ICT Officer

The ICT Officer plays a key role in designing, operating, and continuously improving the Organization’s private cloud, private AI platform, and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environments, as well as its public cloud services, in support of operations and missions worldwide. The position involves applying infrastructure-as-code, automation, CI/CD, containerization, and monitoring practices to deliver secure, resilient, and scalable platforms that enable client entities to develop, deploy, and run applications, including AI and machine learning workloads, in complex and often time-sensitive environments.

The incumbent provides round-the-clock support, including on-call and rotational coverage, to ensure high availability and rapid incident resolution for mission-critical services.

The role contributes to global operations by promoting reliable service delivery, efficient resource and cost management, and compliance with UN policies, standards, and information security best practices., The Department of Operational Support (DOS) is responsible for the delivery and maintenance of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure, systems and software applications in support of the operational requirements of Peacekeeping Missions, Special Political Missions, as well as Department of Peace Operations (DPO) and DOS at Headquarters. ICT is one of the fundamental components that enable substantive work of field missions. Timely and secure communications and information exchange within and between UN Peacekeeping Missions and Headquarters is critical to meet the core strategic, operational and tactical mandate of the United Nations. It is of paramount importance that robust, fault tolerant and scalable ICT infrastructure is in place to maintain operations in the event of natural or manmade disasters, disruption in the theatre of operation, or as Security Council mandates change.

The Service for Geospatial, Information and Telecommunications Technologies (SGITT) at the Unite Nations Global Service Center (UNGSC) provides a critical role as the as the resilient operational hub for the support and delivery of technology services and solutions to field operations and a broad range of Secretariat and United Nations system clients. As a unified, singular service provider, SGITT provides reliable, resilient and innovative, geospatial, communications and information technology services, including centralized connectivity, hosting and monitoring support, ensuring that staff members in field missions and at Headquarters have access to critical enterprise systems. UNOPS has signed an agreement with the United Nations Global Service Centre (UNGSC) to provide specialized technical support services in the areas of hybrid cloud, platform management, and global identity infrastructure. Within this framework, the Platform Support Unit (PSU) delivers operational and technical support for the hybrid cloud environment (covering public and private cloud), platform management (including the Private AI platform), global identity infrastructure, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) infrastructure. These services underpin the digital operations of UN entities and field missions and are aimed at enhancing service resilience, security, operational efficiency, and the responsible adoption of emerging technologies. To support the growing demand for cloud-based services, secure identity and access management, private AI capabilities, and reliable ERP operations, this position provides technical implementation, operational support, and innovation assistance to ensure service reliability, system integration, and continuous improvement of the hybrid cloud platform. The incumbent of this position will be personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility., Under the overall supervision of the UNOPS Programme Manager, and under the direct guidance of the Chief, Infrastructure Operations Section (IOS), and the Chief of the Platform Support Unit (PSU) at the UN ICT Facility in Valencia, Spain, the ICT Officer will provide reliable, secure, and efficient private cloud, private AI, PaaS, and public cloud services within the Platform Support Unit., * Design, deploy, operate, and maintain the private cloud infrastructure (compute, storage, virtualization), ensuring performance, resilience, capacity, and lifecycle management.

• Implement backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity arrangements, and support the onboarding of client entities.

• Private AI Platform

• Deploy, operate, and optimize the private AI platform, including GPU-accelerated infrastructure and training and inference environments.

• Implement and maintain MLOps tooling and manage resource allocation, ensuring compliance with data protection and UN policies.

• PaaS

• Support the management and improvement of on-premises PaaS offering, including container orchestration, Drupal and Moodle platform, Redis, MySQL, and other managed platform services.

• Develop standardized deployment templates, and support client entities in deployment, and troubleshooting.

• Public Cloud

• Design, implement, and manage public cloud environments in line with UN architectural standards.

• Optimize cloud consumption and costs, and support hybrid connectivity between private and public cloud.

• Automation, Monitoring, and On-Call Support

• Develop infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD pipelines, and implement monitoring, logging, and alerting across all platforms.
• Provide 24/7 on-call and rotational support, including weekends and holidays as required, resolving incidents within agreed service levels and contributing to incident, problem, and change management.

1. Perform other duties as may be reasonably required and in line with the incumbent’s scope of services above., Treats all individuals with respect; responds sensitively to differences and encourages others to do the same. Upholds organisational and ethical norms. Maintains high standards of trustworthiness. Role model for diversity and inclusion. Acts as a positive role model contributing to the team spirit. Collaborates and supports the development of others. For people managers only: Acts as positive leadership role model, motivates, directs and inspires others to succeed, utilizing appropriate leadership styles. Demonstrates understanding of the impact of own role on all partners and always puts the end beneficiary first. Builds and maintains strong external relationships and is a competent partner for others (if relevant to the role). Efficiently establishes an appropriate course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a goal. Actions lead to total task accomplishment through concern for quality in all areas. Sees opportunities and takes the initiative to act on them. Understands that responsible use of resources maximizes our impact on our beneficiaries. Open to change and flexible in a fast paced environment. Effectively adapts own approach to suit changing circumstances or requirements. Reflects on experiences and modifies own behavior. Performance is consistent, even under pressure. Always pursues continuous improvements. Evaluates data and courses of action to reach logical, pragmatic decisions. Takes an unbiased, rational approach with calculated risks. Applies innovation and creativity to problem-solving. Expresses ideas or facts in a clear, concise and open manner. Communication indicates a consideration for the feelings and needs of others. Actively listens and proactively shares knowledge. Handles conflict effectively, by overcoming differences of opinion and finding common ground.

Content Management Systems, DevOps, Disaster Recovery, Cloud Service Provider, * Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) preferably in information technology, computer science, engineering, statistics, or in a field related to the post description with zero (0) year of relevant experience OR

• A first level university degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent) preferably in information technology, computer science, engineering, statistics, or in a field related to post description with two (2) years of relevant experience., * Relevant professional certifications in one or more of the following areas: public cloud platforms (e.g., Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud), identity and access management, infrastructure as code and automation (e.g., Terraform)., * Relevant experience is defined as experience in DevOps, cloud engineering, or infrastructure and platform management.
• Experience in DevOps, cloud engineering, or infrastructure and platform management.
• Experience with open-source AI/ML platforms (E.g. vLLM, RAG DB’s, etc.) and on-premises GPU-accelerated infrastructure management.
• Experience managing private cloud environments using an open source virtualization platform (e.g., Proxmox or another KVM platform).
• Experience supporting infrastructure-as-code, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring tools.

Desired:

• Experience in supporting public cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Experience with containers and on-premises PaaS environments (e.g. Redis, Solr, MySQL, NGINX, etc).
• Experience working in the United Nations system or a similar international organization., English

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post.
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few mandatory courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. For more information on a retainer contract here.
• For more details about the contract types, please click here.
• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.
• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

The UNOPS Global Portfolios Office (GPO) brings together diverse expertise to help partners deliver impact worldwide. With hubs in New York, Geneva, and Vienna, and expert teams operating globally, GPO leads multi-regional initiatives that advance sustainable development, climate action, and peacebuilding - including in some of the world’s most challenging environments. By leveraging our collective expertise and global networks, GPO supports UNOPS’ strategic priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals across more than 130 countries. We work closely with major global partners - including governments, international financial institutions, and UN agencies - to deliver a wide range of services, such as project management, fund management, hosting services, and HR support., The incumbent ensures that engineering processes, automation practices, and operational tools are applied consistently and in line with recognized industry standards, while aligning all activities with UNGSC objectives and applicable UN policies, rules, and regulations.