e-PSM IT Consultant

• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background, and culture
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented member nations, and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct and to uphold our values. FAO has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and FAO, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination
• All selected candidates, therefore, will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
• The incumbent may be re-assigned to different activities and/or duty stations depending on the evolving needs of the Organization

Organizational Setting The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission The IOTC is an intergovernmental organisation responsible for the management of tuna and tuna-like species in the Indian Ocean. The IOTC was established in 1993 under Article XIV of the FAO constitution and the IOTC Secretariat is responsible for the implementation of the Commission’s policies by providing administrative, technical and scientific support to the Commission and its subsidiary bodies. The primary function of the Secretariat's Compliance team is to assist the IOTC Compliance Committee in its work to review and assess compliance by IOTC member countries in the implementation of the IOTC Conservation and Management Measures. The Compliance Section also provides support to members in the implementation of Monitoring, Control and Surveillance tools adopted by the Commission and is responsible for maintaining several important elements of the IOTC website, e.g. Record of Authorized Vessels, Active Vessels List, IUU Vessels List, List of Designated Ports, and the IOTC Bigeye Tuna Statistical Document Programme. Reporting Lines The e-PSM IT Consultant reports to the IOTC Executive Secretary and is under the direct supervision of the Senior Fishery Officer of the Compliance section. Technical Focus Port States measures to combat IUU fishing activities In 2010, aware of the powerful and cost effective compliance tool of Port States measures to combat IUU fishing activities in the Indian Ocean, the IOTC adopted a resolution on Port State measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing (IOTC Resolution 10/11 on PSMR, superseded by Resolution 16/11). The resolution, which entered into force on 1 March 2011, is inspired by the 2009 FAO Agreement on Port State Measures but placed in the context of the IOTC mandate. The port State competent authority (fisheries administration) of the Coastal CPCs of the IOTC, where foreign vessels offload tuna and tuna like species or call into port to use port services, are responsible for the implementation of the resolution. IOTC has an electronic application to assist Members with the implementation of port State management measures IOTC has a functioning e-PSM application that has been developed to facilitate and assist the Contracting Parties and Cooperating non Contracting Parties (CPCs) of the IOTC to implement the IOTC Resolutions related to Port State Measures (PSM). The three module e-PSM application has been developed using several technologies including Drupal, MySQL, PHP, xHTML and jQuery/jQueryUI on the UI / UX side, and Java, JDBC, Spring and Hibernate on the backend side, all running under Apache HTTPD and Tomcat (modjk). Module 1: e-PSM Forms and Processes The first module, e-PSM forms and processes, is a working and communication platform for the fishing industry, the port States CPCs, the flag State CPCs to implement their responsibilities in terms of Resolution 16/11. As the first step of the PSM process, this module allows the fishing industry to submit electronically to port State CPCs an advance request for entry into port (AREP) to decide whether to authorise or deny the entry of the vessel into its port and communicate this decision to the vessel or to its representative. Module 2: e-PSM Library The second module, e-PSM library, is an information sharing platform to IOTC CPCs where PSM related information can be found, such as: • Information on designated ports, designated competent authority in each port State CPC and prior notification period established by each CPC, • e-PSM application user manuals (Industry manual, port State CPCs manual and flag State CPCs manual), • PSM forms created in the Module 1: Advance Request of Entry into Port (AREP) and Port Inspection Reports (PIR) (Restricted access), • Documents, technical reports, meeting reports, video on various fisheries topics (e.g. tuna fisheries management, fisheries Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) and port State measures, etc…) • Internet link to useful resources (e.g. vessel movement information, port information, etc…). Module 3: e-PSM Reporting The third module, e-PSM reporting, is a report building tool where reports related to the activities of foreign vessels in a CPC’s port or activities of its flagged vessels in foreign ports can be generated. This module allows CPCs to generate the mandatory report required by Resolution 05/03 (Details of landing of foreign vessels in ports), as well as the mandatory report required by Resolution 19/06 (Details of transhipments of flag vessels in foreign ports). e-PSM manuals Four manuals have been produced to assist vessels’ representatives, the Port State competent Authorities, the Flag State competent Authorities, and non flag State and non port State users. Tasks and responsibilities The objective of this assignment is to provide IT services in support to the e-PSM web application, currently accessible to agents, port States and flag States, through a dedicated section of the IOTC website. This consultancy relates to the provision of technical, operational and maintenance support. Specifically, the consultant will: • Participate in a briefing and work planning meeting with the IOTC Secretariat • Provide generic IT support to the IOTC Secretariat staff and technical / operational support to all application end-users, as well as perform corrective, evolutive and security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security maintenance tasks. IT Support • Train staff members from the sections of the IOTC Secretariat whose work area is at least partially overlapping with the scope of the platform (e.g. data and science) about the structure of the application domain, the underlying data assets, and all end-users functionality provided by the platform. Recall that the platform is likely to evolve following updates to the PSM resolution as well as in consequence of end-users feedback; • Support the IOTC Secretariat staff in the management of issues and problems that could be encountered with the application . Evolutive and security maintenance • Perform evolutive maintenance on the application stack, and implement updated domain requirements when necessary; • Introduce adequate security measures to guarantee the integrity of both the application runtime and the underlying data assets, as well as the continuous (24/7) operation of the system by envisaging proper recovery mechanisms to bring the systems back on-line in the shortest time possible after any incident; • Apply system-wide security updates (PHP, Java, Drupal, etc.); • Manage update of external applications and software platforms (such as Adobe tools, Microsoft Windows, etc.) that could affect the stability of the application; • Produce quarterly reports on evolutive and security maintenance work undertaken. Technical and operational support and assistance LEVEL 1 The IOTC Secretariat regularly receives feedback from end-users on the status of the e-PSM application, that include reports of malfunctioning detected when using the application to enter an advanced request for entry in port, generating PDF files during the various phases of the process, attaching files to support a specific requirement and so on. The IOTC Secretariat will notify the consultant of such issues in due course, and will provided with all the details (including log files) to detect the reason for the malfunctioning. The consultant will then estimate the extent of interventions required to fix the identified Level 1 issues and eventually escalate the issue to Level 2 if its resolution requires changes at software / hardware level to resolve or minimize the impact caused by the issue. LEVEL 2 The consultant, in close collaboration with the IOTC Secretariat staff, will perform the standardization of technical procedures and apply potential changes to the underlying infrastructure, such as: • Introducing software / architectural changes to improve the application performance or fix bugs identified at Level 1; • Assess the necessity of introducing hardware changes (such as upgrading the server or the network infrastructure) and eventually schedule and supervise the required interventions to minimize application downtime. LEVEL 3 Level 3 support is expected to be applied to solve critical issues such as systematic application crashes and degradation in performances measured according to specific key performance indicators (KPIs), such as: search queries response times, PDF documents generation times, log-in times, etc. These indicators will be further defined and annexed to the final contract. CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING Minimum Requirements

• University degree in computer science, electronics engineering or information technology / management (or any other qualifications relevant to the demands of the assignment) or five or more years of practical work experience on comparable projects;
• 5 years of relevant experience in comparable projects
• Working knowledge of English and limited knowledge of one of the other FAO languages (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian) for Consultants. Working knowledge of English is sufficient for PSA.SBS.

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Experience in developing complex, data-driven web user interfaces using well-established frameworks, libraries and standards (XHTML, CSS, JQuery, AngularJS, NodeJS, Bootstrap, D3.js, AJAX, responsive design best practices);
• Hands-on experience in developing standalone / remote (web) applications using either PHP or Java / J2EE tools and frameworks (Drupal, Laravel, Symphony and / or Spring and Hibernate are a plus);
• Ability to design / implement / update complex software architectures using the most appropriate design patterns;
• Ability to account for the seamless integration of additional features / independent components within existing software architectures and minimize the impact of both the development and adoption phase;
• In-depth knowledge of relational and schema-less databases to model complex application domains in the field of fisheries;
• Good understanding of data warehousing concepts and tools;
• Substantial hands-on experience with the most common tools and platform for source control, issue tracking, continuous-integration and automated build;
• Experience in the management of information and technology services including planning, performance, strategy development and policy frameworks;
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, relationship building and basic customer service skills;
• High level of proficiency in written and spoken English or French,
• Knowledge of electronic applications used by the IOTC.

Selection Criteria

• Prior experience of working in the Indian Ocean region and / or in developing countries;
• Proven ability to quickly gather the core details of an application domain developed by third parties and effectively perform bugfixes within pre-existing legacy applications;
• Well-established knowledge and experience in the design of information systems and services supporting various fisheries data collection and analysis;
• Familiarity with the applications and its features. The consultant must be able to understand what is going on, answer on what to do. The technician shall have technical knowledge of the source of the problem to inform the IOTC Secretariat;

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency