SSA - National Digital Health Systems Administrator

Qualifications

Background

Working with Vanuatu Department of Communication and Digital Transformation (DCDT), the National Digital Health Systems Administrator is responsible for the day-to-day administration, monitoring, maintenance, security, and technical support of servers and associated platforms hosting Ministry of Health digital health applications.

The position, with the support of DCDT, will help ensure that assigned servers and applications remain reliable, properly configured, adequately protected, and recoverable following incidents or system failures. The role will monitor system availability and performance, maintain server configurations, support patching and vulnerability management, verify backups, assist with restoration and disaster recovery, manage technical changes, respond to incidents, and maintain complete technical documentation.

The Systems Administrator will also act as the Ministry of Health’s principal technical focal point for server-related coordination with DCDT. The position will distinguish between application, database, server, network, security, and infrastructure issues and ensure that incidents are escalated to the correct support level.

In collaboration with DCDT, the role will support achievement of the agreed service targets, including monthly application availability as agreed between MoH and DCDT, successful daily backups, recovery objectives, timely patching, and controlled maintenance and releases.

Job Description

The National Digital Health Systems Administrator will report to the Manager of the Digital Health Unit and support the reliable, secure, and efficient operation of servers hosting Ministry of Health digital health applications. The role will include the following responsibilities:

1. ESTABLISH OPERATING ARRANGEMENTS WITH DCDT

    

   • Document which application, server, and infrastructure responsibilities are assigned to MoH and which remain with DCDT. 

   • Confirm the specific servers, operating environments, services, access rights, and administrative tasks formally delegated to the Systems Administrator. 

   • Maintain clear escalation procedures for network, firewall, hosting platform, central identity, storage, data centre, and infrastructure-recovery issues that remain under DCDT. 

   • Maintain approved procedures for privileged access, escalation, maintenance, backup, recovery, and emergency changes. 

   • Support the formal handover of servers, credentials, technical documentation, and outstanding issues. 

      

2. MAINTAIN THE SERVER AND SYSTEMS REGISTER

    

   • Maintain an accurate inventory of assigned servers, applications, databases, environments, software versions, administrators, dependencies, and support contacts. 

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   • Record certificates, service accounts, privileged accounts, backup arrangements, licences, warranties, and maintenance requirements. 

   • Update technical records after approved changes, upgrades, or migrations.

      

3. ADMINISTER AND MONITOR ASSIGNED SERVERS

    

   • Administer operating systems, middleware, application services, databases, scheduled services, and related components within the approved scope. 

   • Monitor system availability, performance, storage, processor use, memory, logs, scheduled tasks, and service status. 

   • Start, stop, or restart approved services when required for authorised maintenance or service restoration. 

   • Identify capacity constraints and recommend additional resources before they affect service delivery. 

   • Support achievement of the agreed availability target for hosted digital health applications. 

      

4. SUPPORT CYBERSECURITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT

    

   • Apply approved security configurations, patches, updates, and vulnerability remediation actions. 

   • Apply least-privilege access and protect administrative credentials, service accounts, certificates, and security keys. 

   • Review privileged access regularly and report suspected unauthorised activity. 

   • Coordinate with DCDT on firewalls, central identity services, network security, certificates, and cybersecurity incidents. 

   • Preserve system logs and technical evidence when a security incident is suspected. 

      

5. VERIFY BACKUPS AND SUPPORT RECOVERY READINESS

    

   • Confirm that critical systems, databases, configurations, and application files are included in approved backup arrangements. 

   • Verify application and database backups within the delegated scope, report failures, participate in restoration testing, and coordinate infrastructure restoration and disaster recovery activities with DCDT.

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   • Verify scheduled backups and investigate or escalate failures. 

   • Maintain restoration procedures and participate in regular test restorations. 

   • Support agreed recovery-point and recovery-time targets. 

   • Participate in disaster recovery and business continuity exercises with MOH and DCDT. 

      

6. RESPOND TO INCIDENTS AND RECURRING PROBLEMS

    

   • Investigate server, application platform, database, and availability incidents. 

   • Determine whether issues relate to the application, database, server, network, firewall, identity service, storage, or data centre. 

   • Restore services within the delegated MOH scope and promptly escalate shared infrastructure issues to DCDT. 

   • Record incidents, actions, service impacts, and resolutions in the agreed ticketing system. 

   • Contribute to root-cause analysis and corrective actions for major or recurring incidents. 

   • Immediately brief the Digital Health Manager when an incident threatens health services or the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of health information. 

      

7. MANAGE TECHNICAL CHANGES AND SUPPORT

    

   • Follow the approved change-management process for patches, upgrades, configuration changes, maintenance, and releases. 

   • Test changes in a non-production environment before production deployment. 

   • Prepare implementation, communication, risk, and rollback arrangements. 

   • Provide second-level server and platform support to Product and Technical Analysts and application administrators. 

   • Assist Product and Technical Analysts to communicate planned and unplanned outages.

   • Coordinate with DCDT, vendors, and implementation partners until escalated issues are resolved. 

      

8. MAINTAIN DOCUMENTATION, REPORTING, AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

    

   • Maintain server configurations, architecture diagrams, procedures, access registers, backup instructions, recovery runbooks, and troubleshooting guides. 

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   • Prepare monthly reports covering availability, incidents, performance, backups, patching, vulnerabilities, changes, capacity, and unresolved risks. 

   • Compare service performance against the service targets formally agreed between MoH and DCDT. 

   • Provide coaching and practical mentoring to designated MOH technical staff. 

   • Prepare a complete technical handover and ensure operational knowledge is shared within the Digital Health Unit. 

   • Protect health information and comply with MOH policies, DCDT standards, approved service agreements, and Government of Vanuatu requirements.

Educational and experience requirements:

Education

Essential: University degree in information technology, computer science, information systems, or a related discipline.
Desirable: Postgraduate qualification (master’s degree) in Information Technology, or related discipline.

Experience

Essential:

• At least 5 years of demonstrated experience administering production servers and supporting business-critical applications.

• Demonstrated experience administering production servers and supporting business-critical applications. 

Desirable:

• Experience managing server operating systems, web and application services, databases, scheduled services, and system configurations.
• Experience monitoring system availability, performance, capacity, logs, alerts, backups, restoration, patching, security hardening, and privileged access management.
• Experience in incident investigation, troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, escalation, and structured incident/change/release/problem management.
• Experience preparing technical documentation and performance reports, and collaborating with vendors, technical teams, and non-technical stakeholders while handling sensitive information responsibly.
• Experience supporting health information systems or digital health applications, including DHIS2 or similar platforms. 
• Experience working in government, shared-hosting, virtualised, cloud, or data centre environments.
• Experience working with ministries of health, DCDT or equivalent government ICT agencies, WHO, or development partners. 
• Familiarity with Vanuatu’s public-sector and digital health operating environment.

Technical skills and knowledge

• Strong understanding of server administration, system monitoring, backup and recovery, cybersecurity, and access control. 
• Ability to distinguish between application, database, operating system, network, firewall, identity, storage, and data centre issues. 
• Ability to assess technical risks and explain issues clearly to managers and support teams. 
• Strong troubleshooting, documentation, communication, and teamwork skills. 
• Ability to work within approved authority, access, security, and change-control procedures. 
• Ability to coach and transfer practical system administration skills to MOH staff. 
• Knowledge of service-level management, disaster recovery, business continuity, and recognised IT service-management practices.

Competencies

• Communication
• Teamwork
• Producing results
• Building and promoting partnerships
• Moving forward in a changing environment

Languages

Essential: Fluency in the English and Bislama language.

Details of the proposed position:

• Salary for this role will start from VT 2,510,000 to VT 3,102,000 per year. (equivalent to the Vanuatu Govt. Band F, T3.1 - T3.5), subject to qualifications and experience.
• Duration of contract: up to 12 months, with potential extension.
• This role is subject to local recruitment and will be filled by Vanuatu nationals recruited in the local commuting area of the duty station.
• Alternatively, applicants who face technical issues accessing the portal can submit a cover letter and a detailed CV, with the subject line “2603784: SSA – National Digital Health Systems Administrator” via email to dpsrecruitment@who.int, addressed to:
  The WHO Country Liaison Officer
  WHO Country Liaison Office
  Port Vila
  Vanuatu

Additional Information

• Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted.
• A written test/interview may be used as a form of screening.
• If your candidature is retained for interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/ diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WHO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed through the link: http://www.whed.net/. Some professional certificates may not appear in the WHED and will require individual review.
• For information on WHO's operations please visit: http://www.who.int. 
• The WHO is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. The WHO recruits workforce regardless of disability status, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, race, marital status, religious, cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, or any other personal characteristics. The WHO is committed to achieving gender parity and geographical diversity in its workforce. Women, persons with disabilities, and nationals of unrepresented and underrepresented Member States (https://www.who.int/careers/diversity-equity-and-inclusion) are strongly encouraged to apply for WHO jobs. Persons with disabilities can request reasonable accommodations to enable participation in the recruitment process. Requests for reasonable accommodation should be sent through an email to reasonableaccommodation@who.int 
• An impeccable record for integrity and professional ethical standards is essential. WHO prides itself on a workforce that adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards and that is committed to put the WHO Values Charter (https:// www.who.int/about/who-we-are/our-values) into practice. · WHO has zero tolerance towards sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct (i.e., discrimination, abuse of authority and harassment). All members of the WHO workforce have a role to play in promoting a safe and respectful workplace and should report to WHO any actual or suspected cases of SEA, sexual harassment and other types of abusive conduct. To ensure that individuals with a substantiated history of SEA, sexual harassment or other types of abusive conduct are not hired by the Organization, WHO will conduct a background verification of short-listed candidates. 
• WHO has a smoke-free environment and does not recruit smokers or users of any form of tobacco. 
• SSAs shall perform the work as independent contractors in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of any entity or authority. 
• WHO shall have no responsibility for any taxes, duties, social security contributions or other contributions payable by the SSA. The SSA shall be solely responsible for withholding and paying any taxes, duties, social security contributions and any other contributions which are applicable to the SSA in each location/jurisdiction in which the work hereunder is performed, and the SSA shall not be entitled to any reimbursement thereof by WHO. 
• Please note that WHO’s contracts are conditional on members of the workforce confirming that they are vaccinated as required by WHO before undertaking a WHO assignment, except where a medical condition does not allow such vaccination, as certified by the WHO Staff Health and Wellbeing Services (SHW). The successful candidate will be asked to provide relevant evidence related to this condition. A copy of the updated vaccination card must be shared with WHO medical service in the medical clearance process. Please note that certain countries require proof of specific vaccinations for entry or exit. For example, official proof /certification of yellow fever vaccination is required to enter many countries. Country-specific vaccine recommendations can be found on the WHO international travel and Staff Health and Wellbeing website. For vaccination-related queries please directly contact SHW directly at shws@who.int. 
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