Director, Global Modelling, Governance Unit, DDCG

• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply
• Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO’s values
• FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination　　
• All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
• All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
• FAO staff are subject to the authority of the Director-General, who may assign them to any of the activities or offices of the Organization.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through the FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

Organizational Setting

The Governance Unit is based on accelerated institutional and policy innovations as well as technology-based innovations that go beyond food systems, and that are coherently connected to transformations in health systems, in energy and environment systems, and in economic systems, as well as to evolving science and knowledge systems. These innovations and actions do not exist in silos; they are connected, and it is essential to assess potential synergies and trade-offs in developing policy options. Sound global modelling and forward-looking analyses will provide the necessary evidence base.

The position is located in the Governance Unit, Office of the Chief Economist (DDCG), at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy.

Reporting Lines

The Director of Global Modelling (DDCG) reports to the Chief Economist.

Under the policy guidance and general supervision of the Chief Economist, the Director of Global Modelling, will lead the Organization’s work on global modelling. In particular, the Director of Global Modelling will:

• provide Intellectual leadership, strategic vision and promotion of the sustainable transformation of agrifood systems at the country, regional and global levels;
• take management responsibility for the staff, operations and processes of the Governance Unit;
• coordinate the provision of technical and policy advice to FAO’s Members and technical support to the Decentralized Offices in the development and implementation of modelling frameworks for global and regional issues;
• support the Chief Economist, in the overall management responsibility, including strategic vision, planning, advice, technical programming and quality control, and implementation of the large-scale economic modelling efforts conducted within the Organization;
• coordinate and promote communication and collaboration within the Unit to foster a work environment conducive to efficient results-based work; ensure technical, administrative and financial support to the Unit;
• enable a motivated and effective Governance Unit workforce through the development and implementation of an effective staff capacity development strategy, ensuring the recruitment of highly qualified staff as well as mentoring, coaching and supporting career development;
• promote cross-divisional efforts to build an integrated economic modelling platform relying extensively on the Organization’s assets and skills;
• develop new strategies to incorporate biophysical information into economic modelling processes;
• contribute to cross-divisional teams by providing state-of-the-art economic modelling solutions, where relevant, to deliver consistent analysis at the organizational level;
• identify, implement and enhance strategic partnerships within FAO for collaborative work in the areas of work of global economic modelling;
• advocate for and promote the work of the Unit and the building of partnerships with FAO Members, international and national organizations, as well as the private sector, as appropriate;
• contribute to, and provide leadership in, the Unit’s resource mobilization efforts, in accordance with FAO’s Strategic Framework;
• represent the Office of the Chief Economist in Senior Management Team meetings and Senior Operation Team meetings as well as in other FAO internal and external meetings;
• perform other duties as required.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced University degree(a PhD would be preferable) in economics, agricultural economics or a closely related field;
• At least fifteen (15) years of relevant experience in economy-wide policy analysis and economic modelling, especially global modelling;
• Excellent quantitative background and experience in the construction and use of large-scale partial and general equilibrium models and datasets;
• Excellent skills in several programming languages used in the field of economic modelling, including but not limited to, General Algebraic Modelling Systems (GAMS) and R;
• Excellent understanding of the food, energy, climate and agriculture sectors, and their interactions;
• Demonstrated knowledge of FAO and other United Nations (UN) system or international organization datasets in the field of food systems with an emphasis on applied policies monitoring;
• Demonstrated experience in capacity building in the field of economic modelling, with a track record of mentoring staff in the domain;
• Demonstrated experience in resource mobilization, including coordinating project proposals for funding and interacting with donors and funding agencies;
• Demonstrated research experience of modelling global issue scenarios, in particular in the domain of trade and environmental policies;
• Demonstrated experience of the management and development of a Global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model in a collaborative environment;
• Proven analytical abilities and excellent writing skills as demonstrated in past work products (analytical reports, quantitative analysis, operative models, and/or published papers);
• Experience in contributing to multi-stakeholder research initiatives;
• Proven ability to develop and enforce quality-control protocols in the field of economic modelling (coding and data integration) using state-of-the-art collaborative and versioning IT solutions;
• Demonstrated experience of disseminating research outputs to a technical or non-technical audience;
• Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

Leadership Competencies