ICT Analyst (Systems and AI), Rome

Job Title : ICT Analyst (Systems and AI) - Rome, Italy

ID : 25264

Location : ROME

Date of issue : 03/24/2025

Close Date : (Midnight, Rome Time) 04/22/2025

Organizational Unit : Inform. & Comm Technology Div.

Full/Part Time : Full-Time

Regular/Temporary : Regular

Assignment Duration : 2 Years

Grade : P-2

Organizational Setting

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger. It does so by investing in rural people. IFAD finances programmes and projects that increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes, and advocates at the local, national and international level for policies that contribute to rural transformation.

The Corporate Services Department (CSD) provides IFAD with the human resources, administrative services, safety and security, information technology resources, and medical support services required to allow IFAD to meet its objectives of enabling rural people overcome poverty. CSD is led by an Associate Vice-President and is comprised of three (3) divisions: People and Culture Division (PCD), Information and Communications Technology Division (ICT), Management Services Division (MSD) and one unit: the Health & Wellness Unit (HWU).

The Information and Communications Technology Division (ICT) drives transformative change by delivering secure, client-focused, reliable and innovative technology solutions that significantly enhance IFAD's ability to achieve its mission, adapt to new challenges, and operate more efficiently in support of the Fund's mandate. ICT plays a strategic role in driving IFAD's success through the provision of agile ICT services, forward-thinking innovations, and investments in emerging technologies, supporting seamless business operations in a resilient manner. Our commitment to excellence equips the Fund with advanced digital solutions, enabling it to meet current demands while anticipating and leading future advancements in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

ICT is led by a Divisional Director and Chief Information Officer and is comprised of three (3) units: the Plan, Services and Architecture Unit (ICT-PSA), the Build Solutions and Analytics Services Unit (ICT-BSA), the Run and Platforms Services Unit (ICT-RPS) and two (2) Teams: the Operational Cybersecurity Team (ICT-CSEC) and the Applications Services and Cloud Configuration Team (ICT-ASC).

Job Role

The Information Communications Technology Analyst is typically an entry level position designed to build expertise in a broad range of ICT occupations. The incumbent works under the overall strategic, policy and management guidance of the Director of the Information Communications Technology Division (ICT) and the direct supervision of an ICT manager or specialist. The Analyst performs routine and non-routine work with established precedents independently; complex, precedent setting recommendations are developed in consultation with the supervisor or other subject matter expert.

The ICT Analyst (Systems and AI):

• Develops solutions and functions;
• Setups, optimises and fine tunes suitable LLMs;
• Builds systems to support analytical workflows;
• Ideates solutions to leverage AI for IFAD solutions;

Key Functions and Results

1. ICT BUSINESS PARTNER: The Information Communications Technology (ICT) Analyst customer service focus is on client outreach. The incumbent provides verbal and written advice and guidance to supervisors and staff on information technology platforms, systems/applications and procedures, facilitating a mutual understanding of issues and roles in the management of IFAD's Information Technology environment. The Analyst supports ICT best practices in the Fund through outreach to other private and public sector organizations to identify potential solutions to IFAD client concerns, as well as maintains open communications with counterparts in other UN and IFI organizations for further discussion with ICT Specialists, internal committees and/or review board.

2. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY EXPERT: The ICT Analyst is establishing their knowledge base and expertise in the information technology and/or communications fields as well as the Fund's ICT strategy, principles, standards and systems/applications. The incumbent may be assigned to an ICT generalist team providing support to a large, complex group of clients or rotate through the various ICT occupations (Infrastructure, Technical Support, Customer Service, Solution Development) to develop an in-depth knowledge of the individual ICT activities. The Analyst is assigned routine and non-routine casework and system implementation requiring the analysis and synthesis of issues and problems and interpretation of established, formal guidelines to address and recommend solutions or further actions required. Work at this level is carried out with a higher-level Professional and involves the planning, design, development, implementation and maintenance of computer information systems; the responsibility for independently completing portions of work related to specific areas, such as undertaking parts of feasibility studies, analysing and modifying existing applications, maintaining systems software, designing and writing components of computer programs.

3. AGENT OF CHANGE: The ICT Analyst maintains an awareness of the principles of change management and proactively serves as a role model for transformation and capacity for acceptance of change. The incumbent uses a solid knowledge of information technology to analyze and promote acceptance of new methods of work and effective communication skills to persuade and influence managers, supervisors and staff to adopt change. Going beyond acceptance to change in methods and technology tools, at this level the Analyst manages change through consultations with ICT colleagues and outreach to client offices to ensure open and regular communications pertaining to current and planned changes in the ICT strategy.

4. MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS: Is accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the personal use of assigned IFAD resources, including equipment, supplies and, as applicable, staff supervised.

As part of the ICT team, with a specific focus on AI, the incumbent will:

• Contribute to the design, architecture, development, and deployment of corporate systems and enterprise solutions, ensuring they align with organizational ICT standards.
• Identify best-fit AI components, frameworks and methodologies for the development of sustainable, scalable AI enabled solutions, with a focus on embedding the solutions within existing IFAD systems.
• Impart knowledge of RAG methodologies, information retrieval methods, embeddings and creating testing frameworks for iterative testing and analysis of outputs.
• Develop strategies for the substitution or addition of new models to existing solutions, including selectivity of specific models for specific use cases.
• Have experience of developing Machine Learning solutions using techniques including anomaly detection, clustering, regression, classification and predictive analytics. Build and integrate with DevOps tools to reduce occurrences of errors and improve the software deployment cycle, deploy updates and fixes, and implement integrations requested by server and client teams.
• Ensure that solutions are technically sound and will function as expected in production, with an appropriate balance between short-term delivery needs, medium-term strategic aspirations, and long-term continuous use.
• Design, develop, and document new end-to-end AI solutions, including prototypes, minimum viable products, and full-stack applications.
• Design, develop, and document new AI features for existing solutions, including custom APIs and microservices for corporate systems.
• Design architectures and develop integration points between corporate systems and AI resources, including cloud resources, on-premises infrastructure, APIs, and microservices.

The incumbent must be:

• proficient in Python programming for production-level application development.
• familiar with other programming languages for enterprise application development, such as Ruby, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Java, .NET, or similar.
• familiar with modern container-based application development and DevOps practices, including the use of CD/CI pipelines, GitHub/GitLab, Docker, Kubernetes, and similar.
• familiar with Cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, GCP, and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform.
• experienced in working with structured and unstructured data sources and GIS data and using technologies such as natural language processing, image recognition, topic modelling, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and similar.

Key Performance Indicators

The work requires analysis of individual cases, systems and processes. While the type of analysis and decision-making varies among the different ICT specialties, typical examples include: interpreting customer requirements, performing analysis of solutions available and recommending courses of action designed to solve client IT-related issues and opportunities.

Working Relationships

The work relationships of ICT Analysts involve both written and verbal communications to obtain and provide information regarding decisions on specific cases or to explain why an action has been taken or to obtain information needed to take decisions or support further ICT processes. Internal Fund contacts extend to supervisors and staff throughout the Fund to seek understanding and obtain the assistance or cooperation of persons who are involved mainly in routine ICT matters. This requires skill in building constructive, effective relationships. External contacts are predominantly with colleagues in the professional community on such questions as use of language and software and with vendors to collect/exchange information on technology.

The ICT Analyst (Systems and AI) works within ICT Technical teams as well as with Business stakeholders within IFAD.

Job Profile Requirements

Organizational Competencies:

Level 1:

• Building relationships and partnerships - Builds and maintains effective working relationships
• Communicating and negotiating - Communicates effectively; creates understanding between self and others
• Demonstrating leadership - Personal leadership and attitude to change
• Focusing on clients - Focuses on clients eqXznf7 PHMNB
• Learning, sharing knowledge and innovating - Continuously seeks to learn, shares knowledge & innovates
• Managing performance and developing staff
• Managing time, resources and information - Manages own time, information and resources effectively
• Problem-solving and decision-making - Demonstrates sound problem-solving and decision-making ability
• Strategic thinking and organizational development - Personal influence
• Team working - Contributes effectively to the team

Education:

• Level - Advanced* university degree from an accredited institution in a technically relevant area.
• Areas - Computer science, information technology, mathematics or other job-related field
• Degree must be an accredited institution listed on https://www.whed.net/home.php

(*) Note: For internal candidates, this requirement will be assessed in line with the provisions set forth in the IFAD's Human Resources Implementing Procedures.

Certifications:

• Any relevant additional training or certifications are advantageous

Experience:

• Minimum of two (2) years of progressively relevant experience is required.
• in line with the position specific experience section in key functions and results.

Languages:

• Required: English (4 - Excellent)
• Desirable: French, Spanish and/or Arabic

Skills:

• Agile ICT services: Use various agile methods, such as daily stand-ups, sprints and hackathons, to generate end products early on
• Basic ICT & digital fluency: Expertise relevant to the specific role (e.g. in-depth, computer information systems, including micro-computer operating systems software, hardware and applications software and other office technology equipment), end-user computing configuration management
• Cyber-security: Expertise specific to cyber-security principles, tools, systems and applications
• Data analysis/architecture: Know-how in the analysis and interpretation of data needs and sources taking into account its operational context, using systems and models to disseminate ensuring integrity, availability to meet reporting and business analytics needs
• Emerging technologies: Expertise to evaluate and identify business and technical opportunities in emerging technologies including methodologies, tools, systems and applications (including Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning, Virtual Reality, Robotics, GIS Analytics, etc.)
• System and Database Administration: Expertise in the provisioning, configuration, management, tuning and performance monitoring of systems and databases
• Training skills: Ability to develop and provide trainings
• User experience: Strong focus on the delivery of a positive and intuitive user experience, building on a proactive clarification of user needs and requirements
• User technology enablement and support: Advanced configuration and endpoint management, digital mobile communication, seam IT monitoring and backup, incident response and endpoint management
• Client orientation: Strong critical thinking combined with communication skills to liaise between the business and technologies to understand business problems and needs, document requirements and identify solutions
• Problem solving: Strong systemic and structured thinking, ability to identify and dissect problems into components and formulate a comprehensive set of creative viable and sustainable solutions and strategies

Other Information

Applicants should note that IFAD staff members are international civil servants subject to the authority of the President of IFAD. In accordance with IFAD's Human Resources Policy, the President can decide to assign them to any of the activities of the Fund. All International Professional staff members are required to be geographically mobile and positions in the professional category are subject to changes in location at any time in line with strategic priorities and reform initiatives in IFAD.

In accordance with IFAD's provisions, all new staff members will normally be placed at the first step in the grade level for which they have been selected. For information on IFAD's remuneration package, please visit IFAD's compensation and benefits page on our website. Applicants are invited to use the ICSC compensation calculator to estimate the salary and benefit entitlements. See here .

Candidates may be required to take a written test and to deliver a presentation as well as participate in interviews.

In the interest of making most cost-effective use of funds and resources, we are only able to respond to applicants who are short-listed for interview. Candidates who do not receive any feedback within three months should consider their application unsuccessful.

IFAD is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic, social or political background, colour, nationality, religion, age, gender, disability, marital status, family size or sexual orientation in line with its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy and the Policy to prevent and respond to sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse .

Please be aware of fraudulent job offers. IFAD does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process. Official communication from IFAD will always come from e-mails ending in @ifad.org