Programme Manager (Connectivity Credits Lead)
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Contract type: Temporary Appointment (364 days)
Level: P-4
Application deadline: 14 October 2024, at 11.55 pm CET
Summary
The Programme Manager (Connectivity Credits Lead) is entrusted with spearheading the creation and strategic evolution of the Global Connectivity Marketplace. This role involves comprehensive responsibility for the marketplace’s concept development, ensuring it is grounded in a solid understanding of the regulatory, legal, and financial landscapes. The Programme Manager is the architect behind the platform’s operational framework, harmonizing the efforts of a specialized team across geographies, notably in Geneva and Barcelona. In partnership with global tech leaders and governments, particularly the Swiss Government, the incumbent is instrumental in fostering relationships that enhance the marketplace’s international functionality and influence.
Your responsibilities will be…
Conceptualize and drive the development of the marketplace:
- Develop a comprehensive understanding and layout of the Marketplace, addressing domicile, regulatory, legal, and financial frameworks.
- Work closely with the Giga Center in Barcelona to coordinate the development of country-level instances of the marketplace.
- Regular reporting and monitoring.
Oversee partnership building and stakeholder management activities:
- Forge strong alliances with global governments, with a keen emphasis on Swiss Government relationships.
- Develop corporate partnerships to ensure the marketplace’s supranational functionality, engaging with global tech companies.
- Support Giga’s partnerships team to grow and monitor existing partnerships related to the marketplace.
Manage the connectivity credits team:
- Recruit, lead, and manage a multidisciplinary team, including technologists in Geneva, responsible for building and supporting the global marketplace.
- Oversee the connectivity credits team members in Barcelona, ensuring cohesive development of the marketplace at the country level.
Ensure the legal and regulatory compliance of the marketplace:
- Collaborate with local legal resources in Geneva to explore and understand the diverse regulatory landscapes and options available for the marketplace.
- Work closely with the legal team at UNICEF to ensure legal compliance.
Lead the financial structuring and sustainability of the platform:
- Develop robust business cases focusing on independent financing and cash flows to ensure the long-term viability and sustainability of the marketplace.
- Strategize the pathway for the marketplace’s evolution into an autonomous decentralized entity, maintaining UNICEF, ITU, and other Swiss interests in governance structures.
- Create a comprehensive plan for the potential spinoff of the marketplace, envisioning its transition into a decentralized entity with varied stakeholders on the governance board.
Lead communication and advocacy for the marketplace:
- Develop foundational communication materials in collaboration with Giga’s communication team, focusing on clarity, accessibility, and extensive reach.
- Advocate for the marketplace’s objectives, aligning efforts with ITU to ensure compliance and compatibility with regulators through its network
To qualify for this position, you will have…
Education:
- Advanced University Degree (Master’s or higher) in business development, economy, computer science or related degree is required
Work Experience:
- At least 8 years of relevant work experience in managing and scaling technology-driven marketplaces or platforms, with a focus on innovative financing and partnership models in the public or private sector is required.
- Experience working with public and private sector stakeholders
- Experience working with software products and service delivery.
- Experience working with development or humanitarian programmes. Familiarity with the UN system and UNICEF is desired.
Skills:
- Technical understanding of international financial institutions and/ or blockchain technology and decentralized systems and blockchain networks (e.g. DLT, Bitcoin and Ethereum, DApps, DeFi, DAOs).
- Deep knowledge of Telecommunications (TMT) and particularly engagements around universal service funds and universal access funds
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.
About our team
We are a fast-paced, multi-disciplinary team of software engineers, finance specialists, data scientists, policy experts, and much more. Our team is a distributed workforce and plans to remain distributed into the foreseeable future. We are growing fast. Our team has grown by over 400% in the last 6 months as we rapidly scale to meet our stated mission.
About Giga
Giga is a joint initiative of UNICEF and ITU to connect every school in the world to the Internet by 2030. Working with corporate and non-profit partners, Giga maps schools’ Internet access in real time, creates models for innovative financing, and supports governments contracting for connectivity. It is part of ITU’s Partner2 Connect Coalition, UNICEF’s Reimagine Education initiative, and the UN Secretary General’s Common Agenda and Roadmap for Digital Cooperation.
Follow Giga on X, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
About UNICEF
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. And we never give up.
UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.
About ITU
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs), driving innovation in ICTs together with 193 Member States and a membership of over 900 companies, universities, and international and regional organizations.