About

Interested in working in a great team on an exciting innovative project at the United Nations? The following jobs are currently being advertised (scroll down for details):

We are taking expressions of interest for the following positions (scroll down for details):

Pulse Lab Manager (Kampala), Data Scientist (Kampala)

PULSE LAB MANAGER - JAKARTA

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

Period of assignment: 1 year, full-time - extendable based on performance

Deadline to apply: February 2013

*Open to both Indonesian nationals and international applicants

BACKGROUND:

Global Pulse is establishing a Pulse Lab in Jakarta in 2012 in partnership with the Government of Indonesia. Pulse Lab Jakarta will function 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 will support institutional adoption of these innovations into policy and practice.

As Team Leader, the Pulse Lab Manager will have overall responsibility for the successful implementation of Global Pulse in Indonesia. This position will provide strategic leadership and bear primary administrative responsibility for all activities aimed at fulfilling the Lab objectives. The Position is expected to ensure the Lab’s technical approach remains cognizant of local realities on both technical and infrastructural environments, and is responsible for forging high-value relationships and building sustainable and effective solutions.

SCOPE OF WORK:

• Provide the overarching strategy and direction for Pulse Lab Jakarta in line with the overall Global Pulse strategy and goals
• Provide leadership and manage the implementation of Global Pulse in the country
• Grow and retain a high-performing, cross-disciplinary team
• Define and foster a team culture of intellectual curiosity, creativity, audacity, collaboration, experimentation, and commitment to embodying the highest ideals of the United Nations. 
• Actively seek out and promote opportunities for innovation, identifying and overcoming obstacles to innovation;
• Conduct both internal and external testing, using creative approaches to quickly assess an idea’s potential;
• Continuously reprioritize opportunities to update the balance of “demand” of innovative opportunities with “supply” or capacity; 
• Strategic Target Assessment – identify and prioritize key opportunity areas, develop expertise and “sell” areas to key stakeholders
• Provide strategic and substantive innovation-related content for high level communications, speeches, publications, and statements
• Monitor trends in innovation practices, processes and technologies  
• Inspire and harvest ‘crowd’ innovation
• Seek private and public funding for Pulse Lab Jakarta activities in Indonesia
• Coordinate and network effectively with Government and other stakeholders regarding project planning, monitoring, execution and deliverables
• In collaboration with Global Pulse New York, lead the development and management of tools and processes to enhance knowledge-sharing amongst internal and external stakeholders
• Lead and facilitate innovation by harnessing the creative energies of project staff, and a wide network of partners to find new ways to improve programme delivery and reduce costs
• Drive the Data Philanthropy movement through thought leadership in Indonesia (public speaking, publications, workshops, networking)
• Maintain close and productive relationships with Pulse labs in other countries, sharing knowledge, ideas and expertise
• Advocate the goals of the Global Pulse program and the work of Pulse Lab Jakarta in relevant forums (e.g. conferences, workshops)  

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

I. Academic Qualifications:

Advanced University Degree in social sciences, public or business administration, or technical field relevant to the work of Global Pulse. A first level university degree with at least 10 years relevant work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

II. Years of experience:

• A minimum of seven (7) years experience in project management, design, and implementation
• Five (5) years of progressively responsible professional experience in innovation management, knowledge management, project management, consulting, organizational development, business or public administration management, including two (2) years of which were in a supervisory or executive capacity
• Experience working in the technology sector
• Understanding of large data sets for planning and strategy desirable
• Familiarity with enterprise-scale software development and implementation
• Demonstrated administrative management and supervisory skills, including experience working with a culturally diverse staff
• Excellent communication, public speaking and documentation skills
• Excellent ability to interact with senior management and executives
• Strong proven ability to build and manage internal and external relationships
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Geographically relevant experience
• Fluent in English. Knowledge of a second UN language or Bahasa Indonesia desirable (both oral and written).

III. Competencies:

• Understanding of big data and data analytics
• Strong leadership skills
• Ability to effectively lead teams in ambiguously or undefined problem spaces
• Ability to manage and mentor teams in rapidly shifting environment
• Demonstrated sense of initiative and problem-solving skills
• Knowledge of utility of data in crisis situations
• Understanding of government partners’ workflows and agendas

EXPECTED RESULTS

• Develop overarching strategy and direction for Pulse Lab Jakarta in line with the overall Global Pulse strategy and goals
• Develop project planning, monitoring, execution and deliverables in coordination and effective networking with Government and other stakeholders
• Identify, conduct internal and external testing, and prioritize key opportunity area for innovation using creative approaches to quickly assess an idea’s potential
• Develop strategic and substantive innovation-related content for high level communications, speeches, publications, and statements
• Establish private and public funding for Pulse Lab Jakarta activities in Indonesia
• In collaboration with Global Pulse New York, develop tools and processes to enhance knowledge sharing amongst internal and external stakeholders and drive the Data Philanthropy movement.
• Present types of data and technologies that could enhance public policy decision making and community resilience through institutional adoption of these innovations into policy and practice.

HOW TO APPLY

The following materials must be submitted:

1. Copy of your latest CV (make sure to highlight any previous experience in similar projects or closely related areas).
2. Copy of last education certificate 
3. A letter of interest explaining why you are the most suitable for the work and provide a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work.
4. Include your financial proposal (monthly rate/payment or annual expected salary) 

Please submit complete application package, with subject line "Pulse Lab Manager" to: Vincent.soekmono@un.or.id.

DATA SCIENTIST (Pulse Lab Jakarta)

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

Period of assignment: 1 year, full-time

Deadline to apply: January 2013

*Open to both Indonesian nationals and international applicants

BACKGROUND

Global Pulse is establishing a Pulse Lab in Jakarta in 2012 in partnership with the Government of Indonesia. Pulse Lab Jakarta will function 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 will support institutional adoption of these innovations into policy and practice.

Under the supervision of the Pulse Lab Manager and working closely with the Data Engineer and Research Project Officer, 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.

SCOPE OF WORK

• Define, design and implement research projects harnessing Big Data to improve both understanding of population behavior, needs, and vulnerabilities as well as capacity to monitor and evaluate the impacts of development policies and programmes;
• Perform data studies and data discovery around new data sources or new uses for existing data sources;      
• Assist in developing new approaches to detecting events and trends within real-time data sources such as online media, social networks, imagery, geospatial data, communications logs, transaction records, etc.;
• Think strategically about uses of data and how data use interacts with data design;     
• Design and implement statistical data quality procedures around new data sources;    
• Implement any software required for accessing and handling data appropriately; 
• Visualize and report data findings creatively in a variety of formats;
• Coordinate joint data mining research projects with diverse partners; 
• Interact with the global community through a variety of media.  

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

I. Academic Qualifications:

Masters degree in statistics, applied mathematics, physics, computational finance, economics, computer science, engineering or other related technical disciplines. A first degree and 5 years relevant experience may be accepted in lieu of the higher university degree.

II. Years of experience:

• Familiarity with analytical techniques such as text mining, sentiment analysis, predictive analysis, event detection, and modeling of complex systems;
• At least three years of experience in analysis and data visualization;
• 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 analyzing data from social monitoring systems, monitoring and evaluation work, or other survey work in developing countries;
• Experience writing research proposals, scientific articles and technical reports;
• Familiarity working with quantitative and qualitative data;
• Experience with scripting, coding, and web design required for data access, analysis, and presentation;
• Demonstrated experience presenting work to both technical and non-technical audiences;
• Willingness to evaluate and adopt the latest advances in AI, machine learning, predictive analysis and visualization.
• Fluent in English. Knowledge of a second UN language, or Bahasa Indonesia, desirable (both oral and written)

III. Competencies:

• Understanding of big data and data analytics
• Strong leadership skills
• Ability to effectively lead teams in ambiguously or undefined problem spaces
• Ability to manage and mentor teams in rapidly shifting environment
• Demonstrated sense of initiative and problem-solving skills
• Knowledge of utility of data in crisis situations
• Understanding of government partners’ workflows and agendas

EXPECTED RESULTS

• Design research projects harnessing Big Data to improve both understanding of population behaviour, needs, and vulnerabilities as well as capacity to monitor and evaluate the impacts of development policies and programmes.
• Perform data studies and data discovery around new data sources or new uses for existing data sources.
• Develop new approaches to detecting events and trends within real time data sources such as online media, social networks, imagery, geospatial data, communications logs, transaction records, etc.
• Design statistical data quality procedures around new data sources.
• Visualize and report data findings creatively in a variety of formats.HOW TO APPLY

HOW TO APPLY:

The following materials must be submitted:

1. Copy of your latest CV (make sure to highlight any previous experience in similar projects or closely related areas)
2. Copy of last education certificate 
3. A letter of interest explaining why you are the most suitable for the work and provide a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work.
4. Include your financial proposal (monthly rate/payment or annual expected salary) 

Please submit complete application package, with subject line "Data Scientist" to: Vincent.soekmono@un.or.id.

PULSE LAB MANAGER - KAMPALA

Location: Kampala, Uganda

Period of assignment: 1 year, full-time - extendable based on performance

DATA SCIENTIST (Pulse Lab Kampala)

Location: Kampala, Uganda

Period of assignment: 1 year, full-time - extendable based on performance

Plans are currently underway to establish Pulse Lab Kampala, with an initial core team by mid-2013. Qualified candidates interested in either the position of Pulse Lab Manager or Data Scientist (job descriptions similar to those described above for Jakarta), are welcome to email an expression of interest with CV to info[at]unglobalpulse[dot]org, with the position included in the subject line.