Senior Digital Innovation & AI Solution Expert Lead

Result of Service

UN-Habitat Corporate website enhancements and dynamic updates, Urban October website re-vamp, UN Habitat App (WUF and other events), GEMS v3.0 new User interface and subsequent development of GEMS v3.0 incorporating lessons learned from WUF13, GEMS AI integration, front-end development and advancement of the WUF 14 website, and MIND v2.0 deployment for upcoming events including World Habitat Day, World Cities Day and other events on demand.

Work Location

Home based

Expected duration

12 months

Duties and Responsibilities

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the agency for human set-tlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. The Events and Outreach Unit is located within the Global Knowledge and Advocacy Division (GKAD) of UN-Habitat. One of the Division's key mandates is to promote strategic alliances to support achievement of the goals of adequate shelter for all, and sustainable urbanization and human settlements development. The World Urban Forum (WUF) is UN-Habitat's key stakeholder flag-ship platform. The WUF is a non-legislative technical forum convened by the UN-Habitat biannually since 2002. The forum gathers a wide range of experts from every walk of life. Participants of the fo-rum include but are not limited to national, regional and local governments, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, professional, research institutions and academia, professional, private sector, development finance institutions, foundations, media, United Na-tions organizations and other international agencies. The WUF is recognized as the foremost global arena for interaction among policymakers, local government leaders, non-governmental organizations, and expert practitioners in the field of sustainable urban development and human settlements. UN-Habitat is working to strengthen its engagement with its partners in recognition of the rapid urbanization process and the strategic political relevance and potential for unique and important contributions to the regional and global debate on urban issues. Building on foundational milestones achieved in previous phases, the focus now shifts to scaling and advancing existing digital infrastructure. The WUF website was successfully created and launched; is now being further developed to broaden partner engagement, strengthen cohesion among existing partners. The UN-Habitat Global Event Management System v2.0, having been successfully implement-ed at WUF 13, is now advancing to GEMS v3.0, incorporating lessons learned and dynamic im-provements to enhance the registration process, event application platform, reporting capabili-ties, and back-end features used by event organizers. GEMS v2.0 already operating for WUF13, ensuring a seamless and positive online experience for the tens of thousands of participants, ex-hibitors, and session organizers who engage with the platform. Subsequently, lessons learned from WUF13 will inform the development of GEMS v3.0, continuing the iterative improve-ment of the platform to meet evolving event management needs and deliver an increasingly re-fined experience for participants and organizers alike. Building on the successful implementation of MIND v1.0, MIND v2.0 will be advanced to fur-ther enhance communication dispatched to Member States, Partners and stakeholders from across all UN-Habitat, with its upgraded capabilities set to be deployed for upcoming events. To support the above, UN-Habitat is seeking a senior digital innovation and AI lead to provide strategic leadership in the design, governance, scaling and continuous improvement of UN-Habitat’s digital ecosystem supporting engagement with Member States, partners and stake-holders across corporate events, outreach activities and institutional processes. 2. RESPONSIBILITIES Under the overall supervision of the Chief of the Events Unit and with technical oversight from Chief of Communications, Head of the Production Unit and UN-Habitat ICTS, the incumbent will be required to perform the following functions: • Lead the strategic evolution, governance and continuous improvement of UN-Habitat digital platforms, including the corporate website, WUF web ecosystem and related stakeholder engagement platforms. • Ensure interoperability and seamless integration across the UN-Habitat digital ecosys-tem including the corporate website, WUF website, Urban October Website, GEMS, MIND, UN-Habitat App, including archiving of past WUF sessions. • Lead and coordinate multiple multidisciplinary teams of consultants, developers, de-signers and technical specialists, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, de-livery roadmaps, budgets and stakeholder expectations. • Define product requirements, implementation roadmaps and digital service improve-ments across UN-Habitat web platforms and event management systems. • Incorporate inclusive and accessible web design standards across the corporate website, GEMS, and WUF website to ensure accessibility for Persons with Disabilities. • Collaborate with team members on iterative development of GEMS v3.0, MIND v2.0, and other digital tools, including moderation processes, automated email alerts, and event management services. • Own the product vision, roadmap prioritization and stakeholder engagement processes for UN-Habitat digital products and services. • Identify opportunities for digital transformation and AI adoption across business pro-cesses, Member states, partners, stakeholder engagement workflows and event manage-ment operations. • Collaborate with the ICT Unit on development of a tailor-made UN-Habitat App. • Monitor, maintain, and implement security patches, software updates, and new features across all platforms in collaboration with UN-Habitat ICTS and OICTS teams. • Take part in technical reviews and testing processes, providing troubleshooting and quick problem-solving support. • Provide training to UN-Habitat content focal points, external partners on GEMS features, and moderators on back-end functions. • Contribute technical expertise and thought leadership through workshops, demonstra-tions, knowledge-sharing sessions and presentations related to UN-Habitat digital plat-forms and innovation initiatives. • Lead the identification, evaluation, governance and deployment of AI-enabled capabili-ties across UN-Habitat digital products, ensuring alignment with organizational priori-ties, security requirements and operational needs. • Create and update user guides, tutorials, and moderation guides for all applications as required.

Qualifications/special skills

A Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field is required. A Bachelor’s degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. Minimum of 7 years of proven experience in web development, User Experience (UX) design, web best practices, responsive design and digital strategy, experience in innovative technical leadership by performing and/or overseeing the planning, development, and multi-project management is required. Technical experience in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and PHP; Figma, Adobe XD or other prototyping tools, working experience in Git version control and the command line is required. Proven experience in Drupal is required.

Languages

French and English are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this post, Fluency in English is required.

Additional Information

Not available.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.