Software Engineer

About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible.

In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions

into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.

Now, and for the future.

Program / Department Summary
The Information Technology (IT) team coordinates, facilitates, and supports the agency’s use of information and communications technology to achieve agency goals. We provide planning and technical assistance to Mercy Corps country programs. We collaborate with HQ departments to implement and support the agency’s strategic initiatives. We work to strengthen the agency’s abilities to use Internet-based information services.

General Position Summary
Provide technical development and support for Mercy Corps’ operations and administration tools, with particular focus on Web applications that support program management and operations in the field. Develop and support related tools that facilitate the work of staff in pursuit of the organization’s objectives, within the general framework of the intranet and other primary web based forums. Analyze the business and information needs of field programs and cross-functional areas of the organization, in order to develop solutions to business problems.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Design and implement solutions using a variety of languages and tools (see knowledge/experience section)
• Test programs for desired results using provided test data and tools
• Optimize and fine tune performance on web applications for low bandwidth environments
• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies
• Record and maintain documentation for each written or updated program
• Analyze, diagnose, and resolve reported technical issues with interface and backend components
• Integrate different systems and data types
• Examine business practices and data flows, working with staff to identify and clarify business needs
• Write technical requirements (use cases) for identified needs
• Analyze costs and technical pros & cons of implementing alternative solutions

Organizational Learning

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
  
  to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Supervisory Responsibility
None

Accountability
Reports Directly To: Senior Director of Information Systems

Works Directly With: Diverse organizational staff and IT staff

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor degree in Computer Science or related field or equivalent experience
• Must have 2+ years professional computer programming experience with object oriented languages, preferably on web-based applications, such as Java and Python
• Must have 2+ years professional experience with Web frameworks in open source environments, preferably Django
• Must have 2+ years professional experience with database development, including the creation of queries, stored procedures, views, tables, and schemas, as part of a web application; experience with relational databases, such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, and NoSQL databases, such as MongoDB
• Proficient working with javascript, jQuery, CSS/HTML, RESTful APIs and AJAX/JSON
• Must have 2+ years professional experience with open source content management system, preferably Drupal
• Must have 2+ years professional experience with agile software development practices
• Knowledge of data modeling and business process modeling, with an understanding of business processes, especially in distributed data collection, management, and reporting
• Experience writing secure, auditable source code that is well documented

Success Factors

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills
• Ability to understand quickly the business issues and data challenges of the organization
• Ability to think creatively with incomplete information
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Organized, detail-oriented, personable, able to prioritize projects
• Ability to conceptualize and design new processes for practical applications
• Adept at proposing options for managing change in a cost-effective manner
• Able to multi-task and prioritize in accordance with business needs with limited supervision
• Ability to become quickly knowledgeable on an application and its database schema

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Portland, OR and it requires up to 5% travel to foreign offices.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.