Climate Solutions Engineer
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, color, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status, physical or mental disability.
Job Title: Climate Solutions Engineer
Type of Contract: Consultancy
Division: Climate & Earth Observation Unit (RAM)
Duty Station (City, Country): Remote work from home station
Duration: 1 June 2023 to 1 Dec 2023 (6 months) with possibility of extension
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:
The Climate and Earth Observation Unit (RAM-C) in WFP’s Research Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) Division leverages data, information, and research to monitor and predict risks to food insecurity driven by climate and extreme weather. Outputs from RAM-C inform WFP’s programs and policies which mitigate risks to extreme weather and develop climate-resilient food systems. In addition, the unit’s work supports technical assistance to governments in low- and middle-income countries to improve the ability of national systems to proactively reduce risks to a changing climate and adverse weather. This increasingly includes technical work within WFP and supporting partners to integrate weather data from stations and to implement Anticipatory Action, Forecast-based Financing, Shock-Responsive Social Protection, and livelihood support activities for communities vulnerable to climate change.
To achieve this work, RAM-C has developed a data infrastructure, user platforms, and data analytical capacity to monitor and forecast the impacts of climate-driven hazards on food security through Earth Observation data. RAM-C has implemented a cloud-based system to work with Earth Observation data across the 80+ countries where WFP operates and recently established a Data Science team within the unit that leverages a wide array of datasets and research to improve the accuracy and timeliness of critical data and insights. Each of these workstreams feeds into tools and datasets accessed by WFP’s field offices, as well as by government and humanitarian partners. These include interactive web-based monitoring / early warning, pipelines to blend satellite and station data, and data-driven knowledge products such as seasonal monitoring bulletins.
Building off these advances, RAM-C seeks to further the reach and utilization of its data through improved products, code libraries/packages, and data processes. To support this effort, WFP is recruiting a Climate Solutions Engineer to work alongside subject matter experts, date engineers, data scientists, and product managers within RAM-C.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Support the design of the first phase of RAM-C software services which provide on-demand access to analytical outputs derived from climate and Earth observation data
- Develop an understanding of key user-facing data applications (PRISM, AA dashboards, Global Seasonal Monitoring dashboard, AIMS, etc.) to inform technical design of future products and services
- Support system design of reusable libraries, packages, APIs, and related micro-services which address a wide array of use cases for climate and Earth Observation data analysis
2. Assist in the development of an MVP version of analysis as a service including relevant libraries, packages, and front-end components
- Develop services/front-end libraries / APIs to expose analysis-derived products to a variety of end users and applications internally and externally while ensuring integration with the back-end libraries currently in development
- Help build prototypes of modular front-end components, leveraging the tasks above, which showcase the ability to extend the reach of RAM-C products to additional systems (internal and external)
3. Streamline processes to acquire, process and calculate indicators from national meteorological services data
- Support creating an end-to-end pipeline for met station-data including a frontend component that could perform a simple pre-validation on the data, then submit it as privileged service to HDC for processing. On the backend, the data is introduced in a structured storage format and scheduled for blending.
DELIVERABLES QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
Education:
Master’s degree in computer science, engineering, mathematics, or similar engineering / quantitative fields; or climatology, meteorology, remote sensing, or related Earth sciences field.
Knowledge, experience and skills:
- A minimum of six years of professional experience applying software engineering and data science skills to climate, disaster risk reduction, and/or food security.
- Working knowledge of commonly used climate and weather monitoring / forecasting datasets, such as CHIRPS, GPM, ECMWF ERA5, etc. is required, as is direct working experience with publicly available satellite imagery such as MODIS, Landsat, and Sentinel-2
- Direct working experience with common Python data science libraries/packages / tools for geospatial data (GDAL, GeoPandas, Pandas, xarray, Numpy, etc.) is required
- Proficiency with JavaScript libraries and frameworks including ReactJS and mapping libraries such as Mapbox / MapLibre, Leaflet and OpenLayers is required
- Experience developing APIs / micro-services is required
- Working knowledge of common geospatial standards for raster data such as STAC is highly desirable
- Experience working with cloud-native concepts and file formats for geospatial data is highly desirable
- Experience with deployment strategies, Docker, Kubernetes continuous integration, Unit Testing, and Git version control is an asset
- Proven experience in creating and maintaining software projects with geographically distributed contributors with diverse cultural backgrounds
Languages:
Fluent in English with excellent ability to communicate technical topics to technical and non-technical colleagues
Terms and Conditions:
WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.
Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.
http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.
Deadline for applications: 24 May 2023
Ref.: VA No. 827041
WFP has a zero-tolerance approach to conduct such as fraud, sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to WFP’s standards of conduct and will therefore undergo rigorous background verification internally or through third parties. Selected candidates will also be required to provide additional information as part of the verification exercise. Misrepresentation of information provided during the recruitment process may lead to disqualification or termination of employment
WFP will not request payment at any stage of the recruitment process including at the offer stage. Any requests for payment should be refused and reported to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.
