UNDP Jobs - 64684- Data Scientist (Pulse Lab)

Data Scientist (Pulse Lab)

Location :

Jakarta, INDONESIA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

22-Mar-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 year (renewable)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Organizational Context

Global Pulse is an innovation initiative in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General, harnessing today's new world of digital data and real-time analytics to gain a better understanding of changes in human well-being. Global Pulse hopes to contribute to 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.

Pulse Lab Jakarta

Global Pulse established a Pulse Lab in Jakarta in 2012 in partnership with the Government of Indonesia. Pulse Lab Jakarta functions as an open innovation space where policy experts together with UN development practitioners and other partners can experiment with new types of data and emerging technologies and evaluate their potential to enhance both public policy decision-making and
community resilience. Following the development of useful approaches, Pulse Lab Jakarta supports institutional adoption of these innovations into policy and practice.

Under the supervision of the Pulse Lab Manager, and working closely with the global research team, the Data Scientist 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.

The Data Scientist is responsible for the research initiatives coming out of the Lab and shapes the course of research and experimentation as well as being responsible for supervision and guidance to PLJ research and innovation teams and ensuring cross unit cooperation and coordination. The Data Scientist will also be required to advocate for the use of big data and data innovation for all UN agencies, government officials, technical advisors and experts, multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors and civil society. There is a strong capacity building component expected from this position.

Duties and Responsibilities

Functions / Key Results Expected

Under overall supervision and guidance of the Lab Manager, the Data Scientist is responsible for the research initiatives of PLJ from conception through to prototyping. The Data Scientist leads the research and innovation programme with the following expected results:

Coordinates and provides substantive contributions from PLJ in terms of technical input, promotes thematic and sectoral synergies and coordination of programme activities and execution;
Designs the R&D strategy for Pulse Lab Jakarta; building and providing overall management to the research teams
Provides training in big data analytics; provides oversight and hands-on support to technical staff at the lab and also government counterparts building up capacity at country level;
Leads the research team in formulating a strong portfolio of prototypes that add value to UN agencies and government counterparts ensuring they are relevant and responsive to changes in the country context;
Advises the Lab Manager on project development and delivery, identifies approaches and modalities to achieve development targets.

Within the Pulse Lab Jakarta strategic workplan, the Data Scientist is responsible for the day-today
management research portfolio:

Programme management: the Data Scientist manages PLJ’s overall research and development portfolio, and sets the direction for the use of analyzing new digital data sources for integration in to Pulse Lab Jakarta research and development;
Financial management: the Data Scientist has senior manager rights in Atlas and ensures the integrity of financial systems, review of budget requirements and the consistent application or rules and regulations;
Human Resources management: in consultation with the Lab Manager the Data Scientist is responsible for recruitment, performance and career management and supervision of project staff to motivate and promote organizational and technical excellence;
Team work: Promotes cross-unit teamwork;
Routinely monitors technical reports and is part of the overall management team that ensures all Pulse Lab Jakarta transactions are in compliance with UNDP rules and regulations.

Under the overall guidance and leadership of the Lab Manager, the Data Scientist supports partnership building and resource mobilization for UNDP:

Supports overall resource mobilization of the office of Pulse Lab Jakarta with a focus on ensuring big data analytics activities are acknowledged and understood;
Advocates for embracing the data revolution for the Global Goals with government counterparts, donor community, and the UN;
Represents PLJ at conferences, technical workshops and other public events;
Reaches out to private sector and academia to enhance technical partnerships.

The Data Scientist ensures knowledge building and management focusing on achievement of the following results:

Advocates for PLJ with Government counterparts and ensures access to best available expertise,
Promotes identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learned from the country programme for organizational sharing and learning;
Ensures new technologies are made available and applied to the development context where possible
Supports capacity-building of national counterparts;
Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the Lab and widely across UN agencies.

Impact of Results

The results of the work of the Data Scientist impacts on Pulse Lab Jakarta and contributes to the overall success of integrating new digital data sources to UN agencies programmes and government activities in Indonesia and beyond. The Data Scientist is responsible for initiating and managing the research portfolio and for providing the necessary course correction in response to changes in the
context and new programme and resource mobilization opportunities.
When requested by the RC/RR and/or Lab Manager, the Data Scientist represents PLJ in international and national fora, liaises with external clients and a broad range of government counterparts, UN agencies, local and international media, civil society as well as counterparts from other international organizations. The Data Scientist is the advocate for big data and data innovation and demonstrating added value of activities in delivering the United Nations mandate.
The Data Scientist is part of the management team and promotes good cooperation and coordination among programme and operations staff and between the Lab and all counterparts. The Data Scientist is also expected to produce methodological papers that can be shared as a public good with the broader development and technical community.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

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

Functional Competencies:
Knowledge Management and Learning:

Promotes knowledge management in PLJ and a learning environment in the Lab through leadership and personal example;
In-depth practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside of Pulse Lab Jakarta.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

Ability to lead strategic planning, change processes, results-based management and reporting;
Ability to lead formulation, oversight of implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects;
Ability to apply development theory to the specific country context to identify creative, practical approaches to overcome challenging situations.

Management and Leadership:

Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and results for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Ability to lead effectively, mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills;
Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
Proven networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree or equivalent in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, physics, computational finance, economics, engineering or other related technical discipline;
UNDP Certification programmes Prince2, RMG.

Experience:

7 years of relevant experience in computer science with a focus on data of which 2 or more years with management responsibilities of similar size and complexity;
Familiarity with analytical techniques such as text mining, sentiment analysis, predictive analysis and modeling of complex systems;
Experience in a branch of computational informatics (development, health, bio-, geo-, etc..) using machine learning;
Experience working with Big Data, social network data, and geospatial data/satellite imagery;
Experience writing research proposals, scientific articles and technical reports;
Familiarity working with quantitative and qualitative data;
Demonstrated experience presenting work to both technical and non-technical audiences;
Willingness to experiment in data innovation and big data and push the boundaries in applying technical skills for development and humanitarian action.

Language:

Fluent in English;
Knowledge of another UN language desirable.

Applicant must complete P11 form and submit as part of their application. Click here to download the form - http://bit.ly/P11system

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. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply . All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP Indonesia reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement. We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP Indonesia at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and education requirements.