Senior Digital Production Associate

Exciting opportunity within the Global Communications Service at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

The role will be as part of UNHCR’s Photo Unit, which sits within the Global Communications Service (GCS) and serves departments both within GCS and the wider organisation. This is a unique opportunity to work with the service’s multimedia content section working within the UN system.

UNHCR is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. We are in over 125 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions.

Title: Senior Digital Production Associate

Duty Station: Remote working (home-based), preferably as close as possible to UTC time zone

Duration: Start date 01/06/22, through 31/12/22 with possibility of renewal.

Contract Type: Local Individual Contractor Agreement (through UNOPS), LICA7

Closing date: May 14, 2022

Organisational context

UNHCR’s Global Communications Service works to lead the narrative on forced displacement, generate empathy and mobilize action. To advance these strategic objectives, the Service’s Multimedia Content Section has built a digital asset management system, called Refugees Media (http://media.unhcr.org), to host and distribute photos, videos and other multimedia content. The system runs on the Cortex platform developed by Orange Logic. Refugees Media has enabled UNHCR to streamline and facilitate the sharing of materials for UNHCR personnel as well as media organizations and other external users. As with any complex platform, it requires ongoing maintenance and development to ensure that it functions smoothly and effectively.

The position

The Senior Digital Production Associate works within the Global Content Section reporting to the Head of Content and under the supervision of Video and Photo Editors and is the in-house expert on technical aspects of the Refugees Media platform. They ensure it is set up to effectively house and distribute photo, video and multimedia assets. The Senior Digital Production Associate also provides technical support and training to back-end and front-end users to strengthen the platform’s efficiency and improve user experience. The Digital Production Associate also acts as liaison with service providers to ensure all technical aspects of the system work well.

We are seeking a dynamic and proactive team player, with an interest in refugee issues and strong experience in digital asset management systems.

You will work closely with the Photo and Video Units and other members of the Global Communications Service. Liaising with UNHCR’s wider internal networks, you will support the development of technical knowledge and compliance across the organization and will play your part in achieving UNHCR’s strategic ambitions; contributing to the protection of people forced to flee.

Duties and responsibilities

Liaise with suppliers to ensure reliability and continuous improvement of UNHCR’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) System, known as Refugees Media, which holds a vast catalogue of videos and photos.

· Work with software providers to maintain and refine Refugees Media including the development of features and structures that improve and streamline workflows.

· Manage the creation and testing and swift resolution of support tickets with the software provider

· Work with external keywording suppliers to deliver robust taxonomies that improve searches

· Manage the master list of keywords in line with UNHCR’s data management and communication objectives

· Carry out scheduled and necessary upgrades based on best industry standards

Perform administrator roles on UNHCR’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, Refugees Media, to support content editors, producers, and clients/users.

· Structure and organize asset libraries, helping to ensure comprehensive data governance and security

· Create and develop systems that allow most efficient access to content and data

· Provide metrics monthly and upon request from Global Communications Service, with an eye to developing more useful reporting techniques.

· Ensure uploads are done correctly in accordance with technical and editorial guidelines.

· Provide technical support to internal and external users

Collaborate with various teams to identify needs and areas of proactive support on the Digital Asset Management system, Refugees Media

· Training administrators and users

· Answering technical support queries.

· Develop and maintain Digital Asset Management documentation, ensuring that it is current and serves user and administrator needs

· Be available outside of office hours to provide emergency support and offer wider support by remote when requested.

Monitoring and Progress Controls on Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, Refugees Media**

· Report weekly on status of support tickets.

· Report monthly on use of the platform, providing insight on search terms, uploads and downloads of assets, user demographics and other relevant metrics.

Essential minimum qualifications and professional experience required

Education

· Preferably undergraduate degree or specific certified trainings in the fields of digital asset management, IT development with added communications and media management as an advantage

Work experience

· 4 years of experience with high-school and 2 years of experience with BA equivalent or higher education in managing a digital asset management system (ideally on Orange Logic’s Cortex platform), including the management of asset metadata, keywording, etc.

· Basic programming skills or experience in Application Programming Interface (API) and data transfer.

Key Competencies

· Sophisticated understanding of user permissions, asset permissions, asset metadata, system architecture, multimedia workflows, keywording, data security, archiving and preservation, and other core skills required to manage a digital asset management system properly.

· Strong understanding of administrative workflow and user experience.

· Ability to work as part of a team and to support colleagues in their workflows