Earth Observation Data Officer, P3

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WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

Are you an experienced Earth Observation Data scientist interested in further developing your professional experience while contributing to ending global hunger? Are you passionate about helping those in need? Would you like to join a global organization investing in its people?
If so, an exciting & fulfilling career awaits you! Join our diverse and passionate team that works on varied and international projects directly contributing to saving & changing millions of lives around the globe.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Applications must be submitted by Sunday, September 25, 2022 (10:59 PM CET)

WHO WE ARE

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), a highly prestigious, reputable & world’s largest humanitarian organization, operating in more than 120 countries and territories, bringing life-saving assistance in emergencies, building pathways to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change and supporting sustainable and resilient livelihoods for a world with zero hunger.

At WFP, people are at the heart of everything we do and the vision of the future WFP workforce is one of diverse, committed, skilled, and high performing teams, selected on merit, operating in a healthy and inclusive work environment, living WFP's values (Integrity, Collaboration, Commitment, Humanity, and Inclusion) and working with partners to save and change the lives of those WFP serves.

To learn more about WFP, visit our website: UN World Food Programme (WFP) and follow us on social media to keep up with our latest news: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.

WHY JOIN US?

• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment
• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities
• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe
• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section)

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The position is based in Research, Assessment, and Monitoring Division and reports to the Senior Climate and Earth Observation Advisor.

Earth Observation data is a fundamental component of the Research, Assessment, and Monitoring (RAM) Division's analytical activities, providing crucial information products for hard-to-reach areas such as many of the Level 3 Emergencies WFP is currently involved in.

This area of work is handled by the Climate and Earth Observation (ClEO) Team in RAM. The ClEO team runs the Seasonal Monitor System, a global medium resolution satellite-based monitoring system of growing season conditions for the early detection of drought related impacts on crop and pasture availability.

The same unit has assumed responsibility for the development and deployment of the PRISM platform (https://innovation.wfp.org/project/prism), a system for the mapping and impact assessment of natural hazards, deployed in Government institutions under technical assistance initiatives. Central to this development is for the Seasonal Monitor to become the provider of hazard data on droughts and floods to the PRISM system in its in-country deployments.

To manage the increasing need for complex processing of Earth Observation data and reduce the burden on the access and integration of these datasets by Vulnerability, Assessment, and Monitoring (VAM) officers and external stakeholders, a fully featured cloud-based platform has been developed and put into operation. This platform (Humanitarian Data Cube) builds on open-source software and operationally processes multiple terabytes of data regularly. The Humanitarian Data Cube is now moving to a phase of serving WFP Country Offices and Regional Bureaus, aiming to become the central point of access in WFP for quality Earth Observation and Climate data.

The European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-1 (S-1) and Sentinel-2 (S-2) platforms, which offer unique features such as high spatial resolution (10-20m) coupled with unprecedented temporal frequency of observation are of growing importance for humanitarian operations. However, they also pose significant technical challenges due to the extremely large data volumes and the need for sophisticated analytical techniques. ClEO is now leading government technical assistance projects that can benefit from this data. The coming challenge is to derive indicators relevant for agricultural monitoring and monitoring of resilience interventions out of Sentinel data and serve the information to environments of low bandwidth.

Finally, ClEO’s engagement with PRO-C and growing involvement in Forecast based Finance projects requires the integration of seasonal forecast data into the Humanitarian Data Cube for much greater efficiency of deployment of these initiatives. Considerable analytical benefits will arise from having the seasonal forecast data in the same system as data such as rainfall estimates that can be used for validation of said forecasts. RAM-ClEO is looking for a sound well-structured approach to the processing of these datasets that explore the potential synergies between them making full use of new technologies based on a well-planned strategy.

All these requirements open new challenges in terms of data processing, information management, and production of user-tailored information. Continuing and expanding the work on combining scalable cloud computing with state-of-the-art processing approaches and software will ensure WFP can keep pace with the rapid developments in the EO sector and enable the integration of the derived data and insights across the organization.

JOB PURPOSE

The role of the Earth Observation (EO) Data Officer is required to oversee, design, and develop a cloud computing system for dedicated real-time EO data processing and routine provision of end-user, analysis-ready products.

It is a technically advanced post, requiring specific and specialized knowledge about scientific data structures, programming languages, operational processing chains, state of the art cloud computing besides the scientific knowledge of the nature of the datasets and the information they contain.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

1. Operations of WFP Humanitarian Data Cube:

• Develop additional processing routines to index local and remote data, process it at scale, and develop testing routines to maintain a reliable service.
• Implement algorithms for the processing of earth observation (EO) data in coordination with the Head of Unit and staff Data Scientists, developing new products, tested and validated for usage in early warning and seasonal monitoring activities by WFP and Governments.
• Identify components, services and software to be added to the WFP HDC, test, assess and implement these as required.
• Design and implement a data access strategy for stakeholders within and outside of WFP.
• Supervise junior consultants and interns in the maintenance, usage and further development of these services.

2. Integration of WFP HDC with Corporate and External Business Processes:

• Lead the positioning of HDC as the central source of key climate and EO data products for WFP applications (Seasonal Monitor reports, PRISM. Seasonal Explorer, Hunger Map Live) and analytical processes (Climate Analysis, ICA).
• Lead the integration of WFP HDC data and services into PRISM deployments in a number of countries, developing country specific routines, data products and adjustments as required
• Lead the integration of ADAM system outputs from the Emergency Division, in particular ADAM-Floods into the HDC.
• Set up operational routine provision of climate and EO variables and information to external partners such as OCHA's HDX and others as required. Enable the efficient integration of partners system outputs (e.g. SERVIR RHEAS or HYDRAFLOODS) into the HDC.

3. Development of Analytical Services Interface with WFP HDC:

• Review existing options for an analytical interface to HDC (AWS Sagemaker, MS Planetary Computer, Binder, self-hosted, etc).
• Explore possible roles for private sector computing platforms for the derivation of advanced information products to support WFP operations.
• Organize and lead a group of internal and external users to test and develop the analytical interface and its user side functionality. Liaise with RBs and COs to manage and facilitate access to services and data within WFP HDC.
• Identify and assess novel EO technologies, software and data products as applicable to support activities of WFP RAM.

QUALIFICATIONS AND KEY REQUIREMENTS

EDUCATION:

• Advanced University degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Environmental and Earth Sciences or related fields, or First University degree with additional relevant experience and training.

EXPERIENCE:

• At least 5 years of relevant progressively responsible experience in Earth Observation analysis and data engineering; particularly in the fields of land cover classification, big data and EO time series processing.
• Extensive experience in advanced implementation of operational processing chains for Earth Observation data and business process optimization in cloud environments.

LANGUAGE:

• Fluency (level C) in the English language.
• Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language: Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, and/or Portuguese (A WFP’s working language) will be an asset.

MORE ABOUT YOU

You have:

• Expert level knowledge of Python programming language.
• High level knowledge of R programming language and/or other relevant programming languages
• Knowledge or experience in GIS software (ArcGIS and QGIS), analytical platforms, Linux (bash, shell), Git, Windows/Office.
• Strong experience in working with, collaborating on and publishing of open-source software.
• Strong experience in deploying services in a cloud environment, in particular APIs and distributed processing chains (with a focus on AWS Batch & AWS Lambda)
• Strong experience with Infrastructure as a code (IaaC) such as AWS Cloudformation, Terraform, Serverless or equivalent
• Demonstrated knowledge in AWS computing services (e.g. Autoscaling using SPOT, Cloudfront, IAM and permission policies, etc).
• Demonstrated experience in designing and applying python-based data processing pipelines at scale
• Demonstrated experience with relevant open source software, such as OpenDataCube and the Pangeo stack (Xarray, Jupyter & Dask)
• Ability to quickly pick up and implement new programming languages as required (e.g. Julia, GO)

4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES

These are the common standards of behaviour that guide HOW we work together to accomplish our mission.

Different expectations of behaviour are defined depending on your grade and role/responsibilities within WFP.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• This is an International Professional position (non-rotational) and is open to all nationalities.
• This is a Limited Fixed Term Appointment. A Limited Fixed-Term Appointment (LFT) position is a non-mobile staff appointment in the international professional category for a limited period for up to 4 years. The position is based in Rome, Italy and the selected candidate will be expected to relocate. ​
• WFP offers an attractive compensation and benefits package in line with ICSC standards (http://icsc.un.org) including basic salary, post adjustment, relocation entitlement, visa, travel and shipment allowances, 30 days’ annual leave, home leave, an education grant for dependent children, a pension plan, and medical insurance.
• The selected candidate will be required to relocate to Rome, Italy to take up this assignment.

REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete, and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).
• Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application.
• Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language
• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter
• Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time
• Please contact us at wfprecruitment@wfp.org in case you face any challenges with submitting your application
• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

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All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.

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