Hi, I am sharing on this opportunity which opened today. Full details below:
Consultancy: Open Source Software Mentor, Office of Innovation, remote, part-time, max 30 days within 6 months
About position
Fintech for Impact is a pilot investment focused on investigating potential financial and banking solutions to benefit youth and families in the Philippines. We’ll be making up to 6 equity-free investments of up to $100k in for-profit technology startups that show potential for significant social impact through the development of financial technology (fintech). UNICEF is investing in fintech for positive social impact as part of our contribution to the growing collection of open source digital public goods (which includes open source software, standards, content and data) that will help accelerate attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals in low- and middle-income countries.
Responsibilities
The Office of Innovation is looking for an Open Source Software Mentor to focus on supporting and advising portfolio companies, providing support in the assessment of new companies, and offering technical guidance in support of the Digital Public Goods Alliance. *DPGs are defined as open-source digital products can be freely used, distributed and adapted by anyone, and conform to minimum standards, for instance related to privacy and security.
- Technical Assistance: Provide ongoing technical assistance to Fintech for Impact portfolio companies; assist the teams in working through challenges, refer them to additional resources, ensure compliance and track progress with Fintech for Impact/Innovation Fund requirements on software and open source. Provide support for assessment processes for the Digital Public Goods Alliance, as required.
- Open Source Support: Work with lead OS advisor to develop, document, and implement a replicable process to build, manage and leverage open source communities and networks for portfolio companies
- Cohort Collaboration: Guide technical integration and establishment of open source platforms based on individual solutions developed by portfolio companies
- Assessment Support: Provide support in the assessment of new companies the UNICEF is considering investing in
- Metrics Assessment: Provide ongoing support in the development of metrics that help track and evaluate the growth of digital public goods
- Sustainability: Explore partnerships and long-term hosting and support options for platforms post-investment period
Qualifications
- A minimum of three years of progressively responsible professional work experience in relevant field: open source technology development, piloting, and community building (see below).
- Significant experience in developing and piloting open source technology products, ideally software, data, and content
- Experience with open source community development and track record of engagement with relevant networks
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→ Apply ←
About UNICEF
UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.
The Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.
UNICEF’s Office of Innovation creates opportunities for the world’s children by focusing on where new markets can meet their vital needs. We do this by:
- Connecting youth communities (or more broadly – anyone disconnected or under-served) to decision-makers, and to each other, to deliver informed, relevant and sustained programmes that build better, stronger futures for children.
- Provoking change for children through an entrepreneurial approach – in a traditionally risk-averse field – to harness rapidly moving innovations and apply them to serve the needs of all children.
- Creating new models of partnership that leverage core business values across the public, private and academic sectors in order to deliver fast, and lasting results for children.
The Office of Innovation specifically looks to form partnerships around frontier technologies (like drones and UAVs, blockchain, 21st century skills, urban technologies, new financial tools, wearables and sensors, or 3D-Printing) that exist at the intersection of $100 billion business markets and 1 billion person needs - and to identify how they can grow and scale profitably and inclusively.
UNICEF Innovation Fund
The UNICEF Innovation Fund has been specifically designed to finance early stage, open-source technology that can benefit children. The core motivation of the Innovation Fund is to identify “clusters” or portfolios of initiatives around emerging technology - so that UNICEF can both shape markets and also learn about and guide these technologies to benefit children. We invest in solutions that can impact the lives of the most vulnerable children. We find these solutions clustered around $100 billion industries in frontier technology spaces, such as: UAVs, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, nano-satellites, and human dynamics. With $29M raised to date, the Innovation Fund is scaling its investment portfolio with the aim of investing in 20 start-ups every year. The current portfolio of 39 companies consists of several cohorts of companies developing and piloting solutions in virtual and augmented reality, data science and artificial intelligence, blockchain, UAVs, IoT, and in assistive technology.
