By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Read our privacy policy

Consultancy - Technology For Development (T4D) Technical Writer, ICTD New York

New York City

  • Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
  • Location: New York City
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Communication and Public Information
    • Information Technology and Computer Science
    • Technology, Electronics and Mechanics
    • Translations and Languages
  • Closing Date: Closed

UNICEF's ICT Division seeks a Technology for Development (T4D) Technical Writer to support RapidPro scale-up and organizational mainstreaming.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a connected world

UNICEF’s role in planning, measuring, tracking, and reporting results for children requires the ability to gather, integrate, and share information between multiple actors. The demands for real-time information and problem solving with partners is vital to this process, especially in humanitarian action, and technology solutions are becoming an essential tool to accelerate impact and reach the most vulnerable populations.

UNICEF’s Information and Communication Division (ICTD)’s newly established Field Solutions Unit is a team of experienced software developers and designers within ICTD’s Solutions Centre and Support. The Unit’s goals are to establish enterprise support to innovative open-source tools used by field-based programmatic experts, planning specialists, partnership managers, and implementing partners around the world.  As part of UNICEF’s Information and Communication Technology Division’s 2017 reorganization, the new unit will work with counterparts throughout the organization to tailor open-source software solutions to magnify UNICEF’s impact by driving better decision-making, promoting collaboration, and realizing organizational efficiencies with modern digital tools.

RapidPro is a globally supported mobile engagement platform used by dozens of UNICEF country offices to magnify and monitor programmatic impact for children. With the strong uptake of RapidPro and related apps, the Field Solutions Unit seeks to provide a wealth of content for anyone to learn, explore, share, and contribute to expanded usage and evolution of RapidPro within UNICEF programmatic areas and operational contexts. So, the Field Solutions Unit seeks a technical writer to create, edit, and maintain written and multimedia content around product specifications, user guides/manuals, and case studies to drive better practices, advanced usage, and more effective use of RapidPro and related T4D technologies to achieve results for children.

The T4D Technical Writer will liaise with counterparts at external organizations, as necessary, for building relationships and technical documentation for open-source projects and other initiatives related to ICTD field solutions products. The T4D Technical Writer may be required to represent UNICEF and ICTD at meetings, conferences, and other events, as well as attend meetings with colleagues based in the field.

How can you make a difference?

The exact tasks for the consultant will be jointly determined in an agile way and are outlined in summary below. The consultant will directly interface with the ICT Manager of Field Solutions and will work on tasks/areas as prioritized and authorized by the ICT Manager each month.

  • Support RapidPro scale-up and organizational mainstreaming activities:
    • Work with Global Innovation Centre (GIC/OI) and regional Technology For Development (T4D) Business Analysts (BAs) to collect, review, reorganize, and update RapidPro guidance documents, SOPs, “playbooks,” templates/tools, etc. to be used by T4D BAs and/or vendors providing “RapidPro expert services” to country office (CO) colleagues;
    • Work with Global Shared Services Centre (GSSC) to develop/adapt RapidPro support materials for potential use by GSSC help desk staff, support materials for use by CO-based ICT staff, and materials for GSSC help desk staff and CO ICT staff training;
  • Author and maintain product resources:
    • Maintain and expand web-based and document-based product resources, including:
      • Product overview documents for RapidPro and related technologies (such as U-Report, TracPro, Surveyor app, CasePro, and others)
      • Content to drive better usage and learning, such as feature overviews, tutorials, and tips/tricks
      • Content to introduce and promote exploration and analysis of data generated by RapidPro and other T4D tools
      • Technical manuals for setup and configuration of software tools
      • Case studies, implementation overviews, and deployment experiences with products by UNICEF and others
      • Copywriter’s manual and documentation guidelines for all technical documents.

This consultancy will be for an initial period of six months, with the possibility of extension.

  •  

To qualify as a champion for every child, you must have:

  • A bachelor’s degree in English, Journalism, Communications, or a related field;
  • A minimum of 3 years of experience as a technical writer producing detailed technical product documentation;
  • Fluency in English with excellent writing skills; 
  • Attention to detail, research skills and the ability to work under strict deadlines.

In addition, the following will be considered a strong asset:

  • Education/work experience in engineering/technical fields;
  • Experience using and deploying RapidPro and other T4D tools;
  • Familiarity with UNICEF organizational structure;
  • Experience working in low-resource settings and writing for multicultural audiences;
  • Experience working with software product development teams;
  • Experience with processing and synthesizing large amount of information.

 

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable).  Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered. 

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

Due to the high volume of applicants, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

This vacancy is now closed.
However, we have found similar vacancies for you: