Organizational Context

 

This role is a national position that can be outposted within the EMEA region.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian Organization, with a network of 191-member NSs (NSs). The overall aim of IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by NSs with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.” IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during, and after disasters, health emergencies, and other crises.

IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member NSs and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.

IFRC is led by its Secretary-General and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy, and Corporate Services.

IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. IFRC also has country cluster delegation and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster, and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles.

Background to the position

In virtually all countries, people increasingly rely on and expect a diverse range of digital services (e.g., through their mobile devices) to interact with local government, companies, and community organizations and services. This disruption is already happening to humanitarian assistance. Yet, the Digital Divide remains a persistent and significant challenge at both national and local levels.

The need for a successful and large-scale digital transformation is urgent. And Digitally Transforming IFRC and its 191 members is a complex process which requires collaborative action and support across the membership. Therefore, IFRC recently developed a Digital Transformation Strategy which was approved by the IFRC Governing Board in May 2021.

The Digital Transformation Department (DTD) has full leadership responsibility for the implementation of the digital transformation strategy and the positive impact it will have on the 191 member NSs of IFRC. The DTD provides strategic leadership and guides the IFRC Secretariat as well as the members network to adapt and innovate humanitarian services, drawing on digital services, data-enabled decision-making, and other opportunities for digital transformation in support of IFRC’s Strategy 2030. In addition, the DTD is responsible for the development and implementation of business transformation, information technology and digitalization services throughout the IFRC Secretariat, thereby supporting the same transformation in 191 NSs, setting the vision, and drawing stakeholders together on this digital journey. The position holder works within the Digital Unit.

 

Job Purpose

 

The responsibilities of the Digital Unit includes IFRC’s digital strategy development and implementation, leading and overseeing the development and management of digital products and services, for both the IFRC Secretariat’s business operations and digital products and services for use at scale by NSs in their humanitarian service delivery. The unit’s team has a key role in the execution of a collaborative multi-department and multi-organization Digital Accelerator Team within the IFRC Secretariat and network to increase IFRC’s performance effectiveness, technical effectiveness, social effectiveness, and resourcing through coordinated and interoperable digital and data services. The unit also interacts extensively with the membership digital experts, private sector, academia, external suppliers, vendors and consultants who are sourced to deliver global digital-related activities.

Minimum Technology Blueprint

IFRC is developing and implementing a highly strategic programme to deliver Minimum Technology Capabilities for 80 least resourced/least digitally mature NSs, mostly small to medium size enterprises from 50 to 500 staff. These capabilities (also referred to as Minimum Technology Blueprints) consist of standardized, fit-for-purpose fundamental technology which will allow these NSs to deliver humanitarian services to people in need sustainably, at scale. The blueprint includes three interlinked areas:

1. Digital Enablers -The practical and material assets and skills which are the foundation for digitally-enabled systems and workplaces, consists of: Connectivity, Devices, and Skilling (Microsoft Skills for Social impact)
2. Workplace Tools – The products and supporting measures which allow staff and volunteers to collaborate in a safe and secure manner, consists of: Identity, Productivity, Collaboration, Security, Privacy (M365).
3. Digital Business Applications – Digital systems to allow NS to conduct their core business digitally in an effective and sustainable way, consists of: Volunteer Management, Fundraising, Grant Management, Digital Engagement, Finance, HR.

This programme requires cooperation with high quality globally active partners to implement these blueprints but maintain a centralised capacity to support and manage implementations, provide aftercare and support and refine the methodology.

This position is based at the IFRC Global Services Centre (GSC) in Budapest and has a global scope.

This position manages the technical components of the digital enabler and workplace streams of the blueprint, as well as ensure these components meet the needs for the business application streams.

The incumbent works with high-quality implementation partners to manage and supervise the implementation of the digital enabler and workplace streams of the blueprints in cohorts of up to five NSs at a time. Also, the position holder will be responsible for managing and in some cases delivering the top-level support that NSs already on-boarded will receive. Additional roles will be hired as needed to scale up this support and managed hierarchically and technically by this position holder.

The position will require travel to some of these NSs for on the ground implementation.

NS relations will be managed as a number of standalone small to medium organisations, rather than a single enterprise.

The position holder specializes in the design, optimization, and maintenance of Information Systems infrastructures, security services, and cloud platforms for an optimal and cost-effective services and systems availability, security, and scalability to support NSs’ critical business functions.

 

Job Duties and Responsibilities

 

The job purpose is to:

• Lead the analysis, design, and maintenance of the architectural strategies and technical standards for infrastructure and information systems security, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and strategic objectives across all NSs.
• Lead the lifecycle of technical solutions from ideation to delivery, focusing on strategic alignment, stakeholder requirements, and ROI-driven execution while ensuring compliance with architectural best practices, technology governance standards, and innovative technologies.
• Bridge business and technical domains by driving solution strategy, enabling seamless collaboration among engineering, architecture, and operational teams, while optimizing scalability, performance, and adherence to regulatory and security frameworks.

Job duties and responsibilities

1. Regularly analyse existing information systems, networks, network security systems, technical standards, compliance, and appropriate use of them, identifying strengths and weaknesses. Conduct or arrange for and lead the execution of assessment activities to determine the NS’s overall Information Security Maturity level.

2. Develop, implement, and maintain NSs’ wide standards, strategies, and training materials for infrastructure and information-systems security, while establishing and supporting technological standards to ensure seamless integration and interoperability across systems, applications, and services.

3. Shape and maintain the architectural strategy and roadmap for foundational technologies (network LAN/WAN/Wi-Fi, mobile device and application management, M365, Azure) within the Blueprint programme, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and the strategic objectives of all NSs in scope.

4. Drive the design, implementation, and enhancement of on-premises, hybrid, or cloud-native IT infrastructure, network and security systems, leveraging market research to propose cost-efficient, high-value improvements while developing solution architectures and high-level designs to minimize technical debt and streamline delivery, In country where needed.

5. Act as a lead subject matter expert, and provide technical expertise, control, and governance in developing, implementing, and supporting service improvement roadmaps for a broad range of infrastructure and security services to all NSs including but not limited to the following technology stacks:

• • Network infrastructure based on Cisco and Ubiquity products.
  • Network Security / SASE / SDWAN solutions
  • Zero Trust Network Access products and solutions
  • Microsoft Intune and Windows Autopilot.
  • Microsoft Windows Server systems with specific focus on ADDS and ADFS.
  • Microsoft 365 Services, including but not limited to EXO, SPO, Teams
  • Microsoft Defender family.
  • Entra ID, Hybrid Connectivity, Conditional Access Policies, Multi-Factor Authentication.
  • Microsoft Azure Infrastructure and cloud adoption framework.

6. Lead the implementation and advise of field projects affecting the overall security and stability of NSs’ systems and services. Work jointly with NS teams to define success criteria, identify risk factors, comprehensively document the project’s, goals, milestones, and deadlines related to Infrastructure and security.

7. Lead the business and technical negotiations on behalf of the NSs or act as a business and technical advisor in conducting such with external service providers, technology partners and other consulting companies to reach a favourable outcome for the NSs with regards to the technological advancements and improvements set out in the project’s deliverables.

 

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

 

8. Adhere to and advocate the use of relevant project management methodologies and policies. Support the NSs and other stakeholders in applying and following the applicable project management methodologies throughout the projects’ lifecycle.

9. Perform on-demand and specific vendor review, evaluation, and establish recommendations for improving the design, performance, costs, and reliability of provided services. Define and maintain competitive and state-of-the-art KPI for NSs ad-hoc/on-demand basis.

10. Take part in streamlining service delivery models and develop proposals for refactoring complex contracts and agreements to rectify inherent contextual obscurity proactively.

11. Take part in regular budgeting exercises. Assure the required budget for implementation and operational maintenance of the products, systems, and tools (licenses, warranties, repairs, service fees, utilities) is accurately accommodated in the financial predictions.

12. Lead, coach, and mentor NSs’ staff and external consultants throughout the end-to-end delivery of the blueprint programme. Oversee onboarding and providing career development planning and opportunities with trainings, and workshops.

13. Promote and encourage a spirit of teamwork and unity among team members that allows for disagreement over ideas, conflict and expeditious conflict resolution, appreciation of diversity and cohesiveness, support, and effective working to enable each employee and the team to succeed.

Duties applicable to all staff
1. Work actively towards the achievement of the IFRC Secretariat’s goals.
2. Abide by and work in accordance with the Red Cross and Red Crescent principles.
3. Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the line manager.

 

Education

 

Required

• Engineering degree in computer sciences discipline or equivalent experience.
• ITIL certification or equivalent experience and proven track record of ITIL procedures used in an enterprise environment.
• Microsoft Certifications on the following domains are required (M365 Administrator, Endpoint Administrator, Azure Security Engineer).
• CCNA certificate or equivalent knowledge and proven track record of active experience.
• Information Systems Security certificate or willingness to acquire those deemed necessary.

 

Experience

 

Required

• Minimum 10 years of professional experience in the setup, maintenance, administration and management of data centers, including server systems and failover clusters.
• Minimum of 7 years experience in leading complex multi-disciplinary and cross-geogrpahical programmes in matrix organisations.
  
• Extensive experience and proven track record in partnership development and management, including business account management and procurement activities, supplier selection processes (RFP/RFI), contract negotiations, service delivery supervision.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in the architecture and implementation of robust, highly available, and secure information systems, tools, processes.
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience managing enterprise-grade security systems (IDS/IPS/HIPS..etc). Knowledge of and ability to effectively troubleshoot protocol-layer issues is a must. Experience with SD-WAN and APM is an advantage.
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience in operational maintenance and configuration of hybrid cloud infrastructure. (M365, Entra ID, Entra ID Connect, Web Application Proxy, APC…etc.).
• Minimum 3 years of professional experience managing modern device management solutions. Microsoft Intune is preferred, along with Windows Autopilot.
• Minimum 3 years of professional experience in implementing and managing Microsoft Defender family including Defender for Endpoint, Defender for O365, Defender for Identity and Defender for Cloud.
• Minimum 3 years of professional experience in managing complex enterprise networks on L2 basis.
• Understanding networking concepts, topologies, subnetting, and protocols: OSI, TCP/UDP, CIDR/VLSM, NAT/PAT, L2TP/IPSEC, BGP/OSPF, VRRP is a must.
• Experience in service delivery management and reporting tools.

Preferred

• Experience in the development, implementation, and operative management of Cybersecurity functions (CSIRT/SOC/SecOps/IDR/DR) and services.
• Experience in managing teams in a supervisory role.
• Experience in working in global south countries.
  

 

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

 

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Required

• Excellent knowledge of cloud concepts (IaaS, SaaS, PaaS), with a proven track record of the management of high-performance computing infrastructure.
• Advanced, hands-on PowerShell skills and experience are a must.
• Proven team player, ability to adjust to diverse cultures and languages.
• Adept at analysis, problem-solving, solution and end-user result-oriented.
• Affinity for teamwork, collaborative attitude, open-minded and adaptable.
• Well organized, able to work under pressure and manage emergencies.
• Good analytical skills to interpret problems identifies solutions and possible side-effects.
• Ability to work and manage/coach staff in remote setting.
• Ability to work and communicate efficiently in a multicultural, multi lingual and cross-functional environment.

Preferred

• Ability and willingness to travel for up to three weeks at a time, multiple times a year to countries in the global south.

LANGUAGES

Required

• Fluent spoken and written English.

Preferred

• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic).

 

Competencies, Values and Comments

 

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability
Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust
Functional competencies: Strategic orientation; Building alliances; Leadership; Empowering others
Managerial competencies: Managing staff performance; Managing staff development