Tiered Approach

In line with the commitment to safeguard capacity and support personnel already in the Organization, a majority of UNDP UNCDF/UNV vacancies are advertised using a tiered application process whereby:

  • Tier 0: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV IP staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments, whose posts will be abolished, or contracts will be terminated or not renewed during 2026.
  • Tier 1: Other UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments
  • Tier 2: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA), personnel on regular PSA contracts, and Expert and Specialist UN Volunteers
  • Tier 3 or no tier indicated: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

Please make note of the Tier(s) indicated in the vacancy title, if any, and ensure that you satisfy the eligibility to apply.

Office / Unit / Project Description

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the leading organization for sustainable development within the UN system and acts as the key integrator for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP operates across headquarters, regional, and country levels, leveraging local expertise alongside global insights to deliver effective advocacy and solutions. For six decades, UNDP has worked with partners to lift millions out of poverty and expand opportunities for all. 

UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2026–2029 is grounded in the determination to eradicate poverty—the greatest global challenge and a prerequisite for achieving the 2030 Agenda. Through the Strategic Plan, UNDP will continue supporting countries in advancing high human development while protecting the planet. Four strategic objectives—prosperity for all, effective governance, crisis resilience, and a healthy planet—guide its direction, powered by three accelerators: digital and artificial intelligence (AI) transformation, gender equality, and sustainable finance. All efforts are underpinned by a strong commitment to human rights and to leaving no one behind. 

Within UNDP, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) brings together world-class policy expertise, flagship global programmes, and collaborative innovation and learning networks. BPPS ensures that UNDP is not only ready for the future but actively helps shape it with governments and partners. Working closely with the Crisis Bureau (CB), BPPS supports countries in navigating complex development and crisis contexts, integrating risk considerations into programming, and strengthening results-based management, innovation, and data-driven approaches.

The Global Policy Network (GPN) is central to this effort, mobilizing technical expertise to advance UNDP’s strategic objectives and signature solutions. Within the GPN, BPPS is responsible for developing policy and guidance, providing technical advice to Country Offices, representing UNDP in multi-stakeholder fora, and supporting UN inter-agency coordination across thematic areas. 

The Italy Africa Digital Flagship initiative is implemented in close collaboration with national governments, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Italian public and private sector partners. It focuses on advancing digital public infrastructure, digital identity systems, agritech solutions, and data-driven governance, contributing to sustainable development and inclusive economic growth.

Within this framework, the Digital Transformation Specialist will provide senior technical leadership for the digital transformation components of the Italy–Africa Digital Development Flagship Programme. The role will focus on ensuring that digital solutions, feasibility studies, technical specifications, and implementation approaches are technically sound, interoperable, scalable, secure, and aligned with national digital priorities, international standards, and relevant donor and financing requirements. The incumbent will work closely with the Project Specialist, UNDP Country Offices, national digital counterparts, technical teams, and external partners, providing technical inputs and quality assurance to support coherent programme design and implementation.

The assignment is situated within a complex and evolving multi-stakeholder environment, characterized by tight timelines, advanced stages of project design, and the need to align diverse partner expectations and requirements. Additional challenges include the coordination of multi-country interventions, adaptation to specific donor formats and procedures (including AICS requirements), and ensuring consistency across projects developed in different national contexts together with the project team.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the strategic guidance and supervision of the UNDP Rome Centre Senior Advisor, and in close coordination with the Project Specialist, the r Digital Transformation Specialist will serve as the primary technical authority for digital architecture, digital strategy, and ICT systems design within the programme. 

The role is responsible for ensuring that digital solutions developed under the Flagship are technically sound, interoperable, scalable, and aligned with international standards and the evolving digital regulatory environments of the partner countries. 

The incumbent will work at the intersection of government policy, technology architecture, and development finance, providing senior-level technical advisory services to national governments, UNDP teams, and strategic partners. The Senior Digital Transformation Specialist will perform the following functions:

1.        Preparatory and Feasibility Studies Technical Leadership 

  • Lead the technical design and quality assurance of executive feasibility studies under the Italy- Africa Digital Flagship Programme in selected countries. 
  • Oversee the architecture design of the feasibility studies, including GIS platforms, remote sensing integration, telemetry systems, IoT sensors, and climate advisory dashboards, ensuring full technical interoperability between physical infrastructure and digital decision-support systems. 
  • Define the full technical architecture of the studies, covering high-performance computing, cloud and hybrid deployment models, data storage and sovereignty frameworks, cybersecurity and disaster recovery systems, interoperability layers, and a sequenced pipeline of AI use cases aligned with national priorities.
  • Lead the definition of data governance models, interoperability standards, and responsible AI frameworks in compliance with international regulatory requirements across both studies. 
  • Ensure all digital system specifications are produced to a standard sufficient to support international competitive tendering, CDP financing appraisal, and seamless transition to implementation. 
  • Coordinate with the UNDP Rome Centre, national digital agencies, MAECI, and Italian private sector and technology partners to ensure technical coherence, institutional ownership, and alignment with the broader Digital Flagship programme architecture.

2.        Lead Digital Strategy and Architecture 

  • Lead the design and continuous refinement of the digital transformation strategy for the programme across all four focus countries, ensuring technical coherence, scalability, and alignment with national digital agendas.
  • Define and oversee enterprise architecture frameworks for proposed digital public infrastructure, including digital identity systems, e-government platforms, connectivity infrastructure, data governance frameworks, and interoperability layers.
  • Conduct and validate technical feasibility analyses and ICT landscape reviews in close collaboration with UNDP Country Offices and national counterparts.
  • Provide authoritative technical advisory to government ministries, national digital agencies, and implementing partners on system architecture, technology stack selection, cybersecurity requirements, and data protection frameworks.
  • Lead technical due diligence for proposed digital solutions, ensuring alignment with international standards (ITU, ISO, NIST), open-source and digital public goods principles, and sustainable vendor-neutral architecture.

3.        Lead Technical Management and Quality Assurance

  • Lead the technology workstream to ensure on-time, on-budget delivery of digital components.
  • Establish and manage an integrated programme governance structure for the digital workstream, including technical steering committees, change control boards, risk registers, and issue logs.
  • Develop and maintain programme-level technical documentation including the solution design documents, technical specifications, and supporting the procurement documentations (RFPs/TORs for ICT services and vendors), test strategies, and acceptance criteria.
  • Oversee technical quality assurance and acceptance testing of delivered digital systems, ensuring contracted deliverables meet defined technical and functional standards before certification of satisfactory completion.
  • Provide input to project formulation documents (ProDocs), results frameworks, and monitoring and evaluation plans as they relate to digital components.

4.        Cybersecurity, Data Governance and Risk Management

  • Lead the development of cybersecurity strategies and frameworks for digital systems designed under the Flagship, informed by industry standards such as ISO/IEC 27001 and NIST CSF, with appropriate localization for each country context.
  • Advise on data protection legislation, data sovereignty considerations, privacy-by-design principles, and alignment with applicable international frameworks (e.g., GDPR-equivalent standards).
  • Conduct and document IT risk assessments, articulating technical risks in terms accessible to non-technical stakeholders; develop mitigation strategies and contingency plans.
  • Ensure that all digital systems procured or developed under the programme incorporate robust access control, audit trail, and incident response capabilities.

5.        Build Strategic Partnership, Stakeholder Engagement and Capacity Development

  • Serve as the senior technical interlocutor with government counterparts (Ministries of ICT, National Digital Agencies, Regulators) and strategic partners including international financial institutions, bilateral donors, and private sector entities.
  • Provide technical inputs to investment cases, concept notes, and bankable project documents, translating complex technical architectures into language suitable for development finance decision-making.
  • Design and deliver capacity development sessions, technical workshops, and knowledge-sharing events for government officials and UNDP teams on digital transformation, emerging technologies, and ICT governance.
  • Represent UNDP at high-level technical conferences, inter-agency forums, and bilateral meetings, contributing to the programme’s visibility and positioning as a centre of technical excellence.

6/       Innovation, Emerging Technologies and Facilitate Knowledge Management

  • Monitor global trends in digital public infrastructure (DPI), open-source digital public goods (DPGs), AI-enabled public services, cloud adoption, and emerging connectivity technologies (e.g., low-orbit satellites, 5G/6G), and advise on their applicability in the programme context.
  • Support the identification and piloting of innovative digital tools that can accelerate SDG delivery in the programme’s thematic areas (agriculture, health, climate, digital identity, tax administration).
  • Contribute to UNDP’s global knowledge base through documented lessons learned, technical briefs, and replicable frameworks derived from the Flagship’s implementation experience.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

4. Institutional Arrangement

The Digital Transformation Specialist will report directly to the Head of the Political Affairs and Strategic Initiatives. The incumbent will be embedded within the UNDP Rome Centre and will work in close coordination with relevant teams, as well as with UNDP Country Offices in participating countries.

Under the direction of the UNDP Rome Centre Senior Advisor, the Digital Transformation Specialist will conduct regular technical coordination with UNDP Country Offices including, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, and Mozambique, with the Italian Government (MAECI/DGCS), CDP, AICS, and with national digital counterparts. 

Competencies

Core competencies 

Achieve Results    LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact 
Think Innovatively    LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems 
Learn Continuously    LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences   
Adapt with Agility    LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands
Act with Determination    LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results   
Engage and Partner    LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration
Enable Diversity and Inclusion    LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies 

Digital - Co-creation: Ability to design and facilitate a process that enables a diverse group of stakeholders to solve a common problem, develop a practice, or create knowledge together. Ability to embrace diversity, work with a diverse group of stakeholders understand their interests, perspectives and views and tap into to them as a source for creativity. Ability to facilitate processes and create conditions that are open for diverse inputs, stimulate collaboration and sharing.
Digital - Digital ecosystems: Knowledge of how they work, understanding of the opportunities and challenges for governments and society
Digital - Digital transformation design: Practical and strategic skills in digital transformation for governments and organisations.
Digital - Policy/regulations for digital and emerging technology: Ability to design or advise on regulations and policy for digital and emerging technology.
Digital - Portfolio design & management: Ability to identify leverage points in systems and design interventions that address them. The value of the interventions is determined not in isolation, but as part of the overall portfolio and their coherence. Ability to design processes that extract learning on an ongoing basis from existing portfolios, so that learning accrues over time and new options for action are continuously generated. Build a learning ecosystem around a complex development challenge: being able to mobilise a variety of stakeholders and help them learn and work together. Understand key principles of systems and complexity theory.
Business Direction & Strategy - System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system
Business Management - Monitoring & Evaluation: Ability to systematically monitor results of strategies, programmes, and activities with a view to make sure that they are being implemented effectively; Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback and reporting on the consistency or discrepancy between planned activities and programme management and results. Ability to make independent judgment of the management and results of strategies, programmes and activities based on set criteria and benchmark, keeping in mind the needs and concerns of client, current and upcoming. Knowledge and understanding of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, concepts, methodologies, systems, processes, and tools. Ability to make an independent judgement based on set criteria and benchmarks. Ability to anticipate client's upcoming needs and concerns.
 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, Electrical / Telecommunications Engineering, Public Administration, Public Policy, or International Development with a strong ICT focus, Business Administration with specialization in Digital Transformation is required. Or

  • A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas stated above, in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree 

Experience:

  • Minimum of 7 years (with master’s degree) or 9 years (with bachelor’s degree) of progressively responsible experience in digital transformation, ICT programme management, and digital strategy.
  • At least 5 years’ experience in an international development context and/or with government entities in developing countries
  • Demonstrated expertise in enterprise/solution architecture design for large-scale digital government systems required
  • Proven experience leading large-scale digital transformation programmes or complex ICT projects in an international development context, preferably within the UN system or with multilateral institutions required
  • Proven experience advising national governments on digital transformation strategy, digital public infrastructure, or e-government platforms required.
  • Track record of managing complex, multi-country, multi-stakeholder digital programmes in an international or UN system environment required.
  • Experience with cybersecurity principles, data governance frameworks, and privacy-by-design methodologies required.
  • Experience in developing ICT procurement strategies, technical specifications (RFP/TOR), and vendor evaluation frameworks for public sector digital projects required.
  • Experience in translating complex technical concepts for non-technical audiences including senior government officials, donors, and development finance partners required.
  • Experience working in or with countries in West and/or East Africa on digital transformation or e-government initiatives desirable. 
  • Experience in digital public goods (DPG) ecosystems, open-source platforms (e.g., digital Identity, OpenCRVS, DHIS2), and interoperability frameworks (e.g., GovStack, X-Road) desirable. 
  • Experience with Italy’s development cooperation ecosystem (MAECI/DGCS, AICS, CDP/ICF) and bilateral finance mechanisms desirable. 
  • Familiarity with UNDP programme management cycles, Results-Based Management (RBM), and UNDP’s POPP procurement procedures for ICT services desirable. 
  • Experience applying PMI/PMBOK, PRINCE2, or Agile/Scrum methodologies within a UN or international development programme context desirable. 

Languages:

Fluency in English is required.  

Working knowledge in Italian is desirable. 

Professional Certificates (Higly desirables)

  •   ITIL 4 Foundation or higher (IT Service Management)
  • CISSP - Certified Information Systems Security Professional (ISC²)
  • PMP - Project Management Professional (PMI)
  • PRINCE2 certificate
     

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Use of AI by candidates

Applicants are invited to read UNDP’s guidance for candidates on using AI responsibly in UNDP recruitment and selection

Scam alert

UNDP does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process. For further information, please see www.undp.org/scam-alert.

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