GPN ExpRes Profile – Data Analytics  

Duty Station: Multiple
 

Successful applicants should:

• Have a Master’s degree with a minimum of five years’ experience in the respective field relevant to the ToR or possess seven years’ experience with a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
• Be prepared for potential deployment to crisis settings with short notice.

Additionally, specific preferences include:

• Proficiency in Arabic, French, or Spanish, with Russian and/or Portuguese considered advantageous.
• Encouragement is particularly extended to female applicants. In addition to candidates from the Global South.

Qualification:

Advanced university degree in economics, engineering, computer science, mathematics, statistics, public policy, or related quantitative science field.

WHAT IS DATA ANALYTICS?

At UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), we are on a mission to end poverty, build democratic governance, rule of law, and inclusive institutions around the world. UNDP is the United Nations’ global sustainable development organization working across 170 countries.

The UNDP Global Policy Network (GPN) draws on expertise globally to provide more effective responses to the complex development challenges countries face in achieving the SDGs and responding to crisis in an integrated and coherent manner. Anchored in the Crisis Bureau (CB) and the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), the GPN has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan, which is aligned with the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Inclusive, ethical and sustainable data collection, management, use and analysis is fundamental for UNDP’s work on the ground eradicating poverty while protecting the planet. UNDP’s reach and multidisciplinary expertise makes it well placed as an integrator, but without proper use and understanding of data across all our offices globally, we will always fall short of being fully and confidently evidence-based in our decision making, implementation and support to governments and the people we serve. However, with this pressure to move quickly, we must remain true to upholding fundamental privacy and ethical standards. This strategy aims to provide those global standards and guidance for a harmonious and sustainable approach, while leaving space for local agility.

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED WORK

The consultant, when selected from the roster for an assignment, may take on the following duties and responsibilities, based on the sub-profile they are vetted for:

1. Data Engineering

• Design, develop and deploy ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines to move data between systems, ensuring data integrity and availability.
• Transform data into standardized formats that can be easily analyzed, which may include cleaning, aggregating, enriching, or reformatting the data.
• Implement data integration solutions where necessary, ensuring that the most current data is available for decision-making.
• Document all data integration processes, including the data sources, transformations, and any applied business rules or logic.
• Manage data storage solutions, including databases and cloud storage, ensuring optimal performance and security.
• Work closely with data scientists, analysts, and other stakeholders to understand their data needs and provide support.

2. Data Science, Computer Vision

• Translate requirements expressed from UNDP personnel at HQ, regional, and Country Office level into product specifications.
• Contribute to the full cycle of product development: from rapid prototypes and POCs to MVPs and production-ready analytical applications.
• Develop advanced product features using a variety of CV techniques, including but not limited to object detection, sematic segmentation, and instance segmentation.
• Collect and analyse satellite image data to enhance the features of UNDP Geohub.
• Work closely with other data team members and stakeholders to build efficient solutions for large-scale image processing pipelines.
• Help translate applications of advanced analytics into actionable conclusions for a non-specialist audience and communicate insights to a wider public.
• Stay up to date with the latest advancements in CV and ML.

3. Data Science, General

• Translate requirements expressed from UNDP personnel at HQ, regional, and Country Office level into product specifications.
• Contribute to the full cycle of product development: from rapid prototypes and POCs to MVPs and production-ready analytical applications.
• Collect and process data from a variety of sources, including but not limited to web pages using web-scraping, RESTful APIs, social media, text documents, SQL and NoSQL databases.
• Prototype and test machine learning solutions using different types of data (tabular, text, image) for a variety of problems using unsupervised and supervised algorithms, including clustering, classification, regression, time-series analysis and forecasting.
• Work closely with other data team members and stakeholders to build efficient solutions for data integration, processing and storage as well as for automating processes.
• Help translate applications of advanced analytics into actionable conclusions for a non-specialist audience and communicate insights to a wider public.

4. Data Science, Natural Language Processing

• Translate requirements expressed from UNDP personnel at HQ, regional, and Country Office level into product specifications.
• Contribute to the full cycle of product development: from rapid prototypes and POCs to MVPs and production-ready analytical applications.
• Develop advanced product features using a variety of NLP techniques, including but not limited to text classification, semantic search, information retrieval, topic modelling and chatbots.
• Leverage large language models and prompt engineering for a rapid iterative development of state-of-the-art applications.
• Work closely with other data team members and stakeholders to build efficient solutions for large-scale text processing pipelines for analysing PDF documens, web documents and social media data.
• Help translate applications of advanced analytics into actionable conclusions for a non-specialist audience and communicate insights to a wider public.
• Stay up to date with the latest advancements in NLP and ML.

5. Data Visualization

• Design and develop interactive and informative data visualizations, dashboards, and reports using tools such as D3 and React. Should also have experience in using Tableau., Power BI, or similar platforms
• Collaborate with data analysts and data scientists to understand data requirements and translate them into effective visual representations
• Work closely with data engineers to ensure data accuracy, consistency, and availability for visualization purposes
• Utilize your expertise in data cleaning and formatting to ensure that data is accurate, consistent, and ready for visualization.
• Ensure that data visualizations and interface are user-friendly, intuitive, and accessible to a wide range of stakeholders
• Design and develop compelling data narratives that provide context and insights to non-technical audiences

6. Geospatial Analysis

• Curate geospatial data from various heterogenous data sources ensuring it is brough to common standards in terms of formats and quality
• Translate geospatial analysis and modeling requirements collected from UNDP personnel at HQ, regional, and Country Office level into products/data layers.
• Identify and assess the suitability of various data sources for modeling purposes (satellite imagery, geospatial model, etc.)
• Prototype, design and develop geospatial analysis and models using sophisticated geospatial operators targeting specific spatial questions/problems
• Use latest state of the art geospatial AI&ML software and libraries to develop robust solutions and answers to specific spatial questions/problems
• Develop and deploy geospatial analysis tools as cloud compute backed services
• Work closely with other team members and stakeholders to build efficient solutions for geospatial analysis and modeling as well as for automating processes.

7. Impact evaluation

• Design and conduct rigorous impact evaluation, tailored to the specific goals and objectives of programs/projects.
• Collaborate with project teams to develop the impact evaluation theory of change, identify key evaluation questions, indicators, and data sources aligned with program/project outcomes.
• Lead the development and implementation of data collection strategies (including survey tools), considering baseline and endline measurements, control groups, and counterfactual analysis where appropriate.
• Oversee data collection, ensuring quality, consistency, and ethical considerations throughout the process.
• Utilize advanced statistical and econometric techniques to analyze quantitative data and infer causality.
• Conduct qualitative research, such as interviews, focus groups, and case studies, to complement quantitative findings and provide deeper insights, if needed.
• Interpret and synthesize evaluation findings to draw conclusions about program impact.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to provide actionable recommendations for program enhancement, policy formulation, and decision-making.
• Develop comprehensive impact evaluation reports, presentations, and visualizations to communicate results effectively to diverse audiences.
• Ensure adherence to ethical and legal standards in impact evaluation research.

8. Statistics

• Interpret data, analyze results using statistical techniques and provide reports, explaining analytical methods and presenting the results that enable the tracking of development trends over time.
• Support the development and implementation of databases, data analytics and other strategies that optimize statistical efficiency and quality.
• Identify, clean, validate, analyze, interpret and visualize results or patterns in complex and often multidimensional data.

9. Survey design and analysis

• Design surveys tailored to specific project objectives, ensuring clarity, relevance, and accuracy of questions.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to understand survey goals, target audience, and data requirements.
• Select appropriate survey methods (online, phone, in-person, etc.) based on project needs.
• Develop survey instruments using industry-standard tools and platforms.
• Develop and outline the sampling and data collection strategies,
• Monitor survey responses and data collection progress, ensuring timeliness and data quality.
• Clean, preprocess, and validate survey data to maintain accuracy and integrity.
• Utilize statistical and analytical techniques to extract meaningful insights from collected data.
• Generate comprehensive reports, presentations, and visualizations to effectively communicate findings.
• Collaborate with teams to interpret survey results, draw conclusions, and provide actionable recommendations.
• Stay updated with survey design best practices, data analysis methods, and relevant software/tools.
• Maintain documentation of survey processes, data management, and analysis methodologies.
• Ensure compliance with ethical and legal standards in survey research and data analysis.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION:

At UNDP, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UNDP recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNDP, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UNDP’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UNDP personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference checks.

Requirements and skills

Global Call

-Data Analytics

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