Reports to: Global Technology Hub Director
Location: London, Paris, or elsewhere in Europe preferred
Contract Duration: 11 months (with possible extension)
Expected Starting: February, 2020
LoE: 50% or more, depending on project availability
Salary expectation: Daily rate commensurate with experience
Start date: ASAP
About Internews
Internews empowers people worldwide with the trustworthy, high-quality news and information they need to make informed decisions, participate in their communities, and hold power to account. Our vision is to unleash human potential everywhere by turning on the bright light of information.
For more than 35 years, in more than 100 countries, Internews has worked to build healthy media and information environments where they are most needed. We have proudly launched hundreds of sustainable organizations, bolstered the skills of thousands of media professionals, activists, and citizens, and helped our partners reach millions of people with quality, local information.
Internews is a non-profit organisation operating internationally, with administrative centres in California, Washington DC, London and Paris as well as regional hubs in Bangkok, Kiev and Nairobi. Formed in 1982, Internews currently has offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.
Job description
Internews seeks an experienced Web application Engineer to join Internews Global Technology Hub for an initial 11-month contract. Reporting the the Global Technology Hub Director, the Web Applications Engineer will be hired on a Personal Services. This job description is intended to give interested candidates a general sense of the responsibilities and expectations of this position.
Key Responsibilities
This is a central, hands-on technical role, requiring someone with a mix of web development experience and knowledge of front end web coding skills who will also be a good communicator with our local media partners, many of whom are not from a highly technical background. Responsibilities include:
Supporting on-time delivery of public facing websites and other platforms
- Writing functional and technical specifications, requests for quotes and terms of reference.
- Coordinating with and tracking the work of external service providers and contractors when development tasks are outsourced.
- Collecting responses to RFQs and TORs, ranking applicants suitability and recommending preference of suppliers.
- Developing or procuring and/or implementing custom features, modules and plugins when development tasks are internalized.
- Carrying out acceptance testing with external partners on ICT components.
- Performing and coordinating QA testing on digital products delivered for various programmes.
- Supporting security and performance reviews on websites and other online platforms.
- Supporting bug fixes on designs or in development aspects of sites we support.
Supporting technology related activities
- Offering Level 2 web application support for project teams and with help desk officers.
- Participating in documentation writing & elaboration of training material and curriculum related to websites supported by Internews.
- Participating in related training sessions, either on location or via internet communication.
- Work closely with the and partners to suggest efficient technical solutions to the problems they are experiencing.
- Following threads on social media on emerging threats, development trends, new opportunities that may affect our supported websites or the related tools used by Internews or its partners.
- Reporting to GTH any significant trends or important updates.
Project management and record keeping
- Keeping clear documentation of all phases of projects.
- Keeping programme leaders and relevant internal or external stakeholders updated on project progress.
- Contribute to regular project reporting for monitoring and evaluation.
- Communicating regularly on all aspects of work with your line manager.
- Keeping to delivery schedules and/or updating all relevant stakeholders when changes occur.
Requirements
Candidates should possess the following experience, skillsets or background:
- English and Arabic fluency (spoken and written);
- Demonstrated experience in the above listed key responsibilities.
- Ability to work in a team, handle change, priorities tasks and projects, and respond to emergencies quickly and calmly;
- Ability to explain complex technical subjects in lay language to less technically-experienced persons; excellent oral and written communication skills
Mastery of:
- Core web technologies and concepts at large;
- Working in a LAMP hosting environment;
- Open source CMSs including WordPress (any other technologies are a plus);
- Basic system administration of Linux based environment (including familiarity with at least one scripting language);
- Working on websites in container hosting environments, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting;
- Consuming various types of APIs
- Digital security issues related to web applications, including SSL, secure hosting environments, DDOS protection methods, defense against various kinds of php, mysql or other exploits, compartmentalization of online services, etc.
- Website optimization for best performance in areas with low internet connectivity
- Mobile responsive and mobile-first design concepts, implementation and testing
- In-site SEO standard practices
- Web Standards and Accessibility concepts and implementation
- A solid understanding of the current web landscape and of new trends
- Experience with technical project management including partially outsourced projects
- Ability to spot trends in the development of new technologies and identify opportunities for the integration of existing technologies to address new challenges
- Experience with git repository workflows, command line, and key-based SSH.
Beneficial, but not required
In addition to the above, it may be helpful (but not essential) if candidates have the following:
- Conversational and written proficiency of another language;
- Use of agile and/or other project workflow methodologies
- Experience with any other platforms or web environments not listed above
- Any history with creating hidden web services (onion sites)
- Experience working in international development and/or experience with developing world environments
- Experience as a hands-on technical trainer, including in developing countries
- Any links to a portfolio of work is always welcome (Personal homepages, Github repositories, professional online profiles, etc.)
- Advanced understanding of implementing encryption in projects
- Advanced understanding of using digital privacy, anonymity and circumvention tools, such as Tor, VPN, secure file sharing and storage.
How to apply
Please respond with ALL of the following to Emily Ratzliff, GTH business coordination officer:
- A CV in English;
- A cover letter explaining your background and qualifications for this role, in English;
- 2-3 references that could be checked upon a conditional offer of employment;
- A daily rate for your services, and notes on your availability (days per week, hours per day).
- Bonus: Links to relevant samples of work (Git repositories, online materials or related writings or other creations or proof of experience and/or skills) are helpful, if you have them, but not essential to the application process.
Contact
Please apply via ‘apply now’ button and either upload ALL of the above listed application documents.
Respond by the following date
30/01/2020
Privacy and Confidentiality
The information in this document is confidential. When responding, please send replies only to those listed in the “contact” section. Copyright © 2020 by Internews Europe (IEU). All rights reserved. This document is supplied purely for the purpose of assisting applicants to apply to the above described position; no part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise) for any other purpose.