Consultancy - Connectivity Credits Backend Software Engineering Consultant,Digital Impact Division,Geneva, CH,6 Months (Remote)

Consultancy - Connectivity Credits Backend Software Engineering Consultant,Digital Impact Division,Geneva, CH,6 Months (Remote)

Job no: 596538
Contract type: Consultant
Duty Station: Geneva
Level: Consultancy
Location: Switzerland
Categories: Information Communication Technology

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built. We offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, the right to a future.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

Connectivity Credits is a Giga initiative designed to create stronger incentives for internet service providers to deliver reliable, high-quality connectivity to schools and other underserved locations.

The approach links measurable connectivity performance to digital incentives. Network performance and service delivery are independently measured and verified, and eligible providers can receive Connectivity Credits when agreed service conditions are met. The platform brings together connectivity measurement, verification, rule-based decision-making, workflow orchestration and digital value transfer.

Connectivity Credits is currently moving from MVP and pilot implementations toward a production-grade platform capable of supporting multiple countries, connectivity providers, measurement systems and funding models.

This consultancy will provide dedicated backend software engineering capacity to support this transition. The consultant will work closely with the product and tech team of Connectivity Credits, who will provide the overall technical direction and architecture, and will be responsible for implementing agreed backend services, event-driven workflows, integrations and supporting deployment infrastructure.

Much of the work is greenfield, although existing MVPs and prototypes will be used as starting points where appropriate. The consultant is expected to work independently once the technical direction is clear, make sound implementation decisions, and translate requirements and technical designs into clean, reliable and maintainable software.

Scope of Work:

The consultant will support the design, implementation, testing and deployment of backend components of the Connectivity Credits platform.

Event-Driven Systems, Rules and Workflows

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have:

Education: Bachelors degree on Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or another relevant technical field.

Work Experience:

• Minimum three (3) years of professional experience in software development, with substantial hands‑on backend development experience.
• Demonstrated experience developing backend services and APIs using Python and/or TypeScript.
• Experience working with distributed or service-oriented applications.
• Experience with CI/CD, automated testing and deployment of backend services.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills:

• Strong understanding of software design principles, including modularity, separation of concerns and appropriate use of abstractions.
• Good understanding of REST APIs, JSON-based integrations and relational data modelling.
• Understanding of distributed‑system concepts such as stateless services, asynchronous processing, retries, idempotency and failure handling.
• Knowledge of containerized application development and deployment.
• Understanding of secure software development practices, including authentication, authorization, input validation, secrets management and least privilege.

Ability to work independently within an agreed architecture and make sound implementation decisions.

• Experience with Apache Kafka or another event‑streaming platform.
• Experience with rule engines, workflow engines or workflow‑management platforms.
• Professional experience with Java.
• Experience with block