Terms of Reference

Senior Digital User Experience Officer

UNOPS IICA-3

Digital Engagement Section

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a Senior Digital User Experience – UNOPS
IICA-3 position within the Digital Engagement Section (DES) - Private Sector
Partnerships Service.

UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a
better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year,
millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and
persecution. We are in over 130 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions.
UNHCR is almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions from governments and private
donors.

Title: Senior Digital User Experience Officer
Duty Station: (Home based role (within Europe/Africa/Mena time zones)
Duration: 15 October – 31 December 2020
Contract Type: UNOPS International Specialist, Level IICA - 3 (50% time)
Closing date: 22nd September 2020

Organizational Context

The Digital Engagement team advises on, creates and delivers digital solutions and
strategies for engaging with UNHCR’s primary audiences, including the public, partners,
governments, refugees and staff. As part of its responsibilities, DES oversees UNHCR’s
global web presence, producing and managing websites for a range of stakeholders
throughout the organization to help them engage effectively with their key audiences. For
these websites to achieve their goals, it is essential that they be designed and built with a
proper understanding of the needs and behaviour of their intended end users – whether
those be the displaced or stateless people that UNHCR serves, or governments, operational
partners, the private sector, researchers, media or others.

Purpose and Scope

Within this context, the Senior Digital User Experience Officer will employ a range of user
research and testing methodologies to inform our priority web projects. both at the beginning
of the project in order to contribute to the initial functional specifications, as well as during the
design phase to ensure the final product meets stakeholder needs. Given the nature of the
stakeholders in question, the role requires a highly experienced professional with a structured
and sophisticated approach to user research, and with the ability to adapt interactions and
communication style to a variety of stakeholders.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Digital Marketing Officer, the Senior Digital User
Experience Officer will work to ensure the usability and coherence of our web presence for
our target audiences. In particular, this role will be responsible for the following activities
within our key web projects:

- Audience research during the needs assessment phase of web projects, including
surveys and/or interviews. Deliverables will include detailed interview notes, analysis
and reporting of findings, (if relevant) the creation of personas representing key
audience segments, and recommendations and implications for site design,
information architecture and functionality.
- Concept development during the design phase. Deliverables, to be provided in close
coordination with the wider web project team, will include user stories to provide the
basis for user journeys on the site for each audience group; participation in key team
discussions and input on design proposals.
- User testing of draft designs/wireframes to inform the design phase and IA
development, as well as at the pre-launch phase of the project. Deliverables will
include a detailed report of findings, including any barriers to the usability of proposed
designs/IA, and recommendations for their optimization.
- Training of DES team members in basic user research and testing methodologies, to
build capacity across the team in putting the end user at the centre of our digital
products.

Monitoring & Progress

Work priorities, along with the expected outputs, will be agreed upon with manager on a
monthly basis. Progress will be monitored through weekly meetings.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional
experience required

The ideal candidate will possess the qualifications and experience listed below.

Education:

- Bachelor’s degree in Communication, Sociology, Digital/Product Design or other
related field. Training or significant experience in audience research and user testing
methodologies is also essential for this role.

Work Experience:

- Minimum of 9 years (8 years for masters degree holders) of relevant work
experience, including significant experience employing the full range of user research
and testing methodologies to inform a variety of web projects for international
organizations.

Key Competencies

Required:

- Expertise in the full range of audience research and testing methodologies, including
surveys, interviews, user observation, card sorting, tree testing, heat maps and others.
- Strong analytical and reporting skills, including the ability to analyse and report on
research findings and draw actionable conclusions.
- Familiarity with the development of personas and user journeys based on audience
research.
- Familiarity with web analytics tools, and extensive experience drawing actionable
conclusions from web analytics.
- Experience briefing and working closely with design and development teams to
optimize user experience on websites.
- Expert knowledge of web best practice
- Excellent communication skills, including the ability to adapt communication style to a
range of different stakeholder groups.
- Fluency in English

Desired:
- Knowledge of Spanish, French or Arabic would be an asset.

Location

The successful candidate will be home-based; flexible location within Europe/Africa/Mena
time zones.

Conditions

This position is initially up to the end of the year and it is a 50% role with a work-week of 20
hours.

To apply

Interested applicants should submit the United Nations Personal History Form (PHF) including
testimonials/degrees/certificates, indicating “your surname” &
“Senior Digital User Experience Officer” in the subject of the email.

Personal History Forms are available at PHF Form / Supplementary Sheet.

Closing date for the receipt of applications: 22nd Sept 2020, midnight (Copenhagen time)

Vacancy Notice issued: 08 September 2020

The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages and
opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities
as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. Applications are
encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex,
national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Please note that UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process
(application, interview, meeting, travelling, processing, training or any other fees).