Project Officer (Data Platform Owner), P-2, Temporary Position, 5 months, Supply Division, Copenhagen, Denmark, #00138951

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 Deliver

How can you make a difference

During the five-month parental leave period, ensure uninterrupted ownership, operational stability, and continued development of the Supply Division Data Platform and its data pipelines. The temporary post holder will own and drive the end-to-end Data Platform (Azure Databricks) as a product, ensuring it delivers scalable, secure, and high-quality data services aligned with Supply Division strategy; take full ownership of data pipelines (ETL/ELT), data integration, and data lifecycle management across the organization; and translate business needs into robust, production-grade data products and pipelines, ensuring reliability, performance, and maintainability.

1. Data Platform Ownership

• Act as Product Owner of Azure Databricks platform, including: Workspace architecture, cluster strategy, cost optimization; Data lake / lakehouse design (bronze/silver/gold layers).
• Define and enforce platform standards, best practices, and reusable patterns.
• Own platform roadmap: stability, scalability, security, and performance improvements.
• Ensure platform operational health, including: Platform-level monitoring (clusters, jobs, storage, performance); Capacity planning and performance tuning; Governance of incident management processes across the platform.

2. ETL / ELT & Data Pipeline Ownership

• Own end-to-end lifecycle of all data pipelines (batch & streaming).
• Define and enforce: ETL/ELT standards (naming, layering, orchestration, error handling); Data transformation logic ownership and versioning.
• Ensure pipelines are: Reliable (SLA-driven with defined uptime and latency targets); Observable (monitoring, alerting, logging, lineage tracking); Resilient (fault-tolerant with retry, fallback, and recovery mechanisms); Efficient (cost & performance optimized).
• Establish and own: Centralized monitoring framework (pipeline health dashboards, alerts); Automated alerting and escalation mechanisms; Standardized error handling patterns (retry logic, dead-letter queues, failure isolation).
• Take accountability for: Incident management for data pipelines (L2/L3 ownership); Root cause analysis (RCA) and permanent fixes; Reduction of recurring failures and technical debt.
• Drive migration from: Legacy scripts / fragmented pipelines → robust, monitored Databricks-native pipelines.

3. Data Architecture & Integration

• Define and maintain enterprise data architecture for Supply Division.
• Establish: Data integration patterns (APIs, event-based, batch ingestion); Interoperability standards across systems (SAP, external partners, internal apps).
• Ensure single source of truth principles via governed data models.
• Ensure all integrations are: Traceable (lineage); Monitored end-to-end; Recoverable in case of failures.

4. Data Governance, Catalog & Purview Ownership

• Own implementation and evolution of: Microsoft Purview for data catalog, lineage, and governance.
• Define and enforce: Data ownership & stewardship model; Data classification, access control, and compliance standards.
• Ensure: End-to-end data lineage visibility; Integration of monitoring with governance (data quality + pipeline health); Auditability of data flows and transformations.

5. Data Quality & Reliability Engineering (Strengthened)

• Define and implement data quality controls embedded in pipelines.
• Establish: Automated validation rules (schema, completeness, consistency); Data SLAs and quality KPIs.
• Ensure: Continuous monitoring of data quality metrics; Automated detection of anomalies and failures; Proactive incident detection and alerting.
• Own: Root cause analysis and resolution of data quality issues; Feedback loops into pipeline improvements; Prevention of downstream impact (fail-fast or controlled degradation).

6. Product & Project Management

• Own and project manage data platform backlog (Azure DevOps): Priorities features, operational stability, technical debt, and platform improvements.
• Manage delivery across onshore/offshore data engineering teams.
• Ensure adoption of: Agile Project Management / DevOps / DataOps practices; CI/CD for data pipelines and infrastructure.
• Embed: Operational excellence into delivery (monitoring, logging, alerting as mandatory deliverables).
• Balance: Short-term delivery vs long-term platform reliability and maintainability.

7. Stakeholder Engagement & Translation Layer

• Act as bridge between business and engineering.
• Translate business needs into: Data models; Pipeline requirements; Data products.
• Communicate: Data availability, incidents, and risks transparently to stakeholders; Impact of pipeline failures on business processes.

8. Documentation & Standards

• Ensure all platform components are well-documented and reusable.
• Maintain: Architecture diagrams; Data flow documentation; Pipeline specifications; Runbooks for monitoring, incident handling, and recovery.
• Drive: Standardization of operational procedures across all data initiatives.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  Project Officer

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

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Bachelor or equivalent (First Level University Degree) in software engineering, computer science, business administration or other related social science field is required. Candidates with a Master’s degree in the above field are preferred. 
• Work Experience: Minimum 2 years of relevant professional experience in project management in the context of Data engineering are required. Candidates with 5 years and above of relevant experience in project management in the context of Data engineering are preferred 
• Skills: Proven skills and experience in being an owner or architect of a Data Platform based on Databricks is required. Experience in working on all levels with Azure DataBricks – from hands-on creating notebooks to defining the platform strategy and managing other Data Engineers.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.

Desirables:

• Minimum 2 years of experience writing code in Python for data transformation and data ingestion is considered an asset.
• Experience is modern Azure DevOps and Azure cloud deployment practices are considered an asset.
• Proven experience in managing IT offshore teams, data teams, and experience in IT vendor management is considered an asset.
• Experience working in a multi-cultural geographically distributed team is considered an asset.
• Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
• Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others

Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). 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, discrimination, fraud, corruption and other forms of serious misconduct.

UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference, safeguarding and background verification checks. These checks may include verification of academic credentials and employment history, screening against relevant United Nations misconduct databases, and requests for misconduct disclosures from current and former employers, professional associations, other relevant organizations and participating organizations under inter-agency safeguarding initiatives, including the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS), where applicable.

Appointment, selection and continued engagement are subject to the satisfactory completion of all required checks. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information and consent to enable UNICEF to undertake these 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments are conditional on the selected candidates' willingness to comply with current or future vaccination requirements, should UNICEF mandate it for personnel. Failure to comply with such requirements, where applicable and without a duly approved medical exemption from the relevant UN authority, will result in the cancellation of the selection or may lead to other administrative measures, including separation from service.

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.