Information Technology Architect

Grade: P4 

Vacancy no.: RAPS/2/2024/INFOTEC/03
Publication date: 6th May 2024
Application deadline (midnight Geneva time):  6th June 2024

Job ID: 11946 
Department:INFOTEC 
Organization Unit: TMS 
Location:Geneva   
Contract type: Fixed Term 

The following are eligible to apply:

• ILO Internal candidates in accordance with paragraphs 31 and 32 of Annex I of the ILO Staff Regulations.
• External candidates.

Staff members with at least five years of continuous service with the Office are encouraged to apply.

Applications from candidates who have already separated from ILO service upon retirement or early retirement, will not be considered.

The ILO values diversity among its staff and welcomes applications from qualified female candidates. We also encourage applicants with disabilities. If you are unable to complete our online application form due to a disability, please send an email to ilojobs@ilo.org.

The ILO welcomes applicants with experience in working within ILO constituents (governments, employers’ and business membership organizations, and workers’ organizations).

Applicants from non- or under-represented member States, or from those member States which staffing forecasts indicate will become non- or under-represented in the near future would be particularly welcome. A list of these countries can be found here: ILO Jobs: Non- and under-represented Member States

In addition to the interviews and tests that any candidate may be required to take, successful completion of the ILO Assessment Centre is required for all external candidates and any internal candidate applying to a higher category.

Notwithstanding the general considerations set out in the ILO Staff Regulations, this vacancy announcement is the only authoritative document pertaining to the qualifications required for this position. The minimum required qualifications were determined in view of the specific duties and responsibilities of this position.

The specific language requirements for this position are detailed hereunder. However, candidates applying for the professional category vacancies who have not already successfully completed their probationary period within the ILO and whose mother tongue is not one of the working languages of the Office (English, French and Spanish), shall be required to possess a fully satisfactory working knowledge of at least one of the ILO working languages. If appointed they may be required to acquire a knowledge of a second working language of the Office during their initial years of service.

The position is located in the Technology Management Services (TMS) Branch within the Information and Technology Management Department (INFOTEC). INFOTEC provides modern, secure, and reliable IT infrastructure, technologies, applications, and services to enable the ILO to effectively use technology to perform its mission.

The position is responsible for promoting and ensuring the architectural coherence of the ILO’s IT landscape, influencing technology decisions, and driving the design of robust IT systems. This includes defining architecture standards, mapping key systems, data sources and data flows in a standardized format, participating in technical design phases and assessing new technologies.  The incumbent will be a hands-on information technology architect leading the practice within INFOTEC and coordinating architecture activities across various projects in the Organization. 

The position reports to the Branch Chief, TMS. 

1.    Establish, develop, and maintain strategic architectures (enterprise/solution/data), roadmaps, and IT systems architecture across the Organization, including new technologies, ensuring alignment with software development capacities, business objectives, information security and operability.
2.    Define, lead the development of, continuously improve, and ensure adherence to intuitive architecture framework, methodologies, processes, tools, and standards to promote consistency and quality across the Organization.
3.    Coordinate the development of architectural documentation, including diagrams, specifications, and design documents, ensuring that this is produced according to defined standards, maintained over time, and supports ongoing maintenance and future enhancements, ensuring accuracy and accessibility for all stakeholders including non-IT experts.
4.    Foster a culture of modularity and integrability by promoting structured and versioned APIs. Collaborate with technical teams and ensure IT systems adhere to best practices in this subject area. Identify possible improvements on existing systems and suggest modernisation action plans. 
5.    Guide technical leads, solution architects and development teams in adopting coherent architecture principles in line with the overall strategy, fostering architectural expertise and adherence to standards. 
6.    Collaborate with information management, application managers and business experts to identify master data assets, track data usage across different systems, ensure compliance with data privacy and information security when implementing or adapting solutions. 
7.    Collaborate with stakeholders, including business leaders, IT teams, and vendors, to understand requirements and translate them into architectural solutions.
8.    Evaluate emerging technologies and trends to identify opportunities for innovation and improvement in the IT landscape. Implement proof of concepts through rapid cycles to validate selected technologies in the ILO’s context. 
9.    Monitor and assess the impact of changes to the architecture, identify risks and opportunities and make recommendations for optimization or remediation. 
10.    Perform other relevant duties as assigned.

Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in computer science or other closely related field. 
A first-level university degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent) in computer science or other closely related field with an additional two years of relevant experience, in addition to the experience stated below, will be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

At least seven years of professional experience in the IT field, of which at least three years working as an information technology architect in a large, multi-sites, and international environment.
 

Excellent command of one working language (English, French, Spanish) of the Organization and a working knowledge of a second working language of the Organization.  One of these languages must be English.  

In addition to the ILO core competencies, this position requires:

Technical competencies     
-    Expertise modelling information technology systems and their dependencies using off the shelf architecture frameworks. 
-    Ability to define, document and promote the use of architecture standards across diverse groups of information technology professionals. 
-    Expert knowledge of an architecture tool such as Archimate or Sparx EA 
-    Large information technology culture spanning on-premises and cloud infrastructures, IT workplace, software development, data management and information security.
-    Familiar with integrating modern software development concepts at the architecture level, including continuous integration and deployment.   
-    Ability to carry out proof of concepts with new technologies and produce experimental pieces of software code.    
-    Ability to write clear documentation, business cases and terms of reference.
    
Behavioural Competencies
-    Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical people at different levels of the organisation. 
-    Ability to multi-task, manage different projects in parallel and coordinate across boundaries.
-    Ability to lead discussions and build consensus among diverse opinions and points of view.
-    Ability to work effectively in a multicultural environment and to demonstrate gender-responsive, non-discriminatory, and inclusive behaviour and attitudes. 

Conditions of employment

• Any appointment/extension of appointment is subject to ILO Staff Regulations and other relevant internal rules. Any offer of employment with the ILO is conditional upon certification by the ILO Medical Adviser that the person concerned is medically fit to perform the specific inherent requirements of the position offered. In order to confirm an offer from the ILO the successful candidate will be required to undergo a medical examination.
• The first contract will be issued for a twenty-four month period.
• A successful external candidate will be on probation for the first two years of assignment.
• Any extension of contract beyond the probation period is subject to satisfactory conduct and performance.

For more information on conditions of employment, please visit the ILO Jobs International Recruitment page.

Important Information

Any officials of the General Service category interested in applying to this position are hereby informed that, if selected, they will be offered the salary and allowances applicable to the grade of the position applied for, which may result in substantial changes in their take-home remuneration. In accordance with Article 3.4 of the Staff Regulations, the salary of an official, upon promotion, shall in no case be greater than the maximum salary of the grade to which he or she was promoted. For any questions or clarifications, please contact your HR partner at hrpartner@ilo.org

Recruitment process

Please note that all candidates must complete an on-line application form. To apply, please visit the ILO Jobs website. The system provides instructions for online application procedures.

Evaluation (which may include one or several written tests and a pre-interview competency-based assessment centre) and the interviews will tentatively take place during the 3 to 4 months following the application deadline. Candidates are requested to ensure their availability should they be short listed for further consideration.

Depending on the location and availability of candidates, assessors and interview panel members, the ILO may use communication technologies such as Skype, Video or teleconference, e-mail, etc. for the assessment and evaluation of candidates at the different stages of the recruitment process, including assessment centres, technical tests or interviews.

The ILO has zero tolerance for acts of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and is determined to ensure that all staff members and all beneficiaries of ILO assistance do not suffer, directly or indirectly, from sexual exploitation and abuse. 
To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organisation, the ILO may conduct a background verification of candidates under consideration.

Fraud warning

The ILO does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process whether at the application, interview, processing or training stage. Messages originating from a non ILO e-mail account - @ilo.org - should be disregarded. In addition, the ILO does not require or need to know any information relating to the bank account details of applicants.