Systems Administrator

Host entity: WHO South Africa

Volunteer type: International

Areas of expertise: Information technology and telecommunications, Software development

Application deadline: 28/08/2026

Mission and objectives

Dedicated to the well-being of all people and guided by science, the World Health Organization leads and champions global efforts to give everyone, everywhere an equal chance to live a healthy life. WHO leads global efforts to expand universal health coverage. We direct and coordinate the world’s response to health emergencies. And we promote healthier lives – from pregnancy care through old age.

Assignment context

The Information Technology Management (ITM) unit is the custodian of all the cloud infrastructure and supports technical clusters to deploy, tune, and maintain their applications. This involves maintaining a thriving partnership consisting of product owners, internal developers, and external entities.

Task description

Under the overall supervision of the IT Manager (Information Technology Manager) and the direct supervision of the IT Specialists, the incumbent is expected to carry out the following duties:

• Provision, configure, and maintain cloud infrastructure, including App Service plans, virtual networks, virtual machines, and Kubernetes clusters.
• Monitor system performance, availability, and security events via monitoring tools; escalate or resolve issues per established runbooks and approved standards.
• Manage Identity and Access Management (IAM), security groups, and access controls; conduct periodic access reviews to enforce least privilege.
• Execute backup, patching, and disaster recovery procedures.
• Support infrastructure-as-code, deployment changes, and version control.
• Identify orphaned or unused resources and cost anomalies across all resource groups; compile reports, propose solutions, and coordinate remediation with stakeholders through to completion.
• Plan and lead deployment working sessions with developers and product owners, including architecture reviews and cybersecurity risk assessments.
• Identify application frameworks and infrastructure components due for upgrade or migration; plan with product owners, secure change approval, and execute.
• Provide first-level support to Azure users on Virtual Private Network (VPN) access, Bastion connectivity, permissions, DevOps processes, and general resource use.
• Maintain up-to-date documentation of key decisions, configurations, incidents, and procedures to ensure continuity of coverage.
• Perform other duties relevant to this assignment as required.

Skills and experience

Experience in Systems administration or related areas, with three (3) years of experience working in cloud infrastructure administration in a professional capacity as a hands-on contributor.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills; strong drafting, formulation, and reporting abilities;
• Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners;
• Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; able to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel;
• Self-motivated, able to work with minimum supervision; able to meet tight deadlines;
• Affinity with or interest in providing health information technology (health IT ) platforms valuable to high-level decision makers, built on sound cloud computing principles, with volunteerism as a delivery mechanism.
In the context of the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform, familiarity with the following is expected:
• Cloud governance;
• Compliance auditing;
• Cost optimization;
• Cloud security and access control;
• Lifecycle management;
• Troubleshooting;
• Development and Operations (DevOps ) practices;
• IP addressing, networks, and subnets

Competencies and values

• Must demonstrate a strong commitment to the values and principles of volunteering and respect for diversity.
• Expected to bring strong interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Ability and willingness to work in a multicultural environment and to draw upon synergies between proposed solutions and local expertise.
• Be able to adjust to changing, and at times difficult, living and working conditions.

Living conditions

Bigger cities in South Africa can be highly cosmopolitan. In Johannesburg and Pretoria, you will find an abundance of world class gyms, restaurants, bars, recreational classes, galleries, parks etc. The bigger shopping malls host a large selection of international brands. There is a plethora of international cuisine to be sampled, and quirky independent cinemas to be discovered. OR Tambo International Airport is a world class airport, offering highly sophisticated facilities. It is located just outside of Johannesburg, in Kempton Park. It has many international airlines that fly into this airport. Crime rates in South Africa are ranked on the high end, petty theft and opportunistic crimes are common, and armed robberies, smash & grabs and hijackings are also fairly frequent in certain areas. One needs to remain vigilant especially at night and at road intersections. There are usually sign posts that indicate such hot spots. Periodic security information updates are sent via email providing information at national level, with regards to circumstances such as incidents of civil unrest, transport security, computer and networking safety and trends in criminality. UNDSS sends weekly security updates via email. Updates from wardens are on an ad hoc basis, following security related events in your residential area. Updates from UNDSS are provided weekly.

UN Volunteers receives the below entitlements:
• A Monthly Volunteer Living Allowance (VLA): $3533.23 per month,
• A once off entry lumpsum at the start of the assignment,
• Medical insurance; Life cover, and annual leave,
• Access to all learning platforms,
• A once off exit lumpsum at the end of the assignment.

For more information on UN Volunteer benefits, entitlements and support, please visit: https://www.unv.org

Full eligibility requirements, conditions of service and application instructions are available on the official UNV platform.