Data Engineer (Retainer)

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Background Information – Job-specific

The Centre for Humanitarian Data is focused on increasing the use and impact of data in humanitarian response. It is managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and is based in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Centre’s vision is to create a future where everyone involved in a humanitarian emergency has access to the data they need, when and how they need it, to make responsible and informed decisions.

The Centre focuses on four areas: data services, data responsibility, data literacy, and predictive analytics. The data services workstream focuses on the management of the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) platform, the development and use of the Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL) data standard, and support to the International Aid Transparency Initiative.

As part of the data services workstream, the Centre manages the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) which is an open platform for sharing data across crises and organisations. Launched in July 2014, the goal of HDX is to make humanitarian data easy to find and use for analysis. Our growing collection of datasets has been accessed by millions of users in over 200 countries and territories. HDX is based on CKAN, an open-source data management system for powering data hubs and portals. The Centre has built a Python library to interact with the CKAN API to support a suite of scrapers that extract humanitarian data from remote files or APIs for upload as datasets into the portal and for use in visualisations.

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

The Centre is seeking to expand its team with a Data Engineer who has the skills and experience to investigate, clean and transform data sources, making them available in a form suitable for analysis, reporting and visualisation. We are looking for a candidate who is self-motivated, proactive, independent, and can thrive in an international, multidisciplinary team. The right candidate has the skills and abilities to develop both novel prototypes to fulfill immediate demands and robust solutions to satisfy longer term needs, to understand existing systems and update them to meet new requirements, and to think strategically about improvements to HDX’s data pipelines and processes.

Functional Responsibilities

The incumbent will be responsible for the following functions:

  • Work with partners to understand their data, metadata, processes and systems.
  • Automate extraction, cleaning and transformation of data from external file storage and APIs for upload into HDX and/or visualisations.
  • Check metadata and data ingested into HDX to meet accuracy, consistency and comparability requirements.
  • Learn about the Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL) and use it to improve data interoperability.
  • Ensure existing and new data pipelines operate reliably, refactoring and improving them as needed.
  • Work with other teams in the Centre to enhance the architecture and implementation of their data pipelines.
  • Add functionality to the Centre’s Python libraries as needed including testing and documentation.
  • Productionise successful prototypes integrating them into the Centre’s infrastructure in partnership with the dev team.
  • Work with HDX data contributors and data consumers to identify new projects and areas of opportunities for data integration.

Monitoring and Progress Controls

The Data Engineer will report to the Data Systems Team Lead under the overall direction of the Lead for the Centre for Humanitarian Data. S/he will be expected to work closely with the rest of the Centre team.

Education/Experience/Language requirements

Education

  • Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent), preferably in mathematics, physics, engineering, computer science, statistics or other related discipline is required, OR
  • First level university degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent) in combination with two (2) additional years of relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced university degree.

Work Experience

Required:

  • Five (5)years of computer programming experience in areas like data transformation, processing, analytics, and modeling, including at least two (2) years of experience using the Python programming language.

Desirable: (The following experience are optional. Candidates who do not have them are welcomed to apply)

  • Exceptional communication skills, in order to explain your work to non technical colleagues who may be unfamiliar with data engineering.
  • Experience in understanding partner needs and requirements.
  • Experience with data visualization, especially web-based, is desirable.
  • Experience in the humanitarian or development aid sectors is desirable.

Language

  • Fluency in English is required (both oral and written).
  • Knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.

Contract type, level and duration

Contract type: Individual Contractor Agreement (ICA) Retainer – A retainer contract is issued for a period of time during which the services of the individual contractor are required intermittently. The individual contractor agreement on retainer basis will specify a “unit price” per day worked. For budgetary purposes, a monetary cap will be determined when the contract is awarded and issued. Please note that the retainer contract will not provide for a minimum, and payment will be made only after completion of work.

Contract level: International Individual Contractor Agreement (I-ICA 2)/ICS10
Contract duration: Six (6) months with the possibility of extension.

For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link:
https://www.unops.org/english/Opportunities/job-opportunities/what-we-offer/Pages/Individual-Contractor-Agreements.aspx

This is not a position in UNOPS. UNOPS is solely providing operational support to its partner UNOCHA for this recruitment process. The selected candidate will be a personnel member of UNOCHA under its full responsibility and salaries and benefits will be decided by UNOCHA.

Competencies

Strategic Perspective: Develops and implements sustainable business strategies, thinks long term and externally in order to positively shape the organization. Anticipates and perceives the impact and implications of future decisions and activities on other parts of the organization.(for levels IICA-2, IICA-3, LICA Specialist- 10, LICA Specialist-11, NOC, NOD, P3, P4 and above)

Integrity & Inlcusion: Treats all individuals with respect; responds sensitively to differences and encourages others to do the same. Upholds organizational and ethical norms. Maintains high standards of trustworthiness. Role model for diversity and inclusion.

Leading self & Others: Acts as a positive role model contributing to the team spirit. Collaborates and supports the development of others. For people managers only: Acts as positive leadership role model, motivates, directs and inspires others to succeed, utilizing appropriate leadership styles.

Partnering: Demonstrates understanding of the impact of own role on all partners and always puts the end beneficiary first. Builds and maintains strong external relationships and is a competent partner for others (if relevant to the role).

Results Orientation: Efficiently establishes an appropriate course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a goal. Actions lead to total task accomplishment through concern for quality in all areas. Sees opportunities and takes the initiative to act on them. Understands that responsible use of resources maximizes our impact on our beneficiaries.

Agility: Open to change and flexible in a fast paced environment. Effectively adapts own approach to suit changing circumstances or requirements. Reflects on experiences and modifies own behavior. Performance is consistent, even under pressure. Always pursues continuous improvements.

Solution Focused: Evaluates data and courses of action to reach logical, pragmatic decisions. Takes an unbiased, rational approach with calculated risks. Applies innovation and creativity to problem-solving.

Effective Communication: Expresses ideas or facts in a clear, concise and open manner. Communication indicates a consideration for the feelings and needs of others. Actively listens and proactively shares knowledge. Handles conflict effectively, by overcoming differences of opinion and finding common ground.

Additional Information

  • Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time.
  • Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
  • Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
  • Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
  • It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

General Background

UNOPS – an operational arm of the United Nations – supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by successfully implementing its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve peace and sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management, and human resources.

Working with us

We are proud of our people. With a wealth of knowledge and skills in various disciplines – engineering, finance, human resources, ICT, leadership, project management, procurement, and more – they help tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time. Their work around the world supports progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

At UNOPS, we offer a range of short- and long-term opportunities in various environments and duty stations – from Denmark and Kenya to Mexico, Switzerland, Myanmar, Senegal, Uganda, and many more.

Diversity

With over 5,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,400 personnel recruited on behalf of our partners, spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced and diverse labor force — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs. We continually strive to maintain our gender-balanced workplace. We encourage qualified underrepresented groups as per UNOPS Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy to apply for our vacancies.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

How to apply

To apply for the position, please to the link: https://jobs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=25138#2


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