farmers, rural communities and technology partners.

The SMS & Voice App Developer position is semi­volunteer ­ all expenses, including return airfare to Tanzania, visas, health insurance, internal travel, food and accommodation will be covered by FRI. The SMS & Voice App Developer will report to the Regional Radio & ICT Manager in Arusha. Please email a cover letter and a detailed CV to hangar@farmradiotz.org IMPORTANT: PLEASE INCLUDE LINKS TO EXAMPLES OF YOUR WORK Note: Put 'Volunteer ­ SMS & Voice App Developer' in the subject line of the email Closing date for applications is October 30th, 2013. Due to time pressures, only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Volunteer ­ SMS & Voice App Developer

Qualifications:

Our ideal SMS & Voice App Developer is a master of all things mobile phone (think basic nokia phone, not a smartphone), as this is the primary channel through which farm radio listeners communicate with radio broadcasters. The person will be a wizard at developing easy­as­pie as well as cost effective solutions for farmers that leverage SMS and voice channels (GSM and VoIP) to serve the information needs of farmers in innovative yet practical ways.

• Experience developing IVRs and voice based services on various platforms (ie: Voxeo, Twilio, Callcentric, Verboice, Tropo, Freedom Fone etc)
• Experience working with SMS gateways, platforms and aggregators
• Three years experience programming/coding (php/MySQL/+others)
• Project management experience
• Knowledge of CSS, JSON, jQuery, HTML5 and other web languages/protocols.
• Speaks and writes English fluently (proficiency or fluency in French would be a bonus!)
• Enjoys working with a cool team of like minded people to build innovative projects

Roles & Responsibilities: Voice / SMS toolkit for Farmers and Broadcasters

• Work with existing Farm Radio innovations including Beep­2­vote, SMS alerts, Voice SMS, Leave­a­message and other easy to use interactivity techniques and integrate into a comprehensive toolkit for farmers and radio stations.
• 'think cloud and think networked'. Farm Radio operates in seven countries with hundreds of radio partners, so our mobile services need to distribute in a robust way in each country using a combination of GSM, VoIP and other voice/SMS channels.
• Work with other volunteer developers to create innovate ways that voice / SMS and Android apps can plug more users into Barza, our social network for broadcasters
• Work with Radio & ICT manager to maximize farmers' access to useful information through voice and SMS
• Advise on use of existing voice / SMS platforms and innovations
• Migrate other Farm Radio products (Radio scripts, Farm Radio Weekly and Blog) can be accessible via voice/SMS through Barza
• Explore possibility of using voice/SMS and Barza as a Learning Management System for offering training modules
• Seek creative ways of making our voice / SMS services a financially viable model
• Be a mentor to a junior developer who may work alongside and learn from you
• Other responsibilities as they arise.

Terms and Conditions:

• Standard Farm Radio International Terms and Conditions for expatriate volunteer professionals will apply. For more details, contact hangar@farmradiotz.org (note: Put 'Volunteer ­ SMS & Voice Developer' in the subject line of the email)