Digital Transformation (DPI/GovTech) Specialist (Open to internal and external applicants)

Background

Governments across the Asia–Pacific region are actively seeking to leverage digital and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance public service delivery, improve decision-making, strengthen accountability, and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. However, despite adopting national digital and/or AI strategies, significant implementation gaps persist. In many contexts, these gaps reflect underlying state capability and governance constraints, including unclear institutional mandates, weak cross-government coordination, fragmented accountability, and limited capacity to design, govern, and sustain complex public digital system over time. These governance bottlenecks are further compounded by fragmented data ecosystems and uncertainty around responsibly operationalizing emerging technologies such as AI and Digital Public Infrastructure within public sector environment. Concurrently, unprecedented momentum is built for human-centered, integrated service delivery propelled by Government-as-a-Platform (GaaP) and DPI approaches, which place new demands on institutional design, coordination and stewardship

The UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH) provides regional policy advisory services, technical services, and programme support to UNDP Country Offices across the Asia Pacific region, working with governments and partners to advance the localization and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH), through its Regional Innovation and Digital Team (RIDT), supports government partners and UNDP Country Offices across Asia-Pacific to address these gaps. The team is building a growing portfolio that bridges institutional design, adaptive policy, responsible AI and data governance, and digital public infrastructure (DPI). Increasingly, Country Offices are requesting deeper, hands-on support to help governments design context-appropriate Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) stacks as well as operationalizing AI safely. This support encompasses capability diagnostics, use-case identification, co-design approaches that prioritize citizen needs, foster cross-government integration, and generate fiscal efficiencies.

To further drive this systemic shift, enhance peer-to-peer learning via DPI stewards, and deploy novel service delivery models, RIDT is hiring a Digital Transformation (Digital Public Infrastructure/ GovTech) Specialist. This role will deliver dedicated coordination, product management, and Country Office engagement to ensure that regional initiatives, including the AI Sprint, are strategically aligned, well-documented, and positioned for a sustainable scale.

The Digital Transformation (DPI/GovTech) Specialist will work under the supervision of the Regional Innovation Advisor and Team Lead, RID, in close coordination with the Regional Digital Transformation Specialist and Public Sector Innovation/ Partnerships Specialist. The scope is structured around four interlinked pillars that connect strategic digital ambition with practical, human-centered implementation:

Duties and Responsibilities

The Digital Transformation (DPI/Govtech) Specialist will report to the Team Lead- Regional Innovation and Digital Team and work closely with the Regional Digital Transformation Specialist and Public Sector Innovation/Partnerships Specialist. Where relevant, the Specialist will also collaborate and consult with governance team across the Hub and the Region to ensure alignment with broader public sector reform. The specialist will work in close coordination with colleagues across teams relevant for public sector innovation/ digital partnerships context.

DPI Stewards, DPI-nomics, and applied Research and Development

• Ensure DPI Stewards Coordination:
• Co-lead the technical delivery of the DPI Stewards cohort alongside the Public Sector Innovation and Partnerships Specialist.
• This includes scoping use cases, designing experimentation sandboxes, facilitating structured peer learning across Steward countries; and facilitating the 18-month implementation journey toward the Global DPI Summit showcases.
• Ensure Applied R&D for Local Context:
• Lead applied R&D to deploy DPI use cases that prioritize local context, citizens’ needs, and “Government as a Platform” (GaaP) approaches.
• Champion service design and agile methodologies to help Country Offices build sustainable, life-event-driven public service models.
• Ensure Evidence Synthesis and “DPI-nomics”:
• Research the investment logic and economic impacts of DPI.
• Analyse policy trade-offs (e.g. vendor dependency vs. Local industry development) and translate findings into reusable knowledge products, impact briefs, and concrete programmatic offers for Country Offices.

DPI / Digital ID for Service Delivery, and Institutional Integration

• Use Case and Journey Co-Design:
• Advise and support Country Offices and government counterparts in identifying priority and high impact public service use cases where DPI layers (e.g. digital ID, payments, data exchang