Senior Digital Advisor (A.I. Specialist) – Evaluations
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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.
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.
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
JOB PURPOSE
The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change.
WFP’s evaluation policy covering 2022-2030 includes ambitions towards promoting and enhancing the use of evaluation evidence. The corporate evaluation strategy aims at addressing a growing demand for increased accessibility of evaluation evidence beyond single evaluation reports, and for faster availability of the existing evidence. Existing systems and mechanisms enabling the use of evaluation evidence beyond single evaluations involve highly manual processes. These include person-led tagging of documents to feed into databases, to facilitate faster extraction based on demands and manual extraction of evidence from documents.
Considering the partial effectiveness of these existing processes and their very high demand on human time, OEV hired a digital transformation expert to lead an analysis of possible solutions. After a phase of market exploration and engagement and consultation with other relevant WFP divisions – Innovation and Knowledge Management (INK), Technology, and Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) to maximize potential synergies and coordinate approaches, OEV is now ready to engage in a pilot phase leading to prototyping and testing solutions and architectural options. It is anticipated that the pilot will lead to a production phase, which will require a comprehensive approach to transformation, including adaptation in the ways of working through potential process modifications, and change management (stakeholder engagement, training, and communication).
To this end, OEV needs the continued advice of an experienced expert who can leverage expertise and connections in the fields of A.I. and NLP and build on prior experience with large digital transformation programmes.
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES (not all-inclusive)
The senior advisor will be responsible for the following tasks:
• Act as technical advisor for OEV on all digital transformation initiatives
• Advise the Head of the Use Unit in OEV with clarifications of technical dimensions needed to inform decisions about the formal selection of an AI solution provider and/ or integrator;
• Lead and advise OEV on technical aspects of the solution development, from prototyping to production. This will include supporting OEV on the preparation of supporting documentation ahead of piloting and eventual procurement process and service contracting, and sharing insight on rapidly evolving state-of-the-art AI tools and practices with OEV management as basis to seize opportunities for adapting the project course as relevant.
• In the short term, it will include preparing a list of sufficient and necessary criteria to support the assessment of results of the piloting and leading on feedback provision to pilot solution providers to support quality enhancements
• Support, as relevant, the identification and selection of any additional expertise (e.g. data scientist) judged necessary to support the solution development prototype and production, in collaboration with other units as appropriate; and technical guidance and oversight of such eventual role.
• Manage effective technical communication with the selected provider, maintaining a strong working relationship and fostering collaboration to address any issues, challenges, or opportunities that may arise during the course of the project;
• Consult and liaise with relevant technical divisions (in particular the Technology Division),as appropriate to ensure timely information sharing, for successful completion of project milestones.
• Supporting the OEV Evidence Mining project team in developing and implementing plans for embedding the new solution into the Business as Usual operations. This will include: (i) collaborating with relevant Business workstreams and developing appropriate training and communication material; (ii) providing input and guidance on the potential wider transformations considering WFP’s wider evidence management context, (iii) leveraging the AI solution and other innovative technologies to drive the evaluation function’s effectiveness, efficiency, and long-term strategic positioning.
DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:
• Pilot solution available by December 2023, with satisfactory results as measured against targeted business objectives defined in the first phase, as per the requirements; with gradual enhancement of results in the first quarter of 2024, and until production environment is made available by corporate TEC services
• Alignment ensured of provider’s work with WFP standard in term of Service Level Agreement, code and model ownership, documentation, and hand-over material for operationalization, maintenance and evolution of the solution
• Dependent on the availing by TEC Division of necessary Enterprise AI platform, solution transitioned to full production by Sept. 2024, aligned with corporate-level standards and requirements if/when available, to guarantee smooth integration and alignment with existing systems and processes;
• Business transformation plan developed covering the anticipated solution roll-out phase over the upcoming first year. Keep abreast with developments in other UN Agency evaluation units to see if there are synergies either on technology, solutions or approaches.
STANDARD MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Advanced University degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Electronics, Artificial Intelligence, or related fields.
At least 10 years of demonstrated, progressively responsible, professional experience in leading or contributing to complex digital transformation projects
Demonstrated senior experience with overseeing technology-led projects including machine learning and NLP
Demonstrated experience with acting as interface between client and technology service provider and ensuring smooth communication both ways, understanding the larger user-focused environment
Familiarity with WFP and UN environment, experience with similar projects and understanding of evaluation are assets
Broad and authoritative knowledge information technologies related to automated data management systems powered by artificial intelligence
Demonstrated project management capacity, strong organizational and communication skills, and proven ability to produce results to deadlines.
Demonstrated experience in facilitating dialogue between technical stakeholders and non-technical client and accompanying change.
Fluency (level C) in English language. Intermediate knowledge (level B) of a second official UN language is desirable.
4Ps CORE ORGANISATIONAL CAPABILITIES
FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES
OTHER SPECIFIC JOB REQUIREMENTS
DESIRED EXPERIENCES FOR ENTRY INTO THE ROLE
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS
Monday 31 July
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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.
