Background

UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and its wide range of partners. UNDP’s global focus is helping countries build and share solutions to the challenges of: (a) Democratic Governance; (b) Poverty Reduction; (c) Crisis Prevention and Recovery; (d) Environment and Energy and (e) HIV/AIDS. UNDP helps developing countries attract and use aid effectively. In all its activities, UNDP encourages the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women.

Within the aforementioned global context, UNDP Turkey works for Democratic Governance and Growth without Poverty. For more than 50 years the UNDP has worked in close partnership with the Turkish Government and numerous national and international institutions, including NGOs, academics and the business community.

UNDP Turkey aims to find practical solutions to Turkey's development challenges and manages projects together with the Turkish Government and other partners to address them. Since 1986 it has implemented over 80 programs across the country. In addition, the UNDP has played a major role in response to crises and disasters in Turkey and the surrounding region.

Within the above mentioned context; UNDP Turkey will support the Ministry of Family and Social Polices (MoFSP) for "Effective Social Service Delivery Through Better Monitoring, IT Systems and Capacities” project. The overall objective of the project is to improve the IT infrastructure to strengthen its capacities for monitoring and implementation of social service provision and establish a stronger infrastructure for the service delivery models to be set up in the future. The project, with its monitoring perspective, will also provide inputs for the policy making process relating to the service areas of the MoFSP. This project will consist of number of IT and Monitoring System related activities which include Hardware, Network, Software, Database, Training and MoFSP IT Department Staff Capacity Development activities. And to support the achievement of the project’s development objectives, the services of a Senior Software Engineer are required and UNDP intends to recruit “Senior Software Engineer” on a full time basis who will be stationed in Ankara, MoFSP premises.

The project will be coordinated and implemented by a multi-disciplinary team at the MoFSP in Ankara. The Senior Software Engineer will support the Ministry in implementation of the project work plan by providing technical support to project activities. Senior Software Engineer will report to UNDP Programme Manager and Project Co-Director of MoFSP on a day to day basis and work in close collaboration with the project team and the ministry staff.

Duties and Responsibilities

The scope of the services that will be carried out by the Senior Software Engineer are:

1. ensure the functioning of the project from beginning to the end including project inception activities, annual and quarterly planning and reporting, and implementation of project activities, project reviews and project closure.
2. ensure the effective and flexible coordination and implementation of the project and experts well involved in related project activities.
3. prepare timely and quality project progress and implementation reports, work plans, monthly progress reports; prepare analyses reports as required with the help of the related responsible experts and other project related reports asked by MoFSP

KF1. Effective coordination and timely implementation of all aspects of the project and ensuring experts well involved in related project activities.

Expected Results: Project activities in annual work plan completed effectively and in a timely manner,  Ministry software should be compliant with the industry standards in terms of technical specs

• participating in meetings with the MoFSP staff in order to assess needs in project;
• Identifying necessary action for the current and follow-up activities and draft the project implementation plan, ensuring compliance with the specific objectives of the project;
• Assisting preparation of the annual work plan, as well as quarterly plans as required;
• On a daily basis following up with all key actors on implementation of the project;
• Follow the progress and quality of the project activities and to determine if the project activities are proceeding in accordance with the relevant Statements of Works and Technical Specifications;
• Providing the needed support to the project team to effectively carry out the activities in the agreed work plan;
• Reviewing and verification of expert submittals such as Project Data, Software Plans, System Analyses, Network and Hardware Analyses, testing reports, GUI’s, bug rates, software scenarios, technical architecture, models, and other technical and administrative submissions before submitting the MoFSP
• Monitor and advise on risks
• implementation and make recommendations for risk mitigation measures as required;
• Keeping MoFSP and UNDP informed of the progress of the project activities and update the MoFSP with project events affecting the works on a weekly basis or earlier as may be required. In the case of emergencies, the report should be made immediately the event occurs;
• Assure the quality of the overall project process.
• Write periodic project status and progress reports
• Assist in programme analysis and maintain comprehensive project related records
• Capture lessons learnt during project implementation
• Documentation of project related lessons, best practices and success stories as implementation continues
• Maintain accurate project filing systems covering all project activities (including contract agreements with implementing partners, monitoring and evaluation reports, and photographic evidence of outputs, among others
• Prepare documentation in accordance with requirements and/or asked by MoFSP

KF2. Create compliance guidelines

Expected Results: Ministry software must be compliant with the government rules in Turkey and can communicate with the other ministry software

• Analyze governmental and other ministry rules
• Create steps for compliance
• Document the steps
• Monitors the steps
• Perform  such other job-related duties as determined by the MoFSP

KF3. Programme software

Expected Results: A database integrated software that can monitor the ministry operations in a real time manner

• Follow the technical requirements
• Write C#/SQL/Java codes
• Create the user interaction modules
• Perform  such other job-related duties as determined by the MoFSP

KF4. Timely and accurate documentation of the project

Expected Results: Technical documentation

• Prepare technical documents
• Create module list
• Write the input and output procedures for each module
• Write the module definition
• Prepare documentation in accordance with requirements and/or asked by MoFSP
• Weekly and/or monthly reports that indicate the events affecting the works. In case of emergencies, the report should be made immediately the event occurs.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards, and those of the partner organizations,
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP, and partner organizations,
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability,

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent knowledge of project life cycle management, especially for IT project;
• Demonstrates strong supervision skills, strong attention to details,
• Promotes team work, contributes towards building team consensus,
• Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Good teamwork skills
• Efficient team player and leader
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting
• Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects
• Ability to formulate budgets,
• Ability to work under pressure against strict deadlines,
• Ability to contextualize global trends in accordance with the dynamics of the operating (working) environment.
• Ability to think strategically and result oriented
• Time management and priority setting abilities for himself/herself and the project team
• Ability to present complex issues persuasively and simply.
• Good knowledge of the Results Management
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills with a flexible approach to suit the needs of different audiences
• Appropriate supervision skills.
• Output oriented.

Required Skills and Experience

The incumbent should possess the following qualifications and experience.

General Qualifications:

• BS in an Engineering discipline
• Proficiency in Turkish
• Good command of spoken and written English

Professional Experience and Qualifications:

• Minimum of twelve (12) years of relevant professional experience
• Professional experience in a governmental IT project is an asset

Specific Experience and Qualifications:

• Experience in software lifecycle management, standards for software quality assurance, and software documentation.
• Strong knowledge and expertise on .NET platform
• At least 7 (seven) years of working experience of software development on Windows environment such as .NET,C#, ASP.NET,  and WCF, WebApi, Web Services, Entity Framework
• At least 4 (four) years of experience on multitier architecture
• Working experience on HTML5, CSS3, Jquery, JavaScript/Ajax, ASP.NET MVC
• Knowledge on MS SQL and other relational database system
• Having Microsoft Database Administrator Certification (MCDBA) is an asset
• Having at least one Microsoft Software Development related certifications is an asset

Notes:

• Internships (paid/unpaid) are not considered professional experience.
• Obligatory military service is not considered professional experience.
• Professional experience gained in an international setting is considered international experience.
• Experience gained prior to completion of undergraduate studies is not considered professional experience.

Reporting:

The incumbent will report to UNDP Programme Manager and Project Co-Director of MoFSP and will work in close coordination and collaboration with the Ministry staff, Coordinators of the subject matter projects.

Other Considerations:

The Senior Software Engineer will be based in Ankara premises of MoFSP.

Interested individuals shall submit

1. A 1-page letter of motivation, focusing on the applicant’s skills and capabilities against the required qualifications (in English),
2. Copies of diplomas and relevant certificates , if any,
3. UN Personal History (P11) Form available at UNDP’s vacancy announcement webpage.
4. CV indicating proper reference code.

Please upload the above-mentioned documents as a single document.