About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines fordeveloping countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

Consultancy Title: Software Engineering Consultancy

Division/Duty Station: Data and Analytics/DAPM, Florence

Duration: December 1, 2025 – May 31, 2026

Home/ Office Based: Remote

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

UNICEF requires the services of an external consultant to support the Office of Strategy and Evidence (OSE) in enhancing its data engineering, report automation, and AI-based analytics, while simultaneously migrating primary responsibility for its technology stack to the platforms team of the Digital Impact Division (DID). The consultancy will focus on:

• Building and optimizing data pipelines across the data lifecycle using an array of modern cloud services and data architectures, including LLMs, analytics platforms, and data lakehouses.
• Developing report automation workflows for flagship publications, including The State of the World’s Children (SOWC) and The State of Africa’s Children (SOAC).
• Advancing UNICEF’s use of generative AI across the data lifecycle, from automated data extraction to RAG-based report generation, contextualization, and localization, including designing and implementing QA strategies using emerging AI-testing frameworks.
• Supporting indicator data, structuring, storage, and consultation processes with field offices and member states.
• Technology and analytics support to the Frontier Data Network as it migrates to DID.
• Together with the DID Platforms Team facilitate the technology transition of PaaS, Saas and bespoke full-stack apps built on varying enterprise-grade software languages from the Data and Analytics Section (D&A) of OSE to DID

Scope of Work:

1. Design and maintain automated data pipelines across UNICEF’s internal (QA and Production Indicator Data Warehouses, Data Bricks, Snowflake, Reference Data Manager, etc.) and external platforms.
2. Develop and implement automated workflows for flagship reports such as SOWC, ensuring repeatability, transparency, and reduced manual workload.
3. Prototype and productionize AI-driven solutions using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), including robust QA methodologies from frameworks such as DeepEval.
4. Support technical preparations, data flows, and quality checks for indicator data storage and consultations with field office and national partners.
5. Assist in governance, documentation, and systems handover for technology transition to the DID Platforms team.
6. Support the Frontier Data Network team with needed analytics and technology.
7. Provide training and technical documentation to ensure sustainability.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline

1.  Situation Indicator consultation support

-  Updated, validated SDG and CRAVE situation indicator datasets for the 2025 cycle, including loading and management of data in the CONSULT and Indicator Data Warehouse platforms indicator data warehouses

31 Dec 2025

2.  Automated reporting

-  Updated End-to-end automation workflow for SOWC and SOAC, including automated generation of tables and figures

31 Jan 2026

3.  Assessment & work plan for technology migration to DID Valencia

-  Review of current technology services and migration readiness with roadmap and implementation plan.

28 Feb 2026

4.  Data pipeline and AI upgrades

-  Functional ETL/data pipelines established for data lake houses, with scripts, validation routines, and documentation, including RAG-based prototype for SDG Country Briefs with QA framework using DeepEval

31 Mar 2026

5.  Technology Migration Phase 1

-  Initial migration package (repositories, technical docs) delivered to DID Valencia

30 Apr 2026

6.  Technology Migration Phase 2

-  Final migration package (repositories, technical docs) delivered to DID Valencia

31 May 2026

Qualifications

Education: Advanced University degree in  Software Engineering or a related field

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

• 5+ years of experience developing full stack software products
• 5+ years of experience working with data and analytics tools;
• 5+ years deploying software solutions to cloud environments, including IaaS, Paas, and SaaS
• Proven experience in implementing ETL pipelines over heterogenous data using Python, R and SQL;
• Experience discovering and harmonizing development data using scripted approaches for access with both file-based and API methods;
• Experience using cloud-based analytics platforms and data and spatial data processing tools, e.g. Data Bricks;
• Experience implementing generativeAI solutions, especially RAG with strong understanding of relevant QA and testing approaches.
• Experience with UNICEF domain data is an asset

Requirements:

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and

- Upload copy of academic credentials

- Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :

• • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability

- Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.

- At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.

- Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.