Level: L3/NOC
Duty Station: Kampala
Duration: 11 months,
- Background (attach documents if necessary):
- Overview: UNICEF Uganda in Kampala desires to recruit a Lead
Programmer/Mobile Software Team Leader consultant to its Technology for
Development Unit. The candidate should have proven experience in the
application and development of mobile and associated web technology to
support the work of an international organization.
- The consultant will be responsible for serving as Lead
Programmer/Mobile Software Team Leader to the Technology for Development
(T4D) Unit, technically advising and leading software development
across all mobile technology based projects taken on by the Uganda
Country Office’s Country Program, with a special focus on mobile
technology for health facilities and community workers, education
monitoring, registration, supply monitoring and social mobilization, but
with ability to remain flexible and adjust to the evolving needs of the
country program and partner’s needs, including the Government of
Uganda, youth organizations, community-based and faith-based
organizations.
- The consultant may also be asked to train and guide other outside
consultants in the development of web platforms and dashboards that show
data and messages gathered via mobile phones.
- The consultant will assist in the creation and implementation of
training/capacity-building plans for local developers, and outreach to
local software companies, incubators, and educational institutions.
- Purpose of Assignment:
Consultant will act as working manger, coordinating the work of in
and out of house developers, as well as doing direct programming as
needed.
• Working with ALIVE team and the T4D Project Management Specialist,
lead small team of software programmers to expand mobile health
reporting in Uganda, with a focus on scaling up, integration with the
Ministry of Health DHIS2 database and on the long-term goal of creating
of a sustainable suite of mHealth applications for VHTs and Health
Centres (following on work done in 2010 and 2011)
• In consultation with LEARNING team, education partners and user
groups, lead a team of software programmers to expand mobile based
education monitoring and reporting in Uganda, with a focus of scaling up
to additional districts in Uganda (ongoing from 2010)
• In consultation with the U-report project manager and other
partners, lead a team of software programmers to expand the U-report
crowd sourcing software, with a view of scaling up to bigger volumes of
reporters and involvement of other interest groups.
• Coordinate work with consultants (e.g. Equatel) and other partners
(telecoms) to establish and support software for publicly accessible
USSD enabled phone booths which will be used by communities and
individuals without mobile devices to participate in UNICEF programs
like U-Report, MTrac etc
• As needed, regional support for UNICEF Uganda-based software that is
needed by other country offices
• Provide local training, capacity building, and technology partner
outreach to the Ugandan technology community (ongoing from 2010)
3. Description of assignment: (provide detail and in quantitative terms,
add pages if required)
Tasks/End Product/deliverables
1. Oversee and review/sign-off on tasks of internal software
developers, including feature development for U-Report, EdTrac, MTrac
and CVS / Monthly reports by junior developers, signed off on and
submitted to head of T4D and Communications
2. Contingent on agreements with MoH, collaborate with Resource Center
technical specialists to draft recommendation for standard API data
exchange/aggregation for mHealth-related projects / 3-5 page technical
recommendations submitted to MoH and T4D, with accompanying clear
non-technical explanations for each recommendation
3. Work with internal T4D technical team to establish an integrated and
robust diagnostic or early warning system that alerts UNICEF/T4D team
of any technical break down in communication between UNICEF systems, SMS
aggregators and the Telecoms/ 3-5 page technical documentation of the
early warning system. Software code, test coverage and documentation
uploaded to github and RapidSMS Google group.
4. Work with internal T4D technical team to establish a robust and
integrated systems backup solutions and high availability
mirrors/redundancy for internal Unicef hosted systems using leading and
reputable technology and techniques / 3-5 page technical documentation
of the Unicef T4D systems high availability setup and backup solutions.
Software code, test coverage and documentation uploaded to github and
RapidSMS Google group.
5. Work with internal T4D team of developers and system administrator
to establish robust hosting solution for the U-Report system including
fine-tuning the backend PostgreSQL database, query analysis and
optimization to greatly improve the responsiveness of the current
U-Report application / 3-5 page technical documentation of the new
U-Report hosting server including system administration manual,
deployment and maintenance guides for the server. Software code, test
coverage and documentation uploaded to github and RapidSMS Google group.
6. Coordinate and supervise external consultant in the design and
establishment of a Health Patient Tracking system including the piloting
of the project in at least 2 districts / 2-3 pages technical
recommendations submitted to UNICEF and report on progress of work on
works carried out on the Health Patient Tracking system
7. Provide technical guidance and oversight of the development of the
1000 Days mHealth tool, including regular code reviews of any software
developed by external parties / 2-3 pages technical recommendations
submitted to UNICEF and report on progress of work on works carried out
on the 1000 Days mHealth tool
8. Provide technical support to UNICEF ALIVE team with hosting
solutions for initiatives including mTrac and 1000 Days / 2-3 pages
technical recommendations for hosting of mTrac and 1000 Days mHealth
tool submitted to UNICEF
9. Provide technical support to UNICEF ALIVE team with the MoH's
eHealth interoperability strategy, including guidance on development of
health facility, provider and client registries, and integration of
UNICEF systems with external tools including DHIS2 and OpenMRS / 3-5
page technical recommendations submitted to MoH and T4D, with
accompanying clear non-technical explanations for each recommendation
10. Coordinate development of API's and software updates to support
integration and data sharing between existing UNICEF T4D applications,
such as U-report, mTrac, EduTrac and DevTrac / 3-5 page technical
documentation of the interoperability and data sharing layers. Sofware
code, test coverage and documentation submitted to github and the
Rapidsms Google group.
11. Work with the T4D software team and the hardware innovations team to
develop and deploy toilet usage and hand-washing tracking module and
integrate it in the existing education monitoring system (EduTrac) / 2-3
page technical documentation of the toilet tracking system. Sofware
code, test coverage and documentation submitted to github and the
Rapidsms Google group
12. Improve the design and navigation of the current education
monitoring system including a thorough cleanup of the data visualization
modules and the backend formulae for data aggregation / Sofware code,
test coverage and documentation submitted to github and the Rapidsms
Google group
13. Working with the T4D internal software development team and the
Unicef LEARNING section, facilitate the roll out of the EduTrac system
to 21 more districts on top of the current 14 districts in Uganda / 3-5
page report on the roll out process and lessons learned. Technical
documentation detailing recommendations for improvement, sustainability
and scalability plan for the EduTrac system
14. Working with the T4D internal software development team, design and
deploy data sharing linkages between the Education monitoring system;
EduTrac with Emis and DEMIS / 3-5 page technical documentation of the
interoperability and data sharing layers. Sofware code, test coverage
and documentation submitted to github and the Rapidsms Google group
15. Sustainability strategy and report to upper management to strengthen
UNICEF and partner technical capacity ability to support ongoing and
implement new T4D projects, including identification of key outsourcing
resources and strategic partnerships / 4-6 page report, with annexes
- Payment plan
Monthly payment based on deliverables, certified upon monthly review with supervisor.
5. Other
A laptop, desk, phone, unicef.org email address and related standard office supplies will be provided.
For work-related travel, DSA will be paid at the standard rate.
Consultant must provide his/her own insurance
- Qualifications or specialized knowledge/experience required for the assignment:
Education and experience:
Required:
• At least 5 years experience with software team management
• Experience in at least one modern object-oriented programming
language.
• Experience in developing and maintaining applications using a modern
web framework.
• Experience with mobile technology: kannel, IVR, etc. RapidSMS
experience a plus
• Capable of deploying and maintaining software remotely on an Ubuntu
Linux server. Knowledge of other distributions is advantageous.
• Knowledge of development framework in which UNICEF operates, and
understanding of the constraints of working in a developing-world
environment. This should include experience developing low-bandwidth
applications in difficult work environments.
• Ability to align technical goals with UNICEF strategic goals – that
always will mean prioritizing UNICEF’s mission over any particular
technology
• Willing to travel (sometimes on short notice) and develop software
in the field, directly with end-users
Desired:
• Experienced in evaluating the technical competency and capacity of
other developers and companies
• Experienced developing software as part of a distributed team using
Git or Subversion, especially in an open-source environment
• Have at least two years of experience developing software in East
Africa, and live in the region
