Open Position -National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA)

Last Date to Apply Wednesday, 15 March 2023

About the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA):
Established in 1976, the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is a premier institute of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, for research and capacity building for the urban sector in India. NIUA’s broad objective is to bridge the gap between research and practice on issues related to urbanization.  For more than 40 years now, NIUA has been the vanguard for contributing to and building the urban narrative for a fast-evolving urban India. The Institute has been actively working on bringing forth key areas of concern for urban India in order to build the urban discourse at various urban scales. It has utilized its competencies in research, knowledge management, policy advocacy and capacity building to address urban challenges and continuously striving to develop sustainable, inclusive and productive urban ecosystems in the country. It has emerged as a thought leader and knowledge hub for urban development in India and is sought after by both Indian and international organizations for collaborations and partnerships in India’s urban transforming journey. NIUA is committed towards aligning its efforts towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through all its initiatives and programmes.

About Sustainable Urban Development – Smart Cities II:

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

The Programme “Sustainable Urban Development – Smart Cities II” (SUDSC II) aims at anchoring resilient, sustainable approaches and solutions for urban development including infrastructure that consider disaster risk management and the leave-no-one-behind concept, within the context of various programmes and missions of the Government of India.

As a Strategic Partner with GIZ, NIUA will play a variety of roles as part of an end-to-end ‘Ecosystem Support’ for mainstreaming risk- informed, integrated, resilient and sustainable urban development in cities. This will involve four components:

Policy Advocacy: This component will focus on supporting the effective development of various policy frameworks and guidelines for shaping city planning practices, infrastructure design and technology adoption as well as governance mechanisms to effectively achieve risk-informed, integrated, resilient, sustainable and inclusive urban development.

Capacity Building: This component will focus on developing capacities of government functionaries as well as other professionals from industry, academia and civil society who can champion the strategies foregrounded under the partnership and ensure implementation. NIUA will support the roll out of cross-sectoral modules through selected training institutions.

Mainstreaming Innovations: This component includes support for implementation of innovative frameworks/ solutions in partner cities that can act as lighthouse initiatives for scaling up across the cities/states. Focus will be on fostering data-based digital tools that can lead to improved planning, governance and service delivery.

Instituting Communities of Practice: This component will focus on constituting peer-to-peer knowledge exchange platforms comprising representatives from public, private, scientific communities and CSOs. Deliberations of such groups will result in the development of knowledge products on risk-informed, integrated, resilient and sustainable urban development with focus on gender and inclusion.
Summarily, under the partnership, NIUA will help to improve timely adoption/adaption of the strategies espoused under the SUDSC-II into the planning and governance frameworks of partner States (namely Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana) and Cities and effectively nudge on-ground implementation.

1. Project Associate – Urban Expert

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Project Associate will provide support to Team Lead (SUDSC) at NIUA, for executing all the components with focus on supporting policy advocacy, creating capacity building modules and undertaking the dissemination of capacity building modules. The candidate should be comfortable working in an interdisciplinary environment and should be able to manage multiple tasks and meeting deadlines. Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Team Lead, the Project Associate shall undertake the following tasks:

• Provide required support in development, implementation and monitoring of the programme components, plans and activities in close consultation with State and City-level counterparts;
• Coordinate with the representatives at the partner States and Cities, and provide support w.r.t the technical inputs towards policy documents;
• Identify the capacity building requirements from the respective stakeholders and provide support in preparing and reviewing the capacity building modules/ programmes/ training modules to address the requirements;
• Take lead in supporting preparation of relevant knowledge products/ toolkits on the various project components for capacity building training programmes;
• Provide required support in undertaking Training of Trainers for various capacity building areas;
• Take lead in instituting the community of practise through knowledge exchange platforms comprising representatives from public, private, scientific communities and CSOs;
• Support the Team Lead in steering the project as per the project action plan and synchronise the plan with required background work system and counterparts;
• Participate in the periodic review meetings and discussions related to project implementation and ensure monitoring & follow-up;
• Ensuring on-time and high-quality delivery of project outputs, deliverables, and required reports;
• Support in preparation of project progress reports as per the GIZ guidelines;
• Interact with a variety of stakeholders including government officials, private sector, civil society institutions and research institutions;
• Any other duty and responsibility assigned by the Director, NIUA; Lead, Urban Strategy Unit; and Team Lead.

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE:

Master’s degree (in Urban Planning/ Environment/ Public Policy, or related fields) with an understanding of sustainable development, public policy, capacity building, creation of knowledge sharing modules and products etc.;

Minimum 5 years full time work experience after post-graduation, in urban development sector with experience in policy writing/ capacity building/ program implementation/ project management;
Software proficiency: MS Word, Excel, Power Point, Knowledge of professional software like ARC GIS, AutoCad, etc. will be an added advantage;

Excellent written and verbal communication & presentation skills, including the ability to speak persuasively and to present ideas clearly and concisely to authorities.

DESIRABLE:

• Experience with State Govt/ Central Govt/Local Bodies/ Resource Centres/ NGOs/ Communities/ National
• Urban Missions (SMART City, AMRUT, PMAY, etc)/ multilateral/ bi-letteral organisation like ADB, KFW,UNDP, GIZ etc;
• Proficiency in spoken and written English. A good command over regional language of partner Cities is an advantage.

LOCATION:

New Delhi with willingness to travel to partner States/Cities.

No. of Positions:  1

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2. Project Associate- Digital Expert

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Project Associate will provide support to the Team Lead (SUDSC) at NIUA for executing digital transformation components with special focus to digital innovation, development of digitally sound capacity building modules and dissemination of the content through different online methods. The ideal candidate should be able to provide cutting-edge and integrated solutions to India’s urban development challenges by bringing together expertise across diverse domains of knowledge and practice. Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Team Lead, the Project Associate shall undertake the following tasks:

• Lead the end-to-end management of digital transformation and data innovation projects;
• Provide data science and analytics support to the project team and partners for informed and evidence-based decision making;
• Provide support and advice on digital innovations in the defined intervention areas as per project requirements;
• Provide support and advice on capacity development and data-based innovative projects to partners and cooperating with relevant stakeholders;
• Support development of knowledge products and communicating innovations to a broad target group;
• Perform the quality assurance over the content, functionalities and structure of the programme;
• Maintain a good flow of communication & information and coordination with relevant stakeholders at the city level;
• Support in preparation of project progress reports as per the GIZ guidelines;
• Any other duty and responsibility assigned by the Director, NIUA; Lead, Urban Strategy Unit; and Team Lead.

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s in Technology/ Engineering in Computer Science/ Information Technology/ Data Science/ Data
• Analytics or another area related to the programme objectives;
• At least 5 years of professional experience of which 2 years of experience should in Digital Transformation projects in an Urban Development sector or related sector/ programme objectives;
• Working knowledge of trends and technologies based on ICT, IoT, cloud computing, big data analytics, and
• AI-ML and String fundamentals of front-end technologies like in open source technologies and tools, will be preferred;
• An in-depth understanding of networking concepts to create a scalable and secure cloud-based solution;
• Familiarity with cloud services such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, OpenStack, and GCP;
• Understanding how to design API connections between rest API platforms/software which includes the process of building an API or integrating one with applications and platforms;
• Knowledge of different Version Control systems such as GitHub for tracking and monitoring of development and modifications to the software;
• Coordination skills and ability to work in a team with other professionals;
• Good communication, interpersonal and presentation skills, with an ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.

DESIRABLE:

• Experience with State Govt/ Central Govt/Local Bodies/ Resource Centres/ NGOs/ Communities/ National
• Urban Missions (SMART City, AMRUT, PMAY, etc)/ multilateral/ bi-letteral organisation like ADB, KFW,UNDP, GIZ etc;
• Proficiency in spoken and written English. A good command over regional language of partner Cities is an advantage.

LOCATION: New Delhi with willingness to travel to partner States/Cities.

No. of Positions:  1

Click here to Apply