Data Manager

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. Our support is provided to OCHA staff and partners, with a priority focus on locations with humanitarian operations. The Centre focuses on four workstreams: data services, data science, data responsibility, and learning and practice.

The data services workstream is the engine room of the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) platform, a critical component of the Centre’s value proposition. The goal of the HDX is to make humanitarian data easy to find and use for analysis. Launched in July 2014 with just 800 datasets shared by a dozen organizations, HDX is now an anchor in the open data ecosystem, bringing together over 20,000 datasets from hundreds of partners. In 2022, HDX was accessed by 1.5 million people in 230 countries and territories.

The future of HDX will meet the changing needs of humanitarians and prepare us for a world of more data, more diverse actors and less trust. We are working on a technical roadmap that will improve the platform in a number of ways. The areas include: data as a service, geodata services, onboarding, notifications and workflow management.

HDX includes three teams: 1) data systems, which focuses on data pipelines; 2) data partnerships, which focuses on outreach and relationships with users and organizations; and 3) dev/design, which focuses on software and user interface development.

The data partnerships team requires a Data Manager to support the day-to-day maintenance of the HDX platform. The Data Manager will undertake outreach with data sharing partners to introduce the platform and the services we offer. The Data Manager will undertake daily tasks including onboarding new organizations and users, reviewing new and updated data shared by organizations, and processing data so that it is ready to use and visualize.

Functional Responsibilities:
The incumbent will report to the lead for the Data Partnerships team who is based in Geneva, under the overall direction of the Lead for the Centre for Humanitarian Data. The Data Manager will work closely with other Centre teams and OCHA staff in field offices.

The incumbent will be responsible for the following:

• Work with partner organizations to support data sharing on HDX.
• Monitor the use of HDX by users and organizations and offer training or demonstrations as needed.
• Advise data sharing partners on the use of data extraction processes for their data systems; develop scripts for data transferring when appropriate.
• Undertake daily quality assurance processes to ensure the data shared on HDX adheres to the platform’s terms of service.
• Work with OCHA and partner focal points in priority humanitarian operations to ensure high-priority data is available through the HDX Data Grids and for new rapid-onset humanitarian crises.
• Promote the use of the Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL) data standard to increase interoperability of data shared by partners.
• Support the distribution of standard reference data, including taxonomies, code lists, and geospatial data for relevant countries.
• Organize trainings, events and workshops for partners on the use of the HDX platform.
• Take part in HDX team meetings as required.

Education/Experience/Language requirements

a. Education:

• Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in computer science, engineering, information management, information technology or related field.
• First-level university degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent) plus two (2) additional years of relevant experience, may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

b. Work Experience:
Required

• At least five (5) years of relevant professional work experience managing data systems.
• Experience in database management and programming.
• Demonstrated experience in working with humanitarian data.

Desirable: (the following experience is optional candidates who do not have it are welcome to apply):

• Experience with Java and Python programming languages, the CKAN open-data portal.
• Proficiency in Excel and/or Google Suite, knowledge of Tableau, R, ARC GIS, qGIS, ODK, and relational databases.
• Knowledge of geodata, databases and processes.

c. Languages:

• Fluency in English (read, write, speak) is required.
• Knowledge of another UN official language is an advantage.

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.

Even though the level of the position is indicated as IICA-2, depending on the incumbent’s personnel situation ( candidate with national ID or resident permit in duty station), a local fee scale (LICA-10) might be applied in determining the contractor’s fee.