Who this is for: Senior technology leaders of any nationality with a master’s degree and at least 10 years’ experience running enterprise business systems and teams in large, international organisations. UNICEF especially encourages women to apply.
UNICEF is hiring a Chief, Digital Foundations – Business at P-5 level, the senior grade of the UN’s international professional staff. Based in Valencia, Spain, and reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, the Chief leads UNICEF’s enterprise business applications and digital platforms, and a team of 38 staff.
Deadline: 23 November 2026, 11:55 pm Valencia time (also 11:55 pm in Lagos). Some posts about this job don’t give a closing date; this one is from UNICEF’s own listing.
At a Glance
| Organiser | UNICEF, Digital Impact Division (Digital Foundations) |
| Position | Chief, Digital Foundations – Business (P-5), job no. 596880 |
| Contract | Fixed-term appointment |
| Duty station | Valencia, Spain (in person) |
| Team | 38 staff |
| Pay | UN international professional salary and benefits at P-5 level; UNICEF facilitates the visa |
| Who can apply | Any nationality; master’s degree and 10+ years’ experience |
| Deadline | 23 November 2026, 11:55 pm Valencia time |
About the Role
UNICEF’s Digital Impact Division runs the technology behind the organisation’s work for children. Its Digital Foundations team builds and maintains secure, cloud-based, data- and AI-ready systems. This Chief owns the business side: the strategy, development and lifecycle of UNICEF’s global systems, including its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) ecosystem, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and programme, partnership and service management platforms.
What You’ll Do
- Set the strategy and roadmap for UNICEF’s enterprise business applications and digital platforms.
- Keep global systems integrated, secure and continuously improved for headquarters, country offices and shared service centres.
- Translate business needs into digital solutions, working with business units and partners.
- Manage vendors and champion agile delivery.
- Work with other UN agencies to build or align shared digital tools.
- Lead and develop a team of 38 staff.
Eligibility
- A master’s degree (or equivalent) in computer science, information technology management, business administration or a related field.
- At least 10 years of progressively responsible experience in a large international development context and a geographically dispersed organisation.
- Proven people management and team leadership in multicultural settings.
- A track record leading enterprise applications, application lifecycle management and large-scale digital transformation.
- Experience with multi-vendor environments, including contract negotiation.
- Expert knowledge of enterprise architecture and integration; deep knowledge of ERP (SAP, Oracle) and CRM (Salesforce, ServiceNow); cloud, SaaS, agile, DevOps and CI/CD.
- Fluent English. Another UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an advantage.
- Any nationality; UNICEF encourages qualified women to apply.
Also valued: UN inter-agency digital work, AI and machine learning, digital public goods, information security and ICT risk, data governance, IT cost management, and country-level experience in development, fragile or humanitarian settings.
Pay, Visa and Checks
- P-5 is a senior UN international professional grade with an international salary and benefits package; UNICEF also offers paid parental leave and reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities.
- Staff on international posts need a visa from Spain; UNICEF facilitates it.
- Appointment depends on medical clearance and thorough reference, safeguarding and background checks, including verification of degrees and past jobs.
- Government employees normally have to resign before joining UNICEF.
How to Apply
- Open the official UNICEF job listing (job no. 596880) and read the full job description linked there.
- Click Apply now and create or sign in to your UNICEF careers account.
- Complete your profile with your education, experience and languages, and upload your CV.
- Show evidence for each requirement, especially enterprise systems you’ve led, team size, budgets and vendor contracts.
- Submit before 11:55 pm Valencia time on 23 November.
Beware of scams: the UN never charges a fee at any stage of recruitment.
Tips
- Use numbers. Users served, countries, team size, budget and systems migrated make senior experience concrete.
- Prepare for a competency interview. UNICEF assesses eight competencies, including leading people, thinking strategically and managing complexity; have one story ready for each.
- Show UN-system awareness. Experience with shared or inter-agency platforms is a plus.
- Not at P-5 level yet? UNICEF and other UN agencies post P-2 to P-4 technology roles too; check their careers pages.
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- Gates Foundation AI Fellows Program 2026
- WINGS Communications Coordinator 2026 (Remote)
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