The Digitalization and Informatics Division (CSI) is responsible for all information technology (IT) activities within the Organization. CSI performs on behalf of the Organization the following critical roles: defining FAO IT policies and providing strategic advice on IT architecture and standards, governance, policy and operational matters while monitoring organizational compliance; defining the mechanisms for managing FAO's information and data; protecting FAO's information assets and ensuring confidentiality, integrity and availability; ensuring provision of IT services that are core for the Organization's global operations and supporting the information and business processes; coordinating organization-wide IT activities in order to reduce duplication and fragmentation and to increase integration of information, data, systems and platforms, mobilizing IT resources from across the Organization.
CSI manages the Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform for the interest of the Organization. The platform is the collaborative result of various units in FAO as well as external collaborators, and it is a successful model of data sharing and data federation for digital transformation in food and agriculture. An enhanced data platform will benefit FAO digitalization and digital transformation to fulfill FAO’s mandate in fighting hunger and poverty and to realize UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The post of Senior Information Technology Officer (Agri-Data Platform Lead) is located in the Digitalization and Informatics Division (CSI) at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.
Reporting Lines:
The Senior Information Technology Officer (Agri-Data Platform Lead) reports to the Director, CSI and within work-planning and resource-allocation coordination provided by the Deputy Director, CSI.
Technical Focus:
The Senior Information Technology Officer (Agri-Data Platform Lead) is responsible for the delivery and management of the agri-data platforms, digital solutions, services and digital public goods that support the Organization in accomplishing the technical programme at the global and country level. The incumbent will act as technical lead and project manager for the initiatives related, but not limited to, data integration, data federation, data engineering, data modelling and data visualization applications, working closely with IT management and FAO business units to ensure consistency of project execution with the Organization's strategic vision and enterprise data and IT architecture, and ensuring that it meets the Organization's priorities.
Key Functions:
Leads specialized activities carried out by the CSI.
Prepares work plans and monitors progress to ensure delivery of operations and/or projects’ outputs as per organizational needs and agreed priorities.
Manages the financial and human resources assigned.
Develops, monitors and reports on key performance indicators of the assigned functions.
Advises senior management on IT matters including the implications of various functional and technological alternatives and on IS/ICT strategies, governance and standards including their impact on the Organization's ability to deliver its programmes.
Leads the planning, coordination and setting of policies for the development and implementation of an Organization-wide IS/ICT strategy and for the development of supporting standards, procedures and practices according to the agreed work plans.
Leads special projects and supervises staff, including external service providers and consultants.
Represents the Organization and the Division in formal meetings, negotiations, and/or mediation/problem resolution meetings to reach agreement on various IT issues and/or to resolve difficult or contentious problems.
Promotes initiatives under the Organization's work on the Corporate Environmental Responsibility Strategy, to reduce emissions, increase efficiency and integrate sustainability into the Organization's daily operations.
Specific Functions:
Acts as a technical leader in agri-data platform development and operation.
Acts as a project manager in relevant IT application projects.
Manages platform and application development teams and contractors working remotely from locations around the world collaborating with the teams of other FAO data platforms and systems for further integration to consolidate the Organization’s data infrastructure.
Implements mechanisms to monitor, manage and provide progress on system development activities ensuring the data solution fits with FAO business requirements, data protection and privacy policies and the end-to-end technical operations processes including systems, interfaces and platforms.
Leads various technical teams in expanding analytics capabilities for non-corporate data across multiple FAO domains ensuring agri-data platforms comply with the organizational data policy and standards.
Contributes to data governance and data policy.
Contributes to the Organizational data and IT Application Development Strategy.
Performs other duties as required.
Candidates Will Be Assessed Against The Following:
Minimum Requirements:
Advanced university degree in information technology, computer science, information systems, software engineering, mathematics, statistics or related field
Ten years of relevant experience in implementing, supporting and managing large scale data platform or system.
Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another official FAO language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
Technical/Functional Skills:
Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions.
Extent and relevance of experience in the field of the Corporate Environmental Responsibility is an asset.
Extent and relevance of experience with providing services to clients.
Extent and relevance of experience in leading diverse teams in international and multicultural settings.
Extent and relevance of experience in managing Business Intelligence/Analytics solutions preferably in a public sector or international organization.
Extent and relevance of experience in managing IT application projects in a multilingual context.
Demonstrated experience in vendor negotiations and management.
Demonstrated experience in drafting reports and documents in the required languages.
