Regional Data Coordinator

Chemonics seeks Regional Data Coordinators in support of the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) 8 Decision Support (DS) project to be based in one of the following regional offices: i) Guatemala City, Guatemala, ii) Nairobi, Kenya, iii) Niamey, Niger; iv) Colombo, Sri Lanka, and v) Harare, Zimbabwe. The FEWS NET DS project maintains six regional offices (i.e. East Africa; Southern Africa; West Africa; Middle East, North Africa, and Europe; Asia; and Latin America and the Caribbean) that coordinate and oversee technical and administrative management of the over 40 country offices. Each regional office is composed of a cadre of technical experts and administrative staff. The FEWS NET DS Regional Data Coordinator, working under the supervision of the Data Management Advisor and in coordination with the field-based Data Management Senior Specialist (DMSS), provides support to ongoing data management activities across the team’s sectors (e.g., Food Security Decision Support, Conflict, Markets and Trade, Livelihoods, Nutrition). This includes support for FEWS NET DS data management and engagement within FEWS NET and external audiences in relation to FEWS NET data management. While the Data Management Advisor leads and provides strategic oversight for the FEWS NET DS Data sector, the field-based DMSS may serve as a resource for the Regional Data Coordinator in identification and implementation of sectoral priorities.

While the preference is for candidates to be based in Guatemala, Kenya, Niger, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe, highly qualified candidates who are based in other select countries in which FEWS NET 8 operates with legal work authorization may be considered. Countries are as follows:

• Latin America and the Caribbean region: Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras
• East Africa region: Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda
• West Africa region: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo
• Asia region: Afghanistan, Burma, Nepal, and Pakistan
• Southern Africa region: DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia

We are looking for individuals who have a passion for making a difference in the lives of people around the world.

FEWS NET is an integrated set of activities funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is intended to provide timely, accurate, evidence-based, and transparent food security early warning information and analysis. The eighth phase of FEWS NET includes the Decision Support (DS) project which is charged with providing integrated monitoring and analyses of current and forecast acute food insecurity in countries worldwide to support the USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) policy and programmatic decisions. Based on an in-depth understanding of local livelihoods, the FEWS NET DS Team members monitor information and data on factors that affect food security, such as conflict, weather conditions and climate, crops, pasture, markets and trade, and nutrition. The work of the FEWS NET DS Team relies on close collaboration with international, regional, and national partners on food security data and information gathering and analysis. Major activities include joint monitoring and assessments, data sharing and exchanges, collaborative analysis and reporting, and technical capacity strengthening.

Responsibilities include:

• Assisting in the identification of country and regional-level primary and secondary data collection activities subject to FEWS NET and USAID data documentation, storage, and transfer requirements
• Assisting with the formatting of datasets collected or acquired by the DS Team for upload into the FEWS Data Warehouse (FDW), in accordance with guidance from the Hub
• Ensuring data are processed, cleaned, and archived in a timely fashion, in line with Hub, DS Team and client requests. Undertaking this responsibility will include working closely with country and regional offices and sector specialists to ensure timely completion of data entry and processing tasks
• Extracting data from unstructured source documents, such as PDFs and Excel sheets
• Geo-coding extracted data and uploading it into the FDW
• Tracking and resolving data upload issues with the Hub; creating and, as relevant, responding to helpdesk tickets using Jira system
• Identifying data irregularities and inconsistencies in source documents and processed datasets and proposing and implementing approved solutions
• Supporting and assisting in the design, implementation, and maintenance of the DS Team’s new and/or existing applications and initiatives to leverage MDTS processes and tools
• Supporting and assisting in the design, implementation, and maintenance of the DS Team’s new and/or existing applications and initiatives to manage, analyze, and visualize data for both regular and ad hoc reporting and decision support efforts
• Providing in-person and remote recurring and ad hoc capacity strengthening to DS staff on FDW processes and tools, including uploading files, data extraction, and the use of related offline tools

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as computer science or related information systems field required, Masters degree preferred.
• Minimum four years of relevant experience, including professional experience with GIS platforms, data science, data curation, mobile data collection technologies, and data and information collection networks
• Technical skills and knowledge in Python programming language is an advantage
• Demonstrated previous experience with statistical tools to perform analyses, such as Excel, PowerBI, or Tableau is required
• Previous experience with mobile data collection tools (e.g., ODK, Magpi, KOBO), methods, and management is required
• Additional skills with databases, scripting, and use of cloud services are desired
• Demonstrated previous experience using large socioeconomic datasets for analyses is desired
• Familiarity with Agile framework and software development methods and processes is desired
• Excellent research skills and ability to focus on details is required
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly and concisely both orally and in writing is required
• Demonstrated ability to provide guidance and capacity strengthening to adult learners is required
• Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a multicultural team across numerous geographies is required
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as required, security permitting
• Demonstrated leadership, versatility, and integrity
• Proficiency in written and spoken English is required. Competency in French, Spanish, and/or additional languages of regional relevance is desired