National Consultant - Software Developer for Education Research Database Platform

Organizational Context

UNESCO, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), is implementing STEPCam Phase II to enhance education quality in Cambodia. A key initiative under this program is the establishment of an Educational Technology (EdTech) Innovation Hub. This hub aims to foster research, innovation, and thought leadership in digital education strategies. It will play a crucial role in generating and disseminating evidence on the effective use of ICT and AI in education.

Job Purpose

This consultancy focuses on enhancing the SALA Digital platform, MoEYS' primary digital knowledge repository, by integrating a dedicated ICT/AI Education Research Module. The goal is to create a centralized, accessible digital repository for national education research outputs related to ICT, AI, EdTech, and digital transformation. This enhancement will serve as foundational infrastructure for the EdTech Hub, supporting its research, knowledge management, and policy advisory functions. The project aims to strengthen the linkages between research, policy formulation, teacher education, and classroom practice by making relevant research easily discoverable and usable by stakeholders. It will also introduce advanced search functionality and an Open API for interoperability with national research journals and repositories.

Responsibilities

The consultant will provide technical support to develop SALA Digital into a fully functional national ICT/AI education research discovery platform. Key tasks include conducting a comprehensive system assessment, defining detailed functional and technical requirements through stakeholder consultations, and designing the system architecture, information architecture, metadata schema, taxonomies, and tagging frameworks. The consultant will develop the ICT/AI Education Research Repository module, ensuring bilingual metadata presentation and seamless integration with existing systems. This includes developing a feature for research paper submission and review, and optimizing performance for increased user load. Additionally, the consultant will develop advanced search, filtering, and browsing functionalities, design and implement Open APIs or metadata harvesting mechanisms, and pilot integration with priority national journals. An administrative analytics dashboard will be designed and implemented to track usage and engagement. The consultant must ensure compliance with cybersecurity, data protection, and copyright standards, and conduct thorough testing. Finally, the consultant will develop technical documentation, conduct training and mentoring for MoEYS and EdTech Hub teams, and support the development of governance and sustainability strategies.

Work Experience

Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in designing, developing, and enhancing enterprise-level digital platforms, information systems, or knowledge management systems. Demonstrated experience in developing web-based platforms, API development, system integration, and implementing advanced search or discovery systems is required. Experience with Rust programming language, Next.js, and/or MongoDB is essential.

Skills

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Excellent planning, coordination, and monitoring abilities. Proven capacity to develop technical documentation and training materials. Strong capacity-building and knowledge-transfer skills. Ability to work effectively in multi-stakeholder and multicultural environments. Excellent written and verbal English skills. Native proficiency in Khmer is required.

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