Application Management Lead – Learning Management Platform

The Asia Pacific Regional Office, based in Bangkok, Thailand, provides strategic leadership and oversight for UNOPS operations across 17 countries, ensuring high performance, operational excellence, and alignment with organizational goals. Operations currently span Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Pacific Islands. Across these countries, we work closely with key stakeholders to strengthen partnerships and maximize impact through five main operating units: Afghanistan (AFCO), Myanmar (MMCO), South Asia Multi-Country Office (SAMCO), East Asia and Pacific Multi-Country Office (EAPMCO), and the Asia Regional Health Cluster (ARHC). Through these entities, we provide agile, client-focused service delivery across diverse sectors - including infrastructure, health, procurement, and project management - supporting the implementation of sustainable development solutions across the region.

The East Asia and Pacific Multi-Country Office (EAPMCO), headquartered in Bangkok, supports UNOPS operations across 24 countries in Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, and the Pacific. Established in January 2023, EAPMCO provides strategic direction, operational support, and quality assurance to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of projects across its portfolio. EAPMCO implements initiatives in priority areas such as energy transition, climate change, and sustainable development, drawing on UNOPS' core expertise in human resources, procurement, infrastructure, fund management, and programme management.

This position is a Partner Personnel role. The selected candidate will be contracted by UNOPS under its rules and regulations and will be engaged as UN Partner Personnel for WHO and will operate under the effective management and supervision of WHO.

UNOPS is supporting WHO as a UN Partner and acting on its behalf to provide recruitment and administrative support for this position.

The World Health Organization's Academy ("The Academy") is a lifelong learning institution that aims to enhance training access for millions of health workers around the world. Based in Lyon, France, the Academy Campus offers a wide range of learning modalities, including online, face-to-face, and blended learning. As an integral part of the WHO under the management authority of the Director-General, the Academy’s overall goal is to advance the learning and human development components of WHO's General Programme of Work (GPW) and contribute to achieving health sustainable development targets. The Academy constitutes a global initiative, combining the latest technologies in digital and remote learning with advancements in adult learning science to offer innovative, personalized, and multilingual learning to health policy practitioners, health workers, and the WHO workforce.

The Information and Digital Technologies (IDT) department of the WHO manages the learning technology platform for The Academy. This position operates within the Information and Digital Technologies (IDT) department of the WHO, which manages the learning technology platform for The Academy. Reporting to the Head of Operations and Support in IDT, and under the guidance of the Unit Head, the incumbent will be responsible for the following core areas:

Team Coordination & Process Management: Coordinate the activities of team members co-located at the Global Service Centre (GSC) and Managed Service Providers. Define, implement, and manage operational processes for services, including but not limited to: Incident management and request fulfilment, 

Access management and event management, Problem management and user support, Service transition

Stakeholder & Business Alignment: Interface closely with Academy and IDT teams, service and application product leads, and business system owners to understand and successfully meet business requirements for the Learning Experience Platform (LXP).

Vendor & Provider Management: Interact with external providers to ensure the successful delivery of outsourced services and specific IT tasks.

The Application Management Lead will originate and develop new policies, techniques, or standards for the Learning Experience Platform (LXP), innovate and create novel approaches to solve complex or systemic problems, and provide expert advice on the development and implementation of new programs or initiatives. The role will also involve leading and directing substantive teams and junior managers, advocating for new ideas, and driving improvements and transformative change within the learning technology field.

1. Application Development & Delivery

• Coordinate the activities of internal team members and Managed Service Providers to deliver application-layer features that support business needs and enhance the learner experience.
• Manage the full lifecycle of application development for the Open edX platform, including custom XBlocks/plugins development and platform enhancements.
• Enforce application-level coding standards using Python (Django), Node.js, and modern JavaScript frameworks such as Vue.js, including performing code reviews and auditing deliverables to ensure compliance with WHO requirements.
• Ensure compliance with DevOps practices, including image management, secrets handling, automated testing, and adherence to WHO standards and policies.
• Develop and enforce runbooks, SOPs, and documentation standards.
• Manage software development processes from requirements gathering through service transition.
• Design and maintain integration patterns for APIs, identity systems, credentialing standards (LTI, SCORM, xAPI), and downstream WHO systems.
• Define and maintain data architecture, including conceptual, logical, and physical data models for Open edX and related services.
• Implement reliability engineering practices, including SLOs, SLIs, capacity thresholds, and error budgets.
• Oversee observability across all LXP layers, including APM, metrics, logs, traces, and microservices monitoring.
• Define and enforce both application-level and infrastructure-level security practices, including penetration testing follow-ups, secret management, and hardened images.
  
  

2. Application Operations

• Define and manage operational processes for services, including incident management, request fulfillment, and access management.
• Interface with Academy product leads and business owners to ensure user support and event management align with business needs.
• Oversee the reliability of the application layer to support high availability (≥99.95%) for up to 10 million users.
  
  

3. Community & Capability Building

• Lead the design and operation of open-source learning products based on Open edX, while contributing back to the open-source community.
• Collaborate with external providers, UN agencies, and academic institutions to advocate for and mobilize resources in learning technology initiatives.
• Stay updated on emerging e-learning trends, including the integration of AI/ML technologies (CNNs, RNNs) and data analytics within learning platforms.

Required

• Masters degree or equivalent, in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related field relevant to the position with 7 years of relevant experience, OR

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent, in above- mentioned areas or related fields with 9 years of relevant experience

Desired

• Certifications in Agile Project Management and/or SCRUM

• Certification related to enterprise information technology architecture, such as TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework).

• Technical certifications related to Microsoft Azure, RedHat OpenShift, MongoDB

Required

• Relevant experience is work in software architecture and development.

• At least 3 years experience  in large-scale, cloud-native OpenEdx platforms.

• Experience in microservices, containerization (Kubernetes/OpenShift), and CI/CD automation.

• Experience with Python (Django), Node.js, FastAPI, Celery, and modern JavaScript frameworks (Vue.js).

• Proven track record with relational and NoSQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB), search/analytics (Elasticsearch, ClickHouse), and caching (Redis).

• Familiarity with event streaming (Kafka), workflow orchestration (Airflow), and LTI/SCORM/xAPI standards.

• Experience in security, compliance, and data governance in enterprise environments.

Desired

• Experience in EdTech or large-scale learning platforms

• Certifications in Azure, Kubernetes/OpenShift, or TOGAF.

• UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes. 
• UNOPS will at no stage of the recruitment process request candidates to make payments of any kind.
• Applications to vacancies must be received before midnight Copenhagen time (CET) on the closing date of the announcement. Applications received after the closing date will not be considered. 
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the selection process, which may include various assessments. 
• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of a wide range of nationalities, cultures, languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. We strive to sustain and strengthen this diversity, fostering an inclusive working environment where all personnel are treated with respect and have equal access to opportunities.
• UNOPS evaluates all applications based on the skills, qualifications and experience outlined in the vacancy announcement. We are committed to a fair and transparent selection process and welcome diverse perspectives, including those of women, indigenous and racialized communities, individuals of diverse gender identities and sexual orientations, and persons with disabilities.
• We are committed to enabling all candidates to perform at their best during the assessment process. If you are shortlisted and require support or reasonable accommodation to complete any assessment, please inform our human resources team upon receiving your invitation.
• UNOPS has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment, and other forms of abusive conduct, including discrimination, abuse of authority, and harassment. To uphold these standards, background checks are conducted for all final candidates to help ensure that individuals with a history of such conduct are not hired. By applying for a position with UNOPS, candidates acknowledge and consent to these verification processes.
  

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few mandatory courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. For more information on a retainer contract here. 
• For more details about the contract types, please click here.
• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda. 
• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.