Senior Cloud Architect Specialist
WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles
Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance
Job Title: Senior Cloud Architect Specialist
Type of Contract: Consultant Level II
Division: Digital Architecture (TECA), Technology Division
Duty Station: Remote working
Duration: 11 months
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT:
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world's largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. The WFP Technology Division (TEC) seeks to digitally enable the organization to deliver this mandate in an effective and efficient manner, with sufficient agility required for humanitarian operations.
Digital technology and data are rapidly reaching some of the most vulnerable people and places affected by crisis, while also expanding operational approach to those same crises. As one of the main humanitarian actors, WFP has the opportunity and obligation to leverage data and technology to better know and serve those in need by digitally transforming the way it works. Such ambition has led to the developing a new WFP IT Strategy whose core elements inform the end-to-end business processes of the organization.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
Reporting to the Head of Platform Architecture, the Senior Cloud Architect leads the technical aspects of the design of the Cloud Hosting solutions, providing direction, instructions and guidance to the different units and development teams for the adoption of public cloud providers, cloud native architectures and modern deployment models. The Senior Cloud Architect leads the evolution of the Amazon Web Services and the Microsoft Azure services to best support the different workloads operated by the World Food Programme in its Cloud journey.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Lead the design of corporate solutions based on public Cloud providers services being Software as a Service (SAAS), Platform as a Service (PAAS), or Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS);
- Lead the evolution of the Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure cloud governance framework and compliance verification.
- Coordinate the integration and positioning of corporate solutions in the WFP Digital Core and the Corporate API ecosystem.
- Support the refactoring and design of existing solutions in need to migrate from the existing on-premises environments to new Cloud-Native deployments;
- Work on the evolution of the different Continuous Delivery pipelines, working in the WFP DevOps team.
- Lead the definition of new Architectural paradigms in the organization for Public Cloud services adoption.
- Work together with the corporate budget unit to provide guidance on consumption monitoring/billing/quotas and general economics of cloud.
- Guide the IT Security on how to model the cloud solutions to be secured and hardened to protect critical data assets.
- Identify new cloud opportunities offered by the constantly changing CLOUD scenario.
- Review and evolve the current CLOUD accounts/tenants’ management in use in WFP based on industry best practices.
- Support the overall corporate initiative to migrate existing services to the cloud.
- Design the cloud native architectures of new software components and support the Solution Architect and Product Manager in presenting the IT Solution Proposals to the Architectural Board.
- Ensure the high technical quality of designed IT solutions and compliance with WFP standards (architecture, security, technology stack, user interface, etc.).
- Provide direction, instructions, and guidance to the different Development Teams in the organization.
- Create an inspiring team environment with an open communication culture.
- Design cloud native data lake/data fabric solutions to support the constantly growing need of the organization.
- Other duties related to software Architecture, as required.
DELIVERABLES:
- Well-architect/well-governed corporate AWS and Azure ecosystems.
- New architectural paradigms defined, existing architectural paradigms evolved to assist organization’s needs.
- All new and refactored solutions designed with Cloud-Native architectures principle applied.
- Architecture documentation (Architecture Proposals endorsed by the Architectural Board).
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:
University degree or a post-secondary education combined with a minimum of 8 years of equivalent working experience in software development or other related fields.
Experience:
- At least 8 years of experience working on public cloud solutions.
- At least 8 years of experience managing/architecting Enterprise IT environments.
- Solid experience in managing complex AWS organizations with hundreds of AWS accounts.
- Experience in implementing the required security framework on production mission-critical AWS ecosystem.
- Experience in API ecosystems and strong knowledge of SOA/Microservices architectures.
Technical Skills & Knowledge:
- Strong proficiency and experience in Amazon Web Services environments.
- Mastery in cloud solutions deployments and modern cloud native architectures.
- In-depth knowledge of digital technology matters (e.g. APIs, SDK, DevOps, UX, big data, ETL, Analytics, Cloud Solutions).
- Experience writing technical articles, giving presentations, explaining technology.
- Knowledge Transfer Management is required.
- Mastery in developing software solutions.
- Excellent Communications Skills.
- Coaching Skills is desirable.
- In-depth knowledge and proficiency with solution architecture, developing high-quality IT solutions, web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), Django/Python/PHP/.NET development stacks, Git versioning system, and GitFlow, Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD), Agile Scrum, and mainstream software design & development methodologies; and
- Understanding of accessibility, security compliance, design principles behind a scalable IT solution, and the differences between delivery platforms, such as mobile vs desktop, and optimizing output to match the specific platform.
Capabilities:
- Able to think creatively and strategically.
- Able to plan and organize work effectively.
- Able to articulate complex concepts in non-technical language.
- Able to coordinate multiple responsibilities simultaneously.
- Able identify and resolve problems.
- Well organized and detail oriented.
- Values diversity in the workplace, particularly valuing respectfulness and inclusively leveraging everyone's talents.
Language:
Fluency in oral and written English with an intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages) is desirable.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
WFP offers a competitive compensation package, which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.
Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.
http://www.wfp.org Click on: "Our Work" and "Countries" to learn more about WFP's operations.
Deadline for applications: 6 October 2022 at 11:59pm Rome time (CET/CEST)
REF: 173871
Qualified female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply.
WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.
No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.
Saving lives, changing lives
