System Developer Consultant for 2026 Preschool Census (Ministry of Education) in Battaramulla, 12 months, Sri Lanka CO (Office based) - Req no: 592955

Organizational Context

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential. At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

Job Purpose

The Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka, with UNICEF's support, seeks a System Developer Consultant to design, develop, deploy, and operationalize a National Preschool Census Information System. This system is crucial for addressing the current fragmentation and manual collection of preschool data, which hinders effective planning and policy formulation. The consultant will create a unified, digital, and continuously updated information system to establish a national baseline dataset for all preschools. This initiative will support national education reforms and the National Pre-Primary Policy by enabling evidence-based planning, equitable resource allocation, and monitoring of preschool education services, ultimately contributing to the fulfillment of children's potential.

Responsibilities

The System Developer Consultant will be responsible for the end-to-end development and implementation of the National Preschool Census Information System. This includes designing a secure, scalable, and user-friendly system based on the Preschool Census framework, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education's statistics branch. Key tasks involve developing the system for collecting data on preschools nationwide, establishing mechanisms for regular annual updates of key data elements, and ensuring data quality assurance. The consultant will also be responsible for system deployment, user training, scaling the system as needed, ongoing maintenance, data analysis, reporting, data archiving, and ensuring a secure project closure. The system will provide essential baseline information and provisions for annual updates of selected fields.

Work Experience

A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in system design, development, and implementation, with a proven track record in database management and web application development. Experience with large-scale data collection and management systems is highly desirable.

Skills

System Design and Development, Database Management (SQL, NoSQL), Web Application Development (e.g., Java, Python, .NET), Data Modeling, Data Quality Assurance, System Deployment and Maintenance, User Training, Project Management, Requirements Gathering, Scalability and Performance Optimization, Security Best Practices, Reporting and Data Analysis

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