Data Engineer, Various Locations

CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST – VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT : 2300382

Data Engineer

Job Posting: 08/Feb/2023

Closure Date: 08/May/2023, 9:59:00 PM

Organizational Unit : OER

Job Type: Non-staff opportunities

Type of Requisition : Consultant

Grade Level : N/A

Primary Location: Various Locations-Various Locations

Duration : Up to 11 months

Post Number : N/A

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device

• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO’s values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality

Organizational Setting

The Office of Emergencies and Resilience (OER) is responsible for ensuring FAO’s efforts to support countries and partners in preparing for and effectively responding to food and agricultural threats and crises. It is responsible for coordinating the development and maintenance of corporate tools and standards to enable Decentralized Offices to assist member countries to prepare for, and respond to emergencies. OER ensures humanitarian policy coordination and knowledge, liaison with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee as well as with humanitarian resource partners, co-leadership with World Food Programme of the global Food Security Cluster, organizational preparedness, surge capacity and response to large-scale emergencies. OER supports food and nutrition security assessment and early warning activities related to emergency and humanitarian analysis and responses. OER plays a major role in the development and leadership of the Organization’s programme to increase the resilience of livelihoods to food and agriculture threats and crises.

FAO, in close collaboration with key partners, has established the FAO Data in Emergencies Hub (DIEM), to create a common understanding and inform programming. At the core of the DIEM Hub is a structured assessment framework which is sequenced to respond to different information needs as the crisis unfolds in high-risk countries. The assessment framework is driven by a set of questionnaires which are administered in the 29 countries on a periodic basis to monitor key risk factors and to understand the occurring and potential impacts on agricultural production, market chains, food security and livelihoods. At a later stage, agriculture sector damage and loss assessments will be conducted, linked to the food security and livelihood impact assessments. In addition, the Data in Emergencies Hub is paving the way for a sustainable system of data collection and analysis on food supply in food crisis countries for the next years. The information system relies principally on remotely collected data (mobile phone and on-line), collected either by FAO offices themselves or through international service providers. Field assessments are also conducted using data collection tools such as Kobo or ODK. The project collects interviews from thousands of respondents, households and key informants, on a quarterly basis. This will be enriched by various other data sources and disseminated in the form of various analytical products published on the platform. The Hub is based on ESRI technologies and contains interactive maps, apps, dashboards and other analytical resources. The Hub has been publicly launched on June 2021, and the overall workflow is currently being enhanced thanks to automated and standardized processes. The actual datasets are made available to stakeholders for independent analysis.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall guidance of the Senior Technical Officer, the Data Engineer reports to the Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer (Data Manager).

Technical Focus

The Data Engineer will manipulate the datasets and prepare them for the visualization on the dashboards. In addition, he/she will support the different data workflows for the DIEM data facility, covering the various phases, including acquisition, quality control, cleaning, analysis, visualization, storage and sharing.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Perform the data processing steps of the DIEM survey cycle: questionnaire design, data structure and domains checks, aggregation, analysis, visualization and dissemination.
• Collaborate on the improvement and expansion of the geospatial DIEM Hub and related ESRI Apps;
• Participate in the work around the Data in Emergencies Hub, in particular the correct and timely processing of the different phases of the data cleaning and validation workflow.
• Provide rapid and detailed technical validation of DIEM survey questionnaires to Country Analysts
• Support the timely processing of structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data, including data workflows harmonization and standardization among datasets coming from different countries or data collection rounds;
• Restructure datasets and develop and implement scripts to transform data into the appropriate format in order to feed in the DIEM data infrastructure;
• Support the implementation of data pipelines for DIEM-Monitoring;
• Create and maintain a GIS reference of administrative boundaries for the countries involved in the monitoring project;
• Create and maintain metadata for all datasets derived from surveys (both microdata and aggregated layers);
• Participate in the development, testing and maintenance of data architectures and align them with business requirements;
• Support the implementation of data visualization solutions;
• Identify data-related tasks that can be automated and develop appropriate procedures;
• Liaise with other FAO divisions for data-related collaborations (FAM, HiH Geospatial Platform, ESS, CSI…);
• Perform other related duties, as requested.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• University degree in Data Science, IT, GIS & Remote Sensing or other related discipline;
• At least 1 year (Category C) or 5 years (Category B) of relevant experience in data management;
• Working knowledge of English (level C) and limited knowledge (level B) of the other or one of the other FAO languages (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian). For PSA, working knowledge of English (level C).

FAO Core Competencies

• Results Focus
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships

• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

• Proficient in Python programming language, with familiarity with Pandas library for data-management and processing;
• Familiarity with R programming language, with experience with Tidyverse library for data science;
• Basic knowledge of SQL and JavaScript;
• Extensive GIS data management and data analysis experience with ArcGIS Pro;
• Familiarity with the creation and management of ArcGIS Online products such as maps, dashboards, infographics, hubs using ESRI Technology;
• Experience in managing ArcGIS Online data content: uploading, cleaning, restructuring, and publishing large numbers of features services and views;
• Working knowledge of data visualization solutions (ESRI Operational Dashboards, Tableau, Power BI);
• Ability to manage large datasets from different sources and of a different nature, both manually and programmatically;
• Ability to work under pressure and adapt to an evolving and complex humanitarian context and within multidisciplinary and different cultural background teams;
• Effective skills to structure, develop and run a multidimensional system;
• Ability to demonstrate creativity while complying with internal standard procedures and practices;
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written;
• Ability to communicate with technical and non-technical people;
• Effective team leadership and decision making skills with strong individual planning capacity;
• Knowledge of humanitarian principles.

Please note that all candidates should adhere to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• FAO does not charge any fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, processing)
• Please note that FAO will only consider academic credentials or degrees obtained from an educational institution recognized in the IAU/UNESCO list
• Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at (link)
• For more information, visit the FAO employment website
• Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.

HOW TO APPLY

• To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
• Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application
• Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
• Incomplete applications will not be considered
• Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
• Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
• Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
• We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.

If you need help, or have queries, please contact: [email protected]

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