Programme Policy Officer (Data Scientist) NOA, Regional Bureau Cairo

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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.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

JOB TITLE: Programme Policy Officer (Data Scientist)

TYPE & LEVEL OF CONTRACT: National Professional Officer NOA

UNIT/DIVISION: VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS & MAPPING (VAM)

DUTY STATION (City, Country): Regional Bureau Cairo, Egypt

REPORT TO: VAM Officer

DURATION: 1 year, renewable

Note: Egyptian nationals / citizens are eligible to apply.

This vacancy announcement will also be used to build a roster of qualified applicants for future opportunities within same job profile.

ABOUT WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.

WFP’s Regional Bureau for the Middle East and Northern Africa (RBC), based in Cairo, Egypt, provides strategic guidance, policy/technical support and direction to WFP operations and activities in 16 countries: Algeria, Armenia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, State of Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and Yemen. These country offices aim to assist roughly one-third of all of WFP’s beneficiaries (approx. 30 million) in some of the most critical humanitarian emergencies of our time. RBC is also active in the ‘Changing Lives’ side of WFP’s mandate, helping national governments and local communities improve nutrition, livelihoods, school feeding, social protection, climate and disaster risk reduction and other programmes that build resilience and support development.

WHY WORK AT WFP?

SAVING & CHANGING LIVES
Make a difference the world will notice.
We are driven by our mission to fight world hunger and feed people’s dreams of a brighter future.

GLOBAL COMMUNITY
Build bridges that unite people across the world.
Being part of a global, diverse and multicultural community like WFP, will continuously expose you to new ideas and perspectives.
How we deliver our mission in deep respect for personal and cultural differences and close collaboration between every member of our global team, will certainly enrich your experience and knowledge on so many levels.

UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES
Unlock possibilities you never thought you'd find.
WFP goes anywhere it is needed and does whatever it takes to get the job done.

LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE
Reach beyond yourself and discover your true potential.
WFP offers the kind of life-changing experiences you’re unlikely find in many other organizations.

JOB PURPOSE

The Purpose of this job is to support the delivery of professional, client-focused services, partnering with managers to implement food security analysis in line with WFP corporate priorities.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)

The national staff hired under these Term of references (TOR) will be a technical member of the Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) unit in RBC. The incumbent will work under the leadership of VAM Officer and in close collaboration with the entire RAM team in RBC WFP country offices. Specifically, the incumbent will:

1. Support the regional scale up of near real-time food security monitoring systems by designing CATI survey methodologies and questionnaires and
2. Provide advice and guidance to RBC Country Offices (COs) on the efficient management and implementation of near real-time food security monitoring systems, including support on data quality and the adaptation of CATI survey methods and questionnaires across various country contexts.
3. Coordinate and conduct trainings for WFP and partner staff on key indicators, questionnaires, and remote survey methods to facilitate the effective implementation of near real-time monitoring systems.
4. Regularly monitor the call center performance, including sample targets, data quality and biases, and identify solutions to improve the quality of data.
5. Conduct in-depth statistical analysis and apply advanced statistical methods such as post-stratification weights to improve the representativity of the data collected remotely or face-to-face.
6. In collaboration with the software engineering team in Hunger Monitoring Unit, design and implement production-ready data pipelines for visualizing the data in the HungerMap Live and support the improvement of the predictive analytics work to ensure country contexts and available data are taken in consideration.
7. Support RBC RAM analysts in ad-hoc data explorations and analysis, by means of traditional statistical analysis as well as state-of-the-art data science methodologies.
8. Lead the data standardization efforts in the region and support COs in the implementation of Survey Designer & Data Library ensuring that all datasets and tools for all surveys in the region are compiled and organized in data library according to the standard procedures and policies.
9. Attend the monthly Codebook Governance Meetings around the latest updates on indicator methodology updates, analysis scripts, Codebook/Survey Designer updates…etc.
10. Manage and maintain Tableau dashboards for all VAM products.
11. Build and strengthen the capacity of data visualization in RBC COs. Organize and facilitate trainings on data science and visualization tools (R, Tableau).
12. Ensure adherence to WFP policies regarding data, including data privacy, security, management, and code documentation.
13. Participate in field missions as required.

DELIVERABLES:

• Household food security questionnaires, sampling plan, methodologies and call scripts developed for countries with near real-time monitoring systems.
• Advice and support provided to RBC COs on the efficient management and implementation of near real-time monitoring systems.
• Operator trainings conducted and relevant documentation, guidance and training materials adapted for different countries.
• Advanced and in-depth statistical analysis as needed.
• Ad-hoc support provided to RBC COs on data analysis.
• Available historical as well as new data, methodologies and syntaxes are uploaded and saved in Data Library and in the HungerMap Live platform.
• New predictive features in the HungerMap Live and related products are developed.
• Country pages in HungerMap Live platform are
• customized and aligned with COs, RBC, HQ data.
• Technical trainings on data science and data visualization tools as requested by RBC and COs.

STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Advanced University degree in statistics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative economics or a similar quantitative field, or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or trainings/courses.

Experience: At least three years of progressively responsible experience, of which at least one year closely related to humanitarian assessments, information management and data science-related field.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Working knowledge of sampling, statistical hypothesis testing, generalized linear regression models;
• Proficient with statistical analysis using modern programming tools (such as R and Python) and comfortable creating repeatable, automated analyses;
• Proficient with SQL, database design, and database packages such as SQL Server, MySQL;
• Intermediate level experience of business intelligence tools such as Tableau, Micro Strategy, or others;
• Very advanced knowledge of SPSS and Excel;
• Knowledge of survey methodologies is an asset;
• Knowledge of Bayesian inference is an asset;
• Experience working with the humanitarian sector or in a social science field is an asset.
• Hard worker and fast-learner;
• Able to work under pressure and in hectic environment;
• UN experience preferred.

Languages: Fluency in oral and written communication in English and Arabic languages required.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

WFP offers a competitive compensation package including:

• Attractive salary in accordance with industry standards. Please visit United Nations Salary Scales for more details.
• Attractive pension plan
• Child allowance
• Language allowance (subject to passing language assessment)
• Medical coverage for staff and eligible dependents
• Variety of leave entitlements, including but not limited to 30 days annual leaves per year, maternity/paternity leave, and special leave arrangements.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

Interested candidates are invited to submit their application no later than Saturday, 01 October 2022 (11:59 PM Cairo Time).

Click ‘Apply’ link below to start the application process. Candidate are requested to create an account in WFP E-Recruitment system before applying.

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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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