Solution Architect Product Owner Digital Operations

Purpose of the Position

Join the ICRC’s digital transformation journey at the heart of humanitarian action as a Solution Architect Digital Operations who will help reimagine how technology supports the ICRC Mandate from reconnecting families separated by conflict to documenting protection cases in the most complex and sensitive environments.

As the lead architect for the Digital Operations Product Line, you will own the technical redesign of the ICRC’s Protection Digital Ecosystem, a cornerstone platform that empowers thousands of field delegates to securely collect, analyze, and act on both structured and unstructured data from field missions, open-source information (OSI) or social media.

This role is not just about technology, but it’s about making data meaningful to protect people affected by conflict. You will architect hybrid solutions that combine the flexibility of modern cloud technologies with the control and security of sovereign, ICRC-hosted environments, enabling the organization to extract insights and uncover complex networks across diverse data points. These capabilities will help the ICRC respond more effectively and rapidly to the evolving realities of humanitarian crises.

By bridging cutting-edge digital innovation and humanitarian imperatives, you will shape the future of digital protection work, contributing directly to the ICRC’s mission to safeguard dignity and humanity in times of war and crisis.

Main Duties & Responsibilities I

• Solution Architect is responsible for defining and maintaining the technical vision and architecture of solutions across the entire Digital Operation product line. The Architect ensures that architectural decisions align with the ICRC Strategy and Technology Strategy. Acts as a key enabler of consistent technology across product teams including maintain high-level solution models, reviews documentation produced by product teams, represents product line in Architecture Board and support product teams in introducing new technologies ensuring scalability, reusability and backup/exit strategy
  
  
• Architect and design hybrid solutions combining open-source, cloud, and sovereign technologies that support the ICRC’s mandate following the principles of Neutrality, Independence, and Impartiality in Humanitarian Action (NIIHA), ensuring that digital systems meet operational and business needs in line with these core values.
  
  
• Designs the transition architecture from legacy systems to a hybrid setup that bridges cloud and ICRC-hosted solutions, progressively moving toward open-source platforms while ensuring full interoperability and data integrity throughout the process. Defines the technical solutions to deliver resilient and sustainable applications in the most demanding contexts (low bandwidth, internet disruptions, cyber warfare, data sensitivity).
  
  
• In collaboration with the CTO and CISO, evaluates and selectes technologies aligned with ICRC’s strategic, legal, and security requirements especially for handling Critical Humanitarian Information (CHI).

Main Duties & Responsibilities II

• Defines and maintains architecture standards that balance technological independence, cost-effectiveness, and operational agility.
  
  
• Ensures data protection and legal compliance, particularly regarding data sovereignty, confidentiality, and risks linked to external jurisdiction (e.g. Cloud Act).
  
  
• Enables interoperability and data sharing between field operations, delegations, and partner organizations while maintaining strict data protection controls.
  
  
• Designs and implements integration layers (APIs, middleware) supporting seamless communication across systems.

• Ensures offline and mobile capabilities for field operations, designed to perform effectively under low-connectivity conditions (e.g., satellite) or during disrupted internet access and shutdowns resulting from geopolitical tensions, while maintaining resilience, usability and scalability.
  
  
• Collaborates with multidisciplinary teams (e.g Protection, Assistance, IT, Legal, Data Protection

Office, and Cyber).

• Supports change management ensuring smooth adoption of new digital workflows and minimizing operational disruption.

• Participates in SAFE Events and continuous improvement ensuring architectural alignment with business goals, quality standard and alignment with ICRC Strategy, Technology and Cyber security

Relationships

• Internally, interacts with a wide variety of teams and people up to senior-level leaders, including with Directorate.
• ​Externally, interacts with suppliers and thought leaders in the architecture community
• Participates in external events, with professional communities and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement.
• This role reports directly to the Digital Operation Product Line Manager.

Education Required

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field. Excellent command of English
• Certification or experience into Agile delivery, SAFe certification preferred.
• 8+ years in software development or solution architecture including hybrid ecosystems (cloud and open source).
• Experience in leveraging Enterprise Architecture solutions to design end-to-end solutions spanning from business processes to technology layers (e.g., ORBUS), with certification or equivalent experience considered a plus.

Professional experience required

• Proven experience architecting hybrid environments integrating cloud, sovereign-hosted, and open-source components to reinforce ICRC neutrality and sovereignty, ensuring resilience in complex geopolitical contexts where technologies may be blocked, banned, or restricted due to embargoes or sanctions.
• Expertise in cloud and on-premise architectures, including cloud environments (e.g., Microsoft CRM and Azure) and on-premise infrastructures running on Kubernetes (e.g., OpenShift) with containerized applications, as well as microservices and API platform design (e.g., Gravitee) to support interoperability.
• Knowledge of data management, security, and sovereignty challenges in humanitarian contexts.
• Experience with DevOps (GitHub, Azure DevOps, Ansible) and implementing DevSecOps practices to ensure security and quality throughout the development lifecycle.
• Strong understanding of information security and data protection principles, including compliance with international regulations, encryption standards and best practices to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and resilience of sensitive data.
• Familiarity with AI capabilities (e.g., large language models) to enhance automation, document extraction and transformation from unstructured to structured datasets, and transliteration across multiple languages, as well as experience with advanced analytics platforms and visualization tools, both commercial (e.g., Power BI) and open-source (e.g., Apache Superset).
• Knowledge of full-stack design such as vibe for open-source solutions, with awareness of emerging trends to accelerate the development and deployment of innovative digital solutions.
• Ability to design scalable, resilient, and cost-optimized solutions that operate effectively in challenging ICRC contexts, including low-connectivity environments such as satellite-based networks, degraded internet access or complete internet shutdowns caused by geopolitical tensions.
• Strong understanding of security risks associated with open-source software and experience implementing security best practices.

Desired Profile and Skills

• Communication and Collaboration — Must be a strong listener, communicator and collaborator. Must be able to communicate and adapt to different stakeholder groups. Must be able to facilitate group work sessions.
• Presentation — Must have strong presentation skills and be able to adapt to the audience.
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving – Must be able to analyse the problem and provide a solution that meets the immediate and long-term need while fitting well in the organization architecture
• Leadership — Must be a catalyst for change and be a thought leader.
• International and multicultural — Experience in a complex and diverse international environment is a plus.
• Language — Strong English (written and spoken) is a must, French is a plus.

Additional Information

• Type of role: Long Term Assignment
• Working rate: 100%
• Starting date: 1st Jan 2026
• Location: Geneva
• Job level: C1
• Application deadline: Sunday, 7th Dec 2025

The ICRC values diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive working environment. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates.

Our values

• At the ICRC, we value impact, collaboration, respect, and compassion. We seek candidates who demonstrate behaviors based on these shared values. For more information on the ICRC values, please visit this