Background

The UN Reform Resolution tasks UNDP to provide countries with an “integrator function” to accelerate progress towards the SDGs by tackling multiple interlinked and interdependent development challenges. 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).

An SDG Integration Team located with UNDP’s Global Policy Network (GPN) offers a menu of services emphasizing direct short- to medium-term engagements to respond rapidly to requests from country offices for support on national implementation and monitoring of integrated policy solutions, qualitative and evidence-driven analysis for accelerated progress, and knowledge sharing and upscaling of innovative approaches to sustainable development. The team’s work emphasizes the application of evidence-driven data and analytics for SDG implementation and reporting.

In this regard, advances in digital technology are creating data at unprecedented levels of detail and speed, turning the stories of people’s lives into numbers every minute of every day, across the globe. An important focus of the integration work is to complement traditional data (e.g., national statistics, NHDR like analysis) with new and alternative sources including digital ‘breadcrumbs,’ satellite data, social media to identify emerging trends and gain new perspectives on issues in development.

Under the guidance of the Global Policy Advisor of the SDG Integration Bureau for Policy and Programme Support/Global Policy Network, the Geospatial Data Engineer will support the Integration Team’s work by developing and implementing policies and pipelines for geospatial data management, structuring and organizing spatial data. The Data Engineer will contribute to the development of scalable geospatial data pipelines and have sound knowledge and understanding of GIS tools. This work will be pivotal in providing more complete and rigorous information when developing novel solutions or validating decisions.

Duties and Responsibilities

The GIS Data Engineer will contribute to the following tasks:

• Prototype, design, build, and test production geospatial data pipelines, tools and associated software systems.
• Design and the implementation of a data management architecture to optimize storage and web rendering/publishing of vector and raster data in a spatial database.
• Support strategic thinking and processes related to infrastructure, geospatial data pipelines, software development and deployment

Institutional Arrangement

The GIS Data Engineer will work under the guidance and direct supervision of Global Policy Advisor of the SDG Integration Bureau for Policy and Programme Support/Global Policy Network and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the scope of work mentioned above. The Data Analyst will be given access to relevant information necessary for the execution of the tasks under this assignment. The Data Analyst will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop. Given the global consultations to be undertaken during this assignment, the Data Analyst is expected to be reasonably flexible with his/her availability for such consultations taking into consideration different time zones

Competencies

Core Competencies

•Innovation - Ability to make new and useful ideas work;

•Leadership - Ability to persuade others to follow;

•People Management - Ability to improve performance and satisfaction;

•Communication - Ability to listen, adapt, persuade and transform;

•Delivery - Ability to get things done while exercising good judgement.

Required Skills and Experience