UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, hope.

 

Consultancy Title: Consultant – UX/UI Product Designer

Section/Division/Duty Station: Digital Strategy, Global Communication and Advocacy, UNICEF NYHQ

Duration: 20 January 2025 to 7 July 2025

Home/ Office Based: NYHQ / Remote

 

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

 

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The Product Designer will enable UNICEF’s Digital Governance and Platforms Team to offer clear and engaging web products by crafting, adapting, and enhancing the features available on our web platform.

 

Scope of Work:

The Product Designer will tackle design specific tasks assigned and estimated during regular sprint planning sessions, in coordination with the Product Owner and Creative Lead, using our Agile Project Management Methodology. The primary work of this consultancy will be to create design specifications and documentation within the UNICEF.org Design System, which is an enterprise-level, component and symbol based Figma library.

The expected results will include the participation in Sprint Planning and Sprint Demo sessions, along with full demonstration of the design task, and proper handover in Figma with notations for Product, Design, and Development teams, as noted above

 

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment

The Product Designer will work within 12 Design Sprints to deliver design concepts, functional prototypes, and final design specifications for User Interface (UI) elements within the UNICEF Design System. All work will be created in Figma and integrated into the Drupal enterprise system.

Duties per Sprint:

Sprint Planning:

• Attend one Sprint Planning session every two weeks.
• Coordinate with the Product Owner to identify, refine, and estimate design tasks.
• Commit to working on an average of 10–12 user stories per sprint, with each story requiring approximately 5 hours to complete.

Design and Prototyping Create high-fidelity design concepts and interactive prototypes for UI elements.

• Develop final design specifications for inclusion in the UNICEF Design System.
• Ensure all designs adhere to accessibility standards and align with the organization’s branding.
• Review and Handover Finalize and organize Figma files with clear annotations.
• Provide documentation for design handovers to the Product, Design, and Development teams.

Attend Sprint Demo sessions to present completed or in-progress work, including specifications and documentation for review and approval.

Deliverables\Outputs

Sprint 1 - 12:

User Stories Completed:

• An average of 10–12 user stories per sprint completed with detailed design files in Figma.

Design Concepts and Prototypes:

• High-fidelity design concepts and functional prototypes for new or enhanced UI elements.

Design Specifications:

• Finalized design specifications for integration into the UNICEF Design System.
• Properly annotated Figma files, including interaction details, to guide developers.

Design System Documentation:

• Updates to the Design System master file to ensure accuracy and consistency.
• Clear documentation for all deliverables, ensuring usability for in-house teams.

Sprint Demos:

• Participation in one Sprint Demo session per sprint to demonstrate completed or in-progress tasks.            

Deadlines:

Sprint 1: 3 February 2025

Sprint 2: 17 February 2025

Sprint 3: 3 March 2025

Sprint 4: 17 March 2025

Sprint 5: 31 March 2025

Sprint 6: 14 April 2025

Sprint 7: 28 April 2025

Sprint 8: 12 May 2025

Sprint 9: 26 May 2025

Sprint 10: 9 June 2025

Sprint 11: 23 June 2025

Sprint 12: 7 July 2025

 

Qualifications

Education: 

Advanced university degree (Bachelors) in Graphic design, web design, product design, UX/UI design, or other related field.

 

Work experience:

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *: 

• An unrelated Bachelor’s Degree with an additional two years of relevant work experience as outlined below, may also be considered with sufficient demonstratable professional experience in UX/UI fields.
• 5 Years or more of relevant professional experience in design (graphic, web, product, user experience).
• A strong digital portfolio demonstrating user experience and user interface design.
• Working knowledge of data visualization and implementing Infographics.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Expert knowledge in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator and Photoshop).
• Expert knowledge in Figma and Sketch, especially knowledge of an atomic design based system and working with comprehensive library of symbols.
• Experience working directly with an Enterprise level Design System, with Figma and Drupal system specific experience as an asset.
• Fundamental understanding of CSS, and ability to deliver designs that are feasible in CSS.
• Strong documentation and presentation skills, especially when it comes to handover for technical implementation.
• Experience working with Infogram (or similar tools such as Tableau) for creating embeddable and interactive graphics is considered as an asset.
• Working knowledge of Drupal, or other component-based enterprise content management systems.
• Working knowledge of W3A Accessibility Standards
• Experience working on multilingual sites.
• Experience working in developing countries and/or familiarity with emergencies is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset

 

Requirements:

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and

- Upload copy of academic credentials

- Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :

• • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability

- Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.

- At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.

- Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.