UN Senior Data Engineer Careers – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Job Title:        Senior Data Engineer
Organization: United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Duty Station: Kampala,
Uganda
Reports to: Lab
Manager
About UNDP:
The United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) is the United Nation’s global development network.
UNDP advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and
resources to help people build a better life. The UNDP provides expert advice,
training, grant support to developing countries including Uganda with
increasing emphasis on assistance to the least developed countries. 
About Global Pulse:
Global Pulse is an
innovation initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Big Data. Its
vision is a future in which big data is harnessed safely and responsibly as a
public good. Its mission is to accelerate discovery, development and scaled
adoption of big data innovation for sustainable development and humanitarian
action. Global Pulse is building a catalytic network of in-country innovation
centers, which will test new tools, data and analysis, share what lessons with
the global community, mainstream successful approaches for real-time impact
monitoring into policymaking. The first Lab has been established in New York
(Pulse Lab New York) followed by Jakarta, Indonesia and Kampala, Uganda. Pulse
Lab Kampala is an inter-agency initiative of the United Nations under the
leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator in Uganda. The first of its kind in
Africa, it brings together researchers from Government, the UN,
non-governmental organizations and private sector to explore the utility of new
sources of digital “Big Data” (such as social media, mobile data, online
information) and real-time analysis techniques for sustainable development and
humanitarian assistance.
Job Summary:  The Senior Data Engineer will work to access
and derive insights from large data sets to solve problems. He or she must be
able to work with a variety of data types, programming languages and platforms,
must be comfortable with both hands-on development and research support, and
must be adept at both understanding the information content of data and
transforming and preparing it for analytical and reporting purposes.
Key Duties and Responsibilities: 
·        
Support
the team in providing the technical inputs for the design and implementation of
projects by preparing data processing environments by reviewing existing
solutions for data engineering methods and proposing processing architecture
for Pulse Lab Kampala research team
  • Review commonly used hardware and software for data processing from
    open source and commercial sector and a list of computing platforms that
    Pulse Lab Kampala already has access to through global and local
    partnerships;
  • Identify the best solutions for data engineering in line with the
    Pulse Lab Kampala research plan and given the data types and
    characteristics of Pulse Lab Kampala’s research;
  • Provide technical assistance and support to the design and
    implementation of projects in the portfolio through consultation with the
    Government, donors, UN agencies, NGOs/CSOs and other partners; 
  • Support the formulation exercise by facilitating engagement with
    partners and stakeholders on a needs assessment and preparing the correct
    infrastructure for all data related outputs of Pulse Lab Kampala;
  • Conduct analyses of the current technical systems and provide
    recommendations to Pulse Lab Kampala stakeholders;
  • Support to the management and implementation of the project,
    including ensuring effective quality assurance and providing technical
    inputs on PLK Lab activities as well as effective knowledge transfer and
    capacity building to partners and stakeholders
  • Offer assistance to the effective management of large and strategic
    national and regional projects in Africa by providing quality technical
    support in data management, data streaming and systems integration;
  • Ensure effective application of new technologies that will enable
    more efficiency within Pulse Lab Kampala research;
  • Conduct day to day quantitative data analysis, writing back-end side
    data processing software with Pulse Lab Kampala research team
  • Support the production of Pulse Lab Toolkits across the Global Pulse
    Lab Network;
  • Support knowledge generation and knowledge sharing based on project
    experiences, and, when appropriate, make contributions to knowledge
    networks and communities of practice;
  • Actively participate in discussions related to technical aspects of
    data engineering and analytics as well as the identification of common
    engineering and processing functionalities with Global Pulse labs;
  • Produce open source standard documents for the toolkit developed;
  • Extract and prepare data for analysis from big and small datasets
    including from official statistics;
  • Assist to interpret analysis results quantitatively in support of
    Pulse Lab Kampala Research Team

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
  • The ideal applicant for the United Nations UNDP Senior Data Engineer
    job placement should hold an advanced university degree (Master’s degree
    or equivalent) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Mathematics,
    Statistics, or related field. A first-level university degree in
    combination with Eight years of qualifying experience may be accepted in
    lieu of the advanced university degree.
  • Five years of experience in the following:
    • Experience working on machine learning algorithms or other aspects
      of AI;
    • Experience with stream computing and data warehousing;
    • Experience with rapid application development (agile, extreme,
      scrum, lean);
    • Experience working with Amazon EC2 or Hadoop or similar;
    • Experience working with open source data processing frameworks is a
      plus;
Competencies
Core Competencies:
  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical
    standards;
  • Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of
    the UN;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age
    sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
  • Demonstrates and promotes the values of the UN in actions and
    decisions and acts in accordance with the standard of conduct for
    international civil servants;
  • Shows willingness to work without bias with all persons regardless
    of gender, nationality, religion or culture;
  • Contributes effectively to team-based activities, working
    collaboratively and sharing information openly; works effectively with
    colleagues inside the UN as well as its partners and other stakeholders to
    pursue common goals;
  • Facilitates and encourages open communication in the team,
    communicating effectively;
  • Remains calm, composed and patient when facing conflict, manages
    conflict productively, focusing on mutually acceptable solutions;
  • Takes initiative and seeks opportunities to initiate action;
  • Actively produces and disseminates new knowledge;
    creates/contributes to mechanisms to collect and share knowledge;
  • Actively seeks learning opportunities; demonstrates commitment to
    ongoing professional development;
  • Proposes innovative ideas and new solutions to work.
Functional Competencies:
  • Excellent programming skills using script languages such as Python
    and PHP;
  • Good understanding of data engineering and data processing solutions
    and platform;
  • Fair knowledge of big data, data analysis, and system performance;
  • Comfortable in a dynamic and flexible work environment, with an
    innovative mindset and in a lab; environment;
  • Demonstrating/safeguarding ethics and integrity; 
  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
  • Self-development, initiative-taking, eager to learn new
    technologies;
  • Acting as a team player and facilitating teamwork;
  • Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team,
    communicating effectively;
  • Creating synergies through self-control;
  • Managing conflict;
  • Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.
    Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility
    of each staff member;
  • Informed and transparent decision making;
  • Independent and driven, and able to manage and lead without close
    supervision;
  • Flexible, adaptable, and comfortable working in a start-up
    environment;
  • Excellent communication skills;
  • Flexible, adaptable, and comfortable working in a start-up
    environment;
  • Ability to work directly with internal and external clients to
    define requirements for analysis and reporting.
UNDP is committed to
achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture.
Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with
disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated
with the strictest confidence.
How to Apply:
All suitably
qualified and interested candidates who so desire to join the United Nations
Development Programme, UNDP, in the aforementioned capacity should endeavor to
Apply Online by Clicking on the link below. Please further review job
requirements and if competent Click Apply Now.
Deadline: 1st August 2018
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