Lead Systems Engineer

Organizational Context

The UNOPS IT Group (ITG) drives digital transformation by designing, delivering, and managing IT infrastructure and business applications globally. The Core Systems Engineering (CSE) team within ITG builds and maintains platforms, APIs, and tools that power UNOPS digital solutions, including AI applications. CSE acts as the technical foundation for AI, Business Applications, and IT Operations teams.

Job Purpose

The Lead Systems Engineer, reporting to the CIO, will spearhead the Core Systems Engineering team. This role is responsible for defining the technical direction and standards for platforms, APIs, components, and tools that are fundamental to UNOPS' digital solutions, including specialized AI products. The Lead Systems Engineer holds full accountability for the successful delivery of these platforms, standards, and frameworks across the entire organization, ensuring they support both headquarters and field operations effectively.

Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership and mentorship to a team of Systems Architects and Developers, establishing and enforcing engineering standards, coding practices, and architectural patterns. Make key technology decisions for the CSE stack, balancing innovation with organizational risk. Plan and manage the CSE engineering roadmap, prioritizing new platform development, technical debt reduction, and support for other teams. Own the design and delivery of core CSE outputs such as APIs, reusable components, integration layers, and AI/project templates. Define cloud hosting architectures and CI/CD pipelines, ensuring all solutions are production-ready, well-documented, and designed for operational handover. Coordinate with IT Infrastructure and Business Applications teams to align on hosting, dependencies, and support. Establish and maintain engineering governance, including architecture reviews and security-by-design practices, ensuring compliance with cybersecurity and data protection policies.

Work Experience

Requires a minimum of 7-9 years of experience in software engineering or system architecture, with at least 3 years in a technical leadership role. Experience in designing and delivering platforms, reusable component libraries, or enterprise APIs is essential. Proficiency with Google Cloud Platform, including serverless, containers, CI/CD, and AI/ML services, is required. Experience building or integrating AI/ML components into production systems and establishing technical standards is also necessary.

Skills

Cloud Computing, Systems Engineering, Technical Leadership, Software Development Lifecycle, Coding, Software Architecture, AI/ML Integration, CI/CD Pipelines, Platform Development, API Design, Google Cloud Platform.

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