Organizational Setting

Monitoring and Enhancement of Remote Sensing for National Forest Inventory (MERANTI) is a three‑year project funded by Norway and managed by the FAO Office in Jakarta. It serves as Indonesia’s new National Forest Inventory (NFI) initiative, integrating enhanced land‑monitoring approaches to improve the accuracy, availability, transparency and timeliness of forest and tree‑resource data. Through the combination of a strengthened NFI and an improved national forest monitoring system, MERANTI aims to significantly enhance Indonesia’s capacity to generate high‑quality forest information. This strengthened data ecosystem will:

•    Improve national strategic planning and decision‑making on forests and trees
•    Support climate change mitigation efforts
•    Enable greater access to scalable climate finance
•    Strengthen Indonesia’s position in climate‑finance negotiations
•    Increase opportunities for results‑based payments (RBPs) and other forms of results‑based contributions (RBC)
•    Ensure fulfilment of Indonesia’s international commitments to global climate and sustainable development goals
.
The collaboration will also expand to other projects and programmes related to forest monitoring, including the UK-funded AIM4Forests initiative and affiliated programmes within the FAO portfolio and pipeline, as appropriate.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the FAO Representative in Indonesia, the general supervision of the Lead Technical Officer, and the direct supervision of the FAO UN-REDD Programme Coordinator and the MERANTI National Project Coordinator, as well as close coordination with Directorate General of Forestry Planning/IPSDH

Technical Focus

The Specialist will provide technical and operational support for the development, enhancement, testing, maintenance, and implementation of agreed web-based information systems and dashboards supporting NFI 2.0, IHM, SI-INTAN, Arena, and related forest monitoring information, under the direction and supervision of designated FAO technical staff.
The incumbent will support the development of a limited number of priority modules agreed by IPSDH and FAO, based on established technical requirements and specifications, with the aim of delivering operational products within the assignment period.

Tasks and responsibilities

Dashboard Development

•    Assist in developing or enhancing priority dashboard modules displaying agreed NFI 2.0 and IHM data, analytical outputs, and forest monitoring information.
•    Assist in developing or enhancing dashboard layout, navigation, usability, and responsiveness based on agreed user requirements.
•    Assist in ensuring the agreed web applications are usable across standard desktop and mobile/tablet viewing environments, where relevant.
•    Assist in ensuring agreed dashboard modules for forest inventory statistics, analytical outputs, forest potential information, and other prioritized information products.
•    Implement agreed interactive maps, charts, tables, filters, search functions, and reports to improve presentation of analytical results.
•    Support the optimization of application and dashboard performance for the agreed data volumes and user requirements.
•    Implement agreed performance measures, including caching, query optimization, and other performance measures where required.
•    Support application development and testing in the agreed development, testing/staging, and production environments.

Enhancement of Analytical Information Products

•    Assist in implementing dashboard functionalities to display agreed analytical outputs generated from NFI 2.0 and IHM data.
•    Assist in developing visualization modules for agreed forest potential and inventory information products.
•    Support the development and optimization of data retrieval and display functions efficiently to avoid unnecessary application and server load.
•    Implement visualization of forest potential modelling results provided and approved by IPSDH/technical teams.
•    Assist in improving reporting and dissemination through agreed web-based information products.
•    Ensure that analytical outputs displayed through the dashboard are based on approved datasets, methodologies, and information products provided by IPSDH/technical teams.

System Integration

•    Assist in implementing application-level integration application-level integration only for priority interfaces/systems agreed by IPSDH and FAO; integration with every listed system is not required.
•    Work with the System and Server Administrator, under the direction of designated technical staff on deployment and infrastructure compatibility.
•    Implement agreed application security and access controls, including appropriate role-based user management and access permissions for authorized users.
•    Apply appropriate application-security level and access controls within the scope of the developed modules.
•    Assist in developing and implementing agreed secure APIs, data interfaces, or integration components required to secure data exchange between approved systems where required.
•    Conduct functional testing, debugging, and user acceptance testing for developed or modified modules and address identified security findings from VA reports
•    Implement agreed authentication, authorization, encryption, and secure communication mechanisms for authentication, authorization, encryption, and secure communication mechanisms where required.

Documentation, Maintenance, and capacity building

•    Assist in preparing and maintaining technical documentation, user manuals, administrator guides, and API/interface documentation for agreed outputs.
•    Provide technical support for bug fixing and performance optimizationfor the developed modules during the consultancy period.
•    Maintain and refine agreed dashboard functionalities based on agreed dashboard functionalities based on UAT and user feedback.
•    Assist in delivering technical knowledge transfer and handover activities to IPSDH/designated staff on dashboard administration and application management.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    University degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or another relevant field.
•    At least five (5) years of professional experience in web application development and dashboard system development.
•    Working knowledge of English and Bahasa Indonesia
•    National of Indonesia or resident of the country with a valid work permit

FAO Core Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Demonstrated experience in back-end development using PHP, Python, or equivalent programming languages, and relevant application frameworks.
•    Proven experience in database design, development, and administration using MySQL, PostgreSQL, or equivalent database management systems.
•    Experience in application-level backup coordination and disaster-recovery considerations is an advantage. Knowledge of web application security, version control systems (e.g., Git), and modern software development methodologies is required.
•    Experience in developing interactive data visualizations using libraries such as D3.js, Chart.js, Highcharts, or equivalent. Experience in developing web-based GIS applications using Leaflet, OpenLayers, or similar technologies is an advantage.

Selection Criteria

•    Familiarity with Indonesia's forest inventory and forest monitoring systems. Experience supporting IPSDH or the Ministry of Forestry in the integration, management, visualization, and analysis of forest inventory and forest monitoring data is required.
•    Direct experience with SI-INTAN, the National Forest Inventory (NFI), mangrove inventory information systems (IHM), Arena, Collect, or other forest monitoring information systems is highly desirable.
•    Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with excellent written and verbal communication skills in Bahasa Indonesia and English. Ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams and communicate technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders

Dashboard System Development and Data Backup Specialist