Digital Projects Analyst

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Philippines seeks to strengthen its assistance to the government and key stakeholders as they aim to harness digitalization to improve public services and support inclusive socioeconomic development. It established the Pintig Lab as its in-house analytics unit that also leverages its multidisciplinary network of practitioners of data for decision-making. Pintig Lab aims to ensure that: 1) data-driven policymaking is promoted, 2) the capacity of partners in government, civil society, and within the UNDP Country Office to use data for decision-making is increased, and 3) the data ecosystem for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is strengthened.

Pintig Lab was founded in 2020 to assist the government in bolstering its use of data for COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery. Through the years, the service offering of Pintig Lab has necessarily evolved from the application of advanced data analytics tools and towards building robust data systems and accompanying partners in their respective digital transformation journeys. Over the last three years, the interventions of Pintig Lab in digitalization and analytics have expanded into various domains.

Pintig Lab has active and forthcoming engagements in 2025  in local disaster resilience, SDG and climate finance, enterprise development, and democratic governance and institutions, among others. On local disaster resilience, for instance, Pintig Lab works closely with the UNDP Climate Action Programme Team (CAPT) to support policy research and digitalization on risk-informed planning and increasing investments in resilience through exploring and integrating non-traditional datasets, co-developing mock-up dashboards and platforms, and conducting policy research.

UNDP Philippines’ Pintig Lab is in need of a Digital Projects Analyst (Analyst) to coordinate and support the management of the implementation of Digital Projects from start to finish. The Digital Projects would involve the development of digitalization products such as databases, management information systems, platforms, portals, and dashboards. The Digital Projects Analyst will support the Digitalization and Data Analytics Specialist and the Senior Digital Solutions Architect in overseeing digital products being produced from start to finish within set timelines either in-house at the Pintig Lab or externally by consultants and firms/vendors.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Digital Projects Analyst will be directly supervised by the Digitalization and Data Analytics Specialist. An organigram is attached.

The Digital Projects Analyst will directly report to the Digitalization and Data Analytics Specialist who serves as the head of the Pintig Lab. The Economist, as head of the IAT, performs oversight on the strategic direction and quality of outputs and services of the Pintig Lab and as such may provide oversight and instruction to the Digital Projects Analyst. He/she may also be expected to collaborate closely with other members of the IAT.

The Digital Projects Analyst is expected to closely collaborate with team leaders, project managers, and staff of UNDP programmes and projects to which he/she is rendering services and outputs. Outputs shall be jointly cleared by the Project Manager of the client-project and the Head of Pintig Lab. The Digital Projects Analyst is also expected to interface with external partners particularly counterpart digitalization and information technology officials in the government.
 

• Participate and support the design of software or digitalization projects, which would entail the following:
  • Assist in needs assessment meetings and workshops with UNDP internal and external stakeholders to determine needs for digital solutions.
  • The Analyst will be one of the lead members of the team designing and conducting the needs assessment/discovery workshops. The workshop activity designs may need to be coordinated and reviewed by designated project teams at the UNDP Country Office.
  • During needs assessment, the Analyst must help ensure clear ownership and sustainability of proposed digital solutions. 
  • Software projects would involve the development of digitalization products such as workflow automation, databases, management information systems, platforms, portals, web applications, dashboards, and data analytics applications.
  • The Analyst is expected to draft work plans for products that will be developed internally and terms of references for products that will be developed externally by consultants or firms. The Analyst is expected to participate as a member of bid evaluation panels for products that will be developed externally.
• Coordinate in-house software projects implementation:
  • The Analyst will be the designated project manager for in-house Pintig Lab projects. The Analyst will perform all project management tasks under the supervision of the Digitalization and Data Analytics Specialist and guidance of the Senior Digital Solutions Architect.
  • In collaboration with relevant stakeholders within Pintig Lab and the other programme teams, the Analyst will develop the Project Plan for in-house projects which must include goals, stakeholders, milestones and deliverables, release plan, schedule, staffing, work breakdown structure, monitoring plan, infrastructure plan, communication plan, quality plan, deployment plan, and risk management.
  • The Analyst will ensure implementation of the project following the project plan and coordinating with other stakeholders for this purpose.
  • The Analyst will ensure quality of the project outputs and ensure execution of the quality plan.
  • The Analyst will create project weekly monitoring reports. The reports should cover execution tracked against baselined schedule and budget, any needed recovery plans, weekly activity planning, risk management and issue management. The weekly report shall be submitted to the Digitalization and Data Analytics Specialist, the Senior Digital Solutions Architect and other internal and other stakeholders identified in the Project Plan.
  • The Analyst will be responsible for acceptance of software projects and interim releases, ensuring that release packages are complete, products are working as expected and fit for purpose. The Analyst may involve reviewers from within UNDP as identified in the quality plan.
  • The Analyst shall ensure that technical transfers, capacity building and user trainings are conducted according to plan.
  • The Analyst will be in charge of turnover of finished projects to the project owners.
• Coordinate in-house software or digitalization projects implementation:
  • The Analyst will draft status reports noting if the project is on time and can be completed on time. The status reports must include documentation of risks and mitigation methods. These will be reviewed by the Digitalization and Data Analytics Specialist and the Senior Digital Solutions Architect. Reporting may also be done by the Analyst to external stakeholders.
  • Under the supervision of the Digitalization and Data Analytics Specialist and guidance of the Senior Digital Solutions Architect, the Analyst will ensure that desired results are achieved through testing. The Analyst will determine appropriate tests to run, design the test plan, run the tests, inspect the results for quality. The Analyst will also support the monitoring of the solutions to problems that arise from the test.
  • The Analyst is expected to report and escalate risks and issues to the Digitalization and Data Analytics Specialist, the Senior Digital Solutions Architect and other stakeholders identified in the communication plan.
• For externally developed software and digitalization products, the Analyst is expected to support project monitoring and control, risk and issue management, and quality assurance of the external developers who may be individual consultants or firms/vendors. This would entail the following:
  • The Analyst will monitor project execution and ensure that the product will be developed with acceptable quality, within the time scope and within the bounds of the TOR.
  • The Analyst shall review the outputs of the developer, ensuring completeness and quality. Specialist reviewers may be enlisted for technical work products and shall be identified at project planning.
  • The Analyst will recommend payment for project outputs that pass review to the appropriate UNDP Project Manager.
  • The Analyst will review status reports from the developers and monitor delays, issues and risks and ensure response plans and recovery plans are being executed and replanning done as needed. 
  • The Analyst will help address issues and risks involving UNDP and government partner.
  • The Analyst will assist the government partner with User Acceptance Testing, which will include test planning, test case and test data creation and test execution.
  • Review of test plans from the developer and set templates when the developer does not have one. The Analyst, with the supervision of the Digitalization and Data Analytics Specialist and guidance of the Senior Digital Solutions Architect, will ensure the test plan results are acted upon by the developer and the client (UNDP and government partner) are satisfied.
  • The Analyst will support the sustainability of these products by reviewing user training manuals and modules and observing turnover capacity building meetings and workshops being conducted by the developer. In the process, the Analyst will ensure that stakeholders and product owners are properly briefed at turnover.
  • The Analyst is expected to escalate and flag concerns related to lacking sustainability of products such as if the owner does not have the capacity to sustain the product in the long-term.
• In the tasks above, the Digital Projects Analyst is expected to coordinate with the Pintig Lab team, consultants, experts, and internal and external partners. Coordination will also be needed with UNDP Country Office staff from other teams.

Competencies

Core competencies:

• Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline 
• Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements  
• Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback 
• Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible  
• Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident 
• Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships 
• Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination  

Cross-Functional & Technical Competencies:

Business Direction and Strategy

• Sytems thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system.

Business Management

• Project management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals.
• Communication: 
  • Communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.
  • Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels.
• Partnership management: Build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.

Digital and Innovation

• Digital product management : Ability to design and lead digital product development including testing, ongoing product iteration, product strategy and delivery.
• Facilitation of digital innovation: Ability to facilitate groups and individuals through a digital innovation process.
• Digital transformation design: Practical and strategic skills in digital transformation for governments and organizations.
   

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master's degree) in Information Technology, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Software Management, Technology Management, Communications or related fields is required 
  OR
• First level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in fields mentioned above in combination with an additional two (2) years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Applicants with Master’s degree (or equivalent) in a relevant field of study are not required to have professional work experience.
• Applicants with a Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) are required to have a minimum of two (2) years of relevant professional experience at the national or international level  in coordinating or managing projects in a development setting with government partners.
• Demonstrable experience and knowledge in programme and project management, partner relationship management, and communications.
• Working knowledge of issues related to information technology, digitalization, management information systems, data analytics, software development, and related topics.
• Having led or participated in and completed digital projects including those related to analytics dashboards, digital platforms, portals, databases, and management information systems.
• Work experience in digitalization and innovation in the public sector, as part of the government or international development organizations.
• Domain knowledge in circular economy, SDG and climate finance, disaster resilience and risk reduction, monitoring and evaluation.
• At least two (2) years experience in the design, implementation, quality assurance, and management of projects and interventions in the public and private sector.
• At least two (2) years experience in coordinating or managing software development projects including those related to dashboards, platforms, portals, databases, and management information systems.

Required language(s):

• Fluency in spoken and written English and Filipino is required.

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

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