Internship: Software Engineer

Job Description

About Giga

Launched in 2019 as a joint initiative between UNICEF and ITU, Giga has set the ambitious goal to connect every school in the world to the internet. Half of the world’s population has no regular access to the Internet. Millions of children leave school without any digital skills, making it much more difficult for them to thrive and contribute to local and global economies. This has created a digital divide between those who are connected and those who are not, a divide that has become even wider during the Covid-19 pandemic. UNICEF and ITU have therefore joined forces to create Giga, an initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet and address this new form of inequality.

Giga focuses on connecting schools so that children and young people have access to information, opportunity, and choice. It also uses schools as anchor points for their surrounding communities: if you connect the school, you can also connect local businesses and services. This creates opportunities for service providers to generate revenue from paying users, making connectivity more sustainable. A 2021 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that a 10% increase in school connectivity can increase effective years of schooling by 0.6% and increase GDP per capita by 1.1%.

You can read more about Giga’s work at https://giga.global/ and by following us on twitter @Gigaglobal

How can you make a difference?

We seek a strong self-motivated candidate with both frontend and backend software engineering knowledge who can support data analysis task and can work with a diverse team to drive the giga project forward, using data-driven insights.

This candidate will assist in the building, improvement and maintenance of software engineering and data products including building custom products and features and deploying these products and testing them as Giga’s data and mapping team. The candidate will also work with end users to test and improve the products and to help actualize Giga’s ambitious goal of connecting every school, and every community to the Internet.

The team is looking for a candidate with, knowledge of using frontend and backend frameworks and an understanding of data-intensive software applications and how they interact with data processing systems. The ability to work freely with both Python, JavaScript web frameworks and PostgreSQL as well as contribute to documentation are valuable for this role.

Your main responsibilities include:

• Work closely with the data & mapping product team to support frontend and backend development tasks across the products.
• Support the testing of products and integrations built by the data & mapping product team.
• Assist with writing and reviewing documentation for products and their processes
• Assist with product design on giga’s data products.

What you need to apply…

• An university degree (Bachelor’s or higher) in Computer Science, Network Engineering or other relevant field.
• A minimum of 1 year of relevant professional experience in software development.
• Ability to work collaboratively, manage multiple tasks, and meet deadlines with guidance from the supervisor.
• Familiarity with Technical areas in:
  • Frontend Development: ReactJS and TypeScript and CSS for responsive web application development.
  • Backend Development: Python, particularly the FastAPI framework for scalable API services and business logic implementation.
  • Database Management: PostgreSQL for relational data modeling, and integrating with existing database systems
  • Deployment & Testing: Knowledge of git workflows, code deployment and code functionality and quality testing
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergencies is considered an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required.
• Proficiency in Spanish or any other UN languages (French, Russian, Arabic, Chinese) is considered an asset.

Conditions:

• Age: Interns must be at least 18 years.
• Have good academic performance as demonstrated by recent university or institution records.
• Have no immediate relatives (e.g., father, mother, brother, sister) working in any UNICEF office.
• Have no other relatives in the line of authority which the intern will report to.
• Individuals must have proof of medical insurance covering the time and location of their internship.
• This internship expects a full-time commitment.
• Individuals are expected to provide their own laptop.

Payment:

The eligible intern will receive a monthly stipend as a contribution towards their living expenses. The selected candidate is expected to work remotely if located outside Barcelona.

Deadline: 07 Nov 2025 Romance Standard Time

About the Organization

UNICEF is out to change the world for children vaccination by vaccination, blanket by blanket, biscuit by biscuit, book by book. In most of America, these things are considered completely ordinary. But in many parts of the developing world, they can save a child's life. UNICEF is unique among world organizations and unique among those working with young people. As a global movement, we use our authority to influence decision makers and diverse partners to turn the most innovative ideas into reality. In 155 countries and territories, UNICEF's field staff uses hard-won expertise to meet the challenges facing children and those who care for them. Our history has given us a profound understanding of development and the importance of child health, education, equality and protection in advancing humanity. All that we do helps children realize their full potential. In support of UNICEF's work, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF focuses on five major priorities: education, emergencies, HIV/AIDS, immunization and malnutrition.