Background
UNDP corporate Content Management System (CMS) is based on Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) - an enterprise web content management platform. This platform is used for managing UNDP’s corporate website as well as the individual country, regional, and representation office websites. Currently, the platform hosts 150+ individual web properties and is used by approximately 400 users for external communications.
The system is maintained by the Online & Digital team within UNDP Communications Group, consisting of number of web editors, user support specialist, QA engineer, UX designer and full-stack web developer. Administrative and system management support is provided by external vendor.
With increased demand for system customization, enhancements development and implementation, and ongoing upgrade to the recent version of application software, UNDP is looking for increasing team capacity for back-end customization and further development of the system.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of Work, Duties and Deliverables
Under the supervision of the lead web developer, and in close collaboration with other members of the team - QA engineer, UX designer, user support and various project managers assigned to the specific projects, the consultant will perform the following duties:
Develop consumer experiences built on Adobe Experience Management 6 product suite, including WCM, CRX, DAM, Workflows, OSGI and third-party systems integration
Design AEM components and integrate architecture with corporate systems and services, as part of a multi-language, multi-site and multi-channel solution
Diagnose and triage technical problems concerning consumer sites, content publication and dynamic presentation
Translate front-end/design packages to AEM templates and components
Adapt and refactor legacy code (from CQ5) and optimize for the best performance on AEM6 platform
Liaise with other team members (front-end developer, UX designer, lead developer, project manager, user support) to translate business requirements to end products
Work with managed hosted services provider if required
Expected Outputs and Deliverables
The consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables by the given timeline:
In close collaboration with other team members perform various development tasks according to the team’s work plan
Develop, test, package and deploy code change batches using UNDP guidelines for AEM development
Liaise with QA engineer in order to handle issues related to supplied code or to fix bugs in existing codebase
Provide specialized expertise to suggest system improvements, performance optimization measures and overall UNDP corporate CMS experience tuning
Competencies
Corporate Competencies
- Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values.
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
Functional Competencies
- Excellent Java/J2EE programming skills, familiarity with modern design patterns, especially OSGI
- Proven ability to write efficient, testable, documented code
- Good knowledge and hands-on experience with frontend languages/technologies - HTML, CSS, Javascript
Leadership and Self-Management
- Ability to scope the time and effort needed to complete technical specifications
- Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
- Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
- Good English communication skills
Required Skills and Experience
Education
Completed secondary education in combination with relevant work experience
Required Experience
At least 2 years of software development experience for CQ5/AEM platform is required
Demonstrable knowledge of AEM system with proven development track for that platform
Good knowledge of performance optimization and scalability in AEM is required
Thorough understanding of AEM Security model with understanding of SSO is required
Knowledge of various AEM subsystems like MSM, Mobile, I18N, Tagging, Translation, Search etc is required
Demonstrable Java/J2EE programming skills and familiarity with modern design patterns, especially OSGI is required
Experience with standard developer’s workflow - continuous integration, version control, issue tracking, build tools, etc is required
Frontend development skills will be an asset
Language
Fluency in oral and written English is required;
Institutional Arrangement
AEM developer will report to the O&D technical lead and closely collaborate with other members of the team - QA engineer, UX designer, user support and various project managers assigned to the specific projects.
Since this is a remote assignment, we expect successful incumbent to set up and maintain all necessary hardware/software elements of work environment independently. UNDP will supply AEM developer with all software packages, license keys, access codes, etc, which are not available publicly and required for performing assigned tasks
Duration of the Work
* The total duration of the LTA will be 2 years with a maximum of 440 working days with possibility of extension for additional 18 months subject to availability of funds and satisfactory contract performance; while the duration of the initial contract will be 128 working days within 6 months (between July and December 2019).
Duty Station
This is remote assignment, no travel required or envisaged. We expect consultant to be at least partially available during NY office working hours (GMT -5) every working day. He/she should be able to participate in weekly scrum calls as well as ad-hoc conference calls (MS Teams, Slack or similar) based on individual project’s needs.
Application Procedure
The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):
Online application with brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment; and
Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references.
Up to 3 samples of existing projects.
Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.
Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.
The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7-hour working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).
The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.
This consultancy is a home-based assignment, therefore, there is no envisaged travel cost to join duty station/repatriation travel.
In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.
If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.
The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.
Evaluation process
Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below. Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.
Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):
Previous experience with Adobe CQ5 /Adobe Experience Manager Development. Maximum Weight = 5% (5 Points).
Previous experience with Java/J2EE programming. Maximum Weight = 5% (5 Points).
Written Coding Test. Maximum Weight = 30% (30 Points).
Interview. Maximum Weight = 30% (30 Points).
After reviewing the applications and receiving completed written test results, the top five candidates will be invited for interview. Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.
Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)
The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:
p = y (µ/z), where
p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
µ = price of the lowest priced proposal
z = price of the proposal being evaluated
Contract Award
Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.
Payment modality
Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager. The consultant will be able to submit one invoice at the end of each month for payment.
The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7-hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.
Framework Agreement
UNDP plans to enter into the Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with one TOP ranked successful Individual Contractor to assure resources availability at the required time fame and/or increased demand for services requested.
Please note that the LTA does not form a financial obligation or commitment from UNDP at the time the LTA contract is signed, and that such an agreement is non-exclusive. When a specific need arises, the successful Individual Contractor will be approached and be provided with a specific TOR and deliverables (and time frame) but still within the scope of the responsibilities stated in the LTA. The successful Individual Contractor/s is expected to provide Confirmation of Interest on the specific services required. Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is committed and based on the agreed LTA Daily Rate Consultancy Fee.
This LTA has a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume.
Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):
Annex 1 - IC Contract Template
Annex 2 – IC General Terms and Conditions
Annex 3 – RLA Template
Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org
The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.