Global Pulse Jobs in Uganda; Technical Specialist (Global Lab)

Job Title:        Technical Specialist (Global Lab)
Job Location:        Kampala, Uganda
Employer:        Global Pulse
Additional Category    Millennium Development Goals
Type of Contract :    FTA International
Post Level :        P-3
Languages Required :    English 
Starting Date :        (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)    01-May-2014
Duration of Initial Contract :        One Year
Expected Duration of Assignment :    One Year (Renewable)
Background
Please note that Ugandan Nationals are not eligible to apply to international positions in their country.

Global Pulse is an innovation initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General, established to harness today's new world of digital data and real-time analytics to gain a better understanding of changes in human well-being. Global Pulse aims to contribute a future in which access to better information sooner makes it possible to keep international development on track, protect the world's most vulnerable populations, and strengthen resilience to global shocks. Global Pulse is being implemented as a global network of Pulse Labs, bringing together expertise from UN agencies, governments, academia, and the private sector to research, develop, test and share tools and approaches for harnessing real-time data for more effective and efficient policy action. For more information on Global Pulse go to http://www.unglobalpulse.org.

Pulse Lab Kampala
Global Pulse is establishing an innovation hub for real-time monitoring in Kampala. The Lab will function as an open innovation space where policy experts together with UN development practitioners and other partners experiment with new types of data and emerging technologies to evaluate their potential to enhance both public policy decision-making and community resilience. Following the development of useful approaches, Pulse Lab Kampala will support institutional adoption of these innovations into policy and practice.

Working Relationships
The Technical Specialist will report to the Lab Operations Manager, and lead the Technical Team comprising data engineers and research analysts. The Technical Specialist will apply data mining techniques (anomaly detection, association learning, cluster detection, classification, and predictive modeling) to create actionable insights from a broad range of structured and unstructured data that is growing rapidly in scale. The Data Scientist will be responsible for the acquisition, analysis and visualization of data from a variety of sources in order to i) help understand emerging human vulnerabilities to socio-economic shocks, ii) detect and highlight patterns that could indicate how people are coping with emerging hardship, and iii) gather evidence of changes in behavior and perception correlated with public sector policies and programmes.

Duties and Responsibilities
Summary of key functions:

•     Define, design and implement research projects harnessing Big Data to improve both understanding of population behavior, needs, and vulnerabilities as well as capacity to monitor and evaluate the impacts of development policies and programmes;
•     Perform data studies and data discovery around new data sources or new uses for existing data sources;           
•     Assist in developing new approaches to detecting events and trends within real-time data sources such as online media, social networks, imagery, geospatial data, communications logs, transaction records, etc;
•     Think strategically about uses of data and how data use interacts with data design;        
•     Design and implement statistical data quality procedures around new data sources;      
•     Implement any software required for accessing and handling data appropriately;
•     Visualize and report data findings creatively in a variety of formats;
•     Coordinate joint data mining research projects with diverse partners;
•     Interact with the global community through a variety of media.

Function / Expected Results:

•     Improved understanding of population behavior, needs, and vulnerabilities as well as capacity to monitor and evaluate the impacts of development policies and programmes;
•     Data studies conducted for new data sources or new uses for existing data sources;     
•     New approaches identified to detect events and trends within real-time data sources such as online media, social networks, imagery, geospatial data, communications logs, transaction records, etc.;
•     Effective software in place for accessing and handling data appropriately;
•     Effective coordination with partners for data mining research.

Impact of Results:
The Technical Specialist’s work will help understand emerging human vulnerabilities to socio-economic shocks, ii) detect and highlight patterns that could indicate how people are coping with emerging hardship, and iii) gather evidence of changes in behavior and perception correlated with public sector policies and programmes.

Competencies
Functional Competencies:

•     Understanding of big data and data analytics;
•     Strong leadership skills;
•     Ability to effectively lead teams in ambiguously or undefined problem spaces;
•     Ability to manage and mentor teams in rapidly shifting environment;
•     Demonstrated sense of initiative and problem-solving skills;
•     Knowledge of utility of data in crisis situations;
•     Understanding of government partners’ workflows and agendas.

Corporate Competencies:

•     Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
•     Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
•     Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
•     Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

•     Advanced degree in statistics, applied mathematics, physics, computational finance, economics, computer science, engineering or other related technical disciplines;
•     A first degree and 7 years relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the higher university degree.

Experience:

•     At least five years of experience in analysis and data visualization;
•     Experience in a branch of computational informatics (development, health, bio-, geo-, etc), using machine learning;
•     Familiarity with analytical techniques such as text mining, sentiment analysis, predictive analysis, event detection, and modeling of complex systems;
•     Familiarity working with quantitative and qualitative data;
•     Experience with scripting, coding, and web design required for data access, analysis, and presentation;
•     Demonstrated experience presenting work to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Language Requirements:

•     Fluent in English;
•     Knowledge of a language widely spoken in Uganda would be an asset.

UNDP is any Equal Opportunity Employer. Highly Qualified women are encouraged to apply. Short listed candidates will be required to send certified copies of academic credentials.

Deadline Date: 04/04/2014

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