TThe Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) is a web-based mapping and reporting tool used by companies, governments, researchers, and financial institutions to access global biodiversity datasets with which to make better decisions around the environment. IBAT has been developed and is maintained by the IBAT Alliance, a partnership of leading conservation organizations, including BirdLife International (BirdLife), Conservation International (CI), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). IBAT is a crucial link between the IBAT Alliance Partners and the private sector, and is the only way for commercial entities to access three of the most globally authoritative conservation datasets – The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the World Database on Protected Areas, and the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas. With over a hundred clients (including the World Bank Group, Google, Rio Tinto and Nestlé), almost 10,000 registered users and an annual budget of over $1m USD, IBAT also plays a critical cost recovery role in supporting, updating and maintaining these datasets. Through IBAT, the Alliance seeks to support both better decision making and the improved collection, update and management of biodiversity data to inform those decisions. IBAT is key to the strategic response of the Alliance Partners to the UN’s Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and features prominently in their plans for the next decade.

IBAT is a crucial link between the IBAT Alliance Partners and the private sector and is the only way for commercial entities to access three of the most globally authoritative conservation datasets – The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the World Database on Protected Areas, and the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas. With hundreds of users (including WWF, the World Bank Group, Shell and Mitsubishi) and an annual budget of over 1m USD, IBAT also plays a critical cost recovery role in supporting, updating and maintaining these datasets. Through IBAT, the Alliance seeks to support both better decision making and the improved collection, update and management of biodiversity data to inform those decisions.

IBAT is key to the strategic response of the Alliance Partners to the UN’s Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and features prominently in their plans for the next decade.

(Hybrid Work), the salary range for this position will be between £38.281 to £47.851

As Technical Officer, you are directly responsible for the continuous operation and ongoing development of IBAT. Ensuring the uptime of IBAT and that the data is accurate and up to date is a critical responsibility for IUCN and the IBAT Alliance partners, given the potential serious implications for both revenue and the reputation of the IBAT Alliance partners in the event of unexpected downtime or data inaccuracies. Supported as appropriate by the Technical Sub-Committee and external consultants, you will be responsible for ensuring that IBAT meets the needs of our expanding global customer base in performing critical biodiversity risk screening. In this role you will be required to maintain and update the existing IBAT system and underlying data assets, scope and implement new features as directed by the IBAT Manager and sub-committees, provide technical support and troubleshooting to a wide range of clients, and advise and support the IBAT Secretariat and IBAT sub-committees on all matters relating to the technical implementation and operation of IBAT. This position reports to the Biodiversity Systems Manager in the IUCN Global Species Programme, and the IBAT Manager.

The Technical Officer should be keen and passionate about contributing to state of the art web applications and making an impact on conservation of biodiversity. They will work closely with a network of conservation scientists, other web and geospatial experts, and will be responsible for maintaining and building on the current unique and modern IBAT web platform.

We are looking for a developer who would be a keen self-motivated technology enthusiast, who is not daunted by trying out new technologies and be able to think outside the box, with an eye for optimisation, performance, security and understand the complexities of data management. The developer would be expected to work independently and manage the full-stack of a critical web application - and should be confident working under the guidance of the IBAT Technical Committee, which oversees the ongoing development of the web application.



Main responsibilities
● Development and maintenance of IBAT web-based systems

Complete responsibility for maintaining and improving current web systems and developing new web systems for a variety of projects, servicing over 100 clients and ~10,000 users. Common responsibilities include:
• Scope, architect and implement new featuresHorizon scanning to ensure IBAT remains relevant in a changing technological landscape and is taking advantage of latest developments in products
• Implementation of a robust set of services and APIs to power the IBAT web application and provide data externally to clients
• Building reusable code and libraries
• Implementation of secure systems and data protection
• Creation and translation of UI/UX wireframes to visual web elements
• Integration of front-end and back-end aspects of the web application
• Integration of application with third party services and APIs
• Integrate unit and feature testing as part of development process, specifically using test driven development (TDD)
• Learning new technologies and staying on top of trends in web development
• Undertake user needs assessments
• Strong focus on quality of outputs for a multisectoral, external audience

● Data management
• Analyse, manipulate and transform data to support the needs of the IBAT tool
• Update, process and validate core IBAT datasets on a regular basis
• Interpret and integrate derived data layers

● Support and Collaboration
• Supervise external consultants on related work
• Provide first line technical support and troubleshooting to a wide range of IBAT clients
• Work closely with the IBAT Technical Committee, who oversee the ongoing development of the web application
• Advise the IBAT Secretariat and IBAT sub-committees on all matters relating to the technical implementation and operation of IBAT
• Work effectively in a small, cross disciplinary team to support a range of goals and objectives
• Articulate and explain technical concepts to a range of audiences
• Advise and collaborate with external developers regarding integration of IBAT Datasets into existing or proposed third party tools
• Develop and maintain good working relationships with web development and data teams across the IBAT Alliance
• Contribute ideas and good approaches to development goals, as part of working groups.