UNDP Jobs - 114625- Data Quality Assurance Intern

Data Quality Assurance Intern

Location :

Home Based - Reporting to office in NY

Type of Contract :

Internship

Starting Date :

18-Dec-2023

Application Deadline :

28-Nov-23 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

Intern

Duration of Initial Contract :

6 Months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

6 Months

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNDP’s policy work carried out at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy. In this context, UNDP invests in the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains and in support of the signature solutions and organizational capabilities envisioned in the Strategic Plan.

Within the GPN, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. BPPS staff provide technical advice to Country Offices, advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represent UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private, government and civil society dialogues, and engage in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas.

UNDP's 2022-2025 Strategic Plan highlighting our continued commitment to eradicating poverty, accompanying countries in their pathways towards the SDGs and working towards the Paris Agreement. As part of the Global Policy Network in the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support, UNDP's Nature, Climate Change, Energy, and Waste (NCE&W) Hubs promote and scale up integrated whole-of-governance approaches and nature-based solutions that reduce poverty and inequalities, strengthen livelihoods and inclusive growth, mitigate conflict, forced migration and displacement, and promote more resilient governance systems that advance linked peace and security agendas.

BPPS’ VF Program Support Oversight & Compliance, together with Hubs, works with governments, civil society, and private sector partners to integrate nature, climate, energy and waste related concerns into national and sector planning and inclusive growth policies, support country obligations under Multilateral Environmental Agreements, and oversee the implementation of the UN’s largest portfolio of in-country programming nature, climate change, energy and waste.

This multi-billion-dollar portfolio encompasses:

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services including forests;
Sustainable Land Management and Desertification including food and commodity systems;
Water and Ocean Governance including SIDS;
Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation;
Sustainable Energy;
Extractive Industries;
Chemicals and Waste Management;
Environmental Governance and Green/Circular Economy; and SCP approaches.

This work advances crosscutting themes on innovative finance, digital transformation, capacity development, human rights, gender equality, health, technology, and South-South learning.

UNDP is at a strategic position to provide this support to countries using evidence-based policy making backed by data. The portfolio of projects overseen by UNDP, with financing from vertical funds, is immense – spanning more than 1,100 active projects across 140 countries. The data generated by these projects is equally immense. The BPPS VF Program Support Oversight & Compliance Unit’s Project Information Management System (PIMS+) gathers project results and progress data from projects underway in 140 countries.

PIMS+ is a comprehensive project cycle management tool designed to support the VF Program Support Oversight & Compliance Unitin providing high-quality oversight services to the vertical funds. Over the upcoming years, the VF Program Support Oversight & ComplianceUnit is committed to improve PIMS+ dashboards for Country Offices and Regional Bureaux, and continue to build the overall system to support effective monitoring of the portfolio of projects to improve oversight, support, and reporting.

PIMS+ is a large-scale custom information system. Following is a summary of the technical stack of the application:

• Consists of three web applications, one REST API Endpoint;

• Built on PHP 8 engine with Yii2 PHP Framework and libraries including PHPOffice, HighCharts, SAML, MapBox, Select2, AutoNumeric, TinyMCE, GuzzleHTTP, SwiftMailer, etc.);

• JS client-side scripting with jQuery;

• HTML, CSS with Bootstrap 3 and BEM (Block Embedding Methodology) SCSS framework;

• MariaDB Database Server - InnoDB Storage Engine, Shared file system storage for documents management;

• Elasticsearch for advanced search function with possible extension towards AI / ML;

• The system runs on 4 virtual servers (Centos 7), resources are managed with Pacemaker CRM;

• Other technologies and tools that require maintenance: Apache HTTPD Web server, Gitlab with CI/CD pipelines, Zabbix monitoring toolkit, Postfix & Dovecot mail components, Redmine.

UNDP is looking for talented, motivated, and enthusiastic intern who will work closely with the PIMS+ team to support VF program support, oversight & compliance, by assisting the VF portfolio management system maintenance and development. The intern will learn how UNDP VF portfolio database is managed by providing daily, directly supervised by the PIMS+ data quality assurance consultant.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

To assist the PIMS+ data quality assurance by delivering various data monitoring and manual update support
To support the PIMS+ result database improvement
To archive the documentation of PIMS+ modules, guidance, and relevant information
To support the data validation among the different report modules

To assist the PIMS+ data quality assurance by delivering various data monitoring and manual update support

To monitor and update the PIMS+ “system health consistency checking” module on daily basis
To monitor and update the HR data from Quantum and manual update by users
To check GEF7 (all projects), manual checking if financial and RM component are matched in case there are financial changes, to address any error
To improve the PIMS guidance by checking the quality of the existing ones

To support the PIMS+ result database improvement

The Intern will support to the PIMS+ team in system development that include:

To enter the legacy result data from the old projects
To support the PIR data management and monitoring

To archive the documentation of PIMS+ modules, guidance, and relevant information

To archive the PIMS+ documents in Sharepoint, Workspace, Milestones, and others to be used as guidance and reference

To support the data validation among the different report modules

The Intern will support validating the data accuracy and consistency between PIMS reports, dashboard, and PBI analysis, supporting PIMS data expert.

Competencies

Core

Achieve Results:

LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline

Think Innovatively:

LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements

Learn Continuously:

LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback

Adapt with Agility:

LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible

Act with Determination:

LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident

Engage and Partner:

LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships

Enable Diversity and Inclusion:

LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

*Thematic Area*	*Name*	*Definition*
*Digital & Innovation*	*Data analysis*	Ability to extract, analyse and visualize data (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making
*Digital & Innovation*	Data collection	Being skilled in Data Sorting, Data Cleaning, Survey Administration, Presentation and Reporting including collection of Real-Time Data (e.g. mobile data, satellite data, sensor data).
*Digital & Innovation*	Data literacy	Understand the potential as well as the limitations of using data-driven innovation. Ability to use a mix of data sources (quantitative, qualitative or real-time techniques) to develop understanding, identify patterns to inform decision making or identify opportunities for further exploration.
Business Management	Communication	Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels
Business Development	Knowledge Generation	Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need
Business Management	Monitoring	Ability to provide managers and key stakeholders with regular feedback on the consistency or discrepancy between planned and actual activities and programme performance and results

Required Skills and Experience

Education
Applicants to the UNDP internship programme must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements:

Be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher) in fields such as computer sciences, web resources development, web design, programming or other closely related field;
Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelor’s level or equivalent) in fields such as computer sciences, web resources development, web design, programming or other closely related field;
Have graduated with a university degree (as defined above), and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation.

Experience:

Relevant work/voluntary/internship experience in working experience in development of robust Web 2.0 information systems (projects of large scale - database model larger than 200 relational entities, complex role based access control preferred);
Knowledge of/familiarity with full stack development (frontend design, backend development, SQL, Linux administration) and in software analysis and design, including knowledge of analytical methodologies and approaches such as Use-Case analysis and use of UML. Hands-on experience preferred;
Excellent knowledge of design and implementation of applications on relational database level - excellent knowledge of SQL;
Knowledge of, and/or prior experience within, the UN system is considered an advantage.

Language requirements

Excellent oral and written communication skills in English language are required;
Knowledge of French is considered an asset.

Institutional Arrangements

The intern will report to the Data Quality Assurance Analyst.
The internship will be carried out remotely from the intern’s home-base.

Interns’ Expenses

Interns may be given a stipend under conditions prescribed in the section on stipends, below. Costs and arrangements for travel, visas, passports, accommodation and living expenses are the responsibility of:

(a) The nominating institution, related institution or government, which may provide the required financial assistance to its students; or

(b) The intern.

Stipend

Where an intern is not financially supported by any institution or programme, such as a university, government, foundation or scholarship program, a stipend intended to help cover basic daily expenses related to the internship, such as meals and transportation at the duty station, will be paid by UNDP.

The stipend will be paid on a monthly basis and part-time internship arrangements are prorated accordingly.

Where an intern is financially supported by an institution, government or third party, UNDP will, subject to the rules of such institution, government or third party, pay the intern the difference, if any, between the external financial support provided and the applicable UNDP stipend. No other payments of any kind will be made to an intern by the office in connection with an internship agreement.

Interns will accrue leave at the rate of 1.5 days per month. Any accrued leave days not used by the end of the internship will be forfeited. Any unjustified absences during the internship period exceeding a total of nine days, will be deducted from the monthly stipend.

Insurance

Interns are responsible for securing adequate medical insurance for the duration of their internship with UNDP. UNDP will not reimburse the medical insurance of the intern. Any costs arising from accidents and illness incurred during an internship assignment will be the responsibility of the intern. Applicants for internships must show proof of valid medical insurance for the duty station in which they will intern. For applicants who are neither nationals or residents of the duty station, the insurance must include adequate coverage in the event of an injury or illness during the internship duration which:

Requires transportation to the home country or country of residence for further treatment;
Results in death and requires preparation and return of the remains to the home country, or country of residence.

Subsequent Employment

There is no expectation of employment with UNDP following an internship. Interns cannot apply for, or be appointed to, any position during the period of their internship.

Third-party claims

UNDP is not responsible for any claims by any parties where the loss of or damage to their property, death or personal injury was caused by the actions or omission of action by the interns during their internship.