Animal Health Officer – Vienna
JOB DETAIL
Main Purpose
Reporting to the Laboratory Head, the Animal Health Officer provides expertise, knowledge and services on the development, evaluation, validation and transfer of tools to control animal diseases. The Animal Health Officer also provides animal and zoonotic disease and One Health approach related technical and strategic advice and services to FAO and IAEA Member States as resource person on animal health research (R&, scientific knowledge and expertise, and through design, technical backstopping, and support for the implementation and appraisal of activities aimed at the control of animal diseases and sustainable enhancement of animal production. Other purposes include provision of scientific expertise and knowledge to conceptualize, plan, formulate, implement, manage and evaluate coordinated research projects (CRP, support and implement technical cooperation projects (TCPwith regard to fellowship training and technology transfer, and support capacity building in Member States on animal health/animal disease activities.
Role
The Animal Health Officer is: (1) an animal health/animal disease researcher and research coordinator, ensuring the efficient and effective development, implementation and dissemination of research outputs on animal disease control (diagnostic and vaccine tool, One Health approach including AntiMicrobial Resistance (AM, training and scientific and technical knowledge, and evaluating and implementing TCPs and CRPs for the IAEA and FAO; (2) a technical expert, planning and conducting technical meetings and project review missions; (3) a facilitator, working with Member States to meet their national and regional agricultural development objectives; (4) a resource person for animal health and related aspects of the Animal Production and Health Subprogramme; and, (5) a liaison with relevant stakeholders on issues related to the transfer of animal disease diagnostic and control tools and related analytical methods and technologies to Member States.
Functions / Key Results Expected
Serve as a resource person on nuclear and nuclear related immunological, microbiological, and molecular diagnostic, vaccine and control issues and their application and develop relevant technical guidelines, methodologies and standard operating procedures.
Provide technical and managerial inputs to animal health/animal disease components of current CRPs and TCPs where applicable.
Contribute to upstream planning work to address Member State animal health needs, including the preparation of TCPs, CRPs, concept papers, participation in preproject missions, thematic planning exercises and country programme framework missions as required, to evaluate and reformulate TCP and CRP requests and make recommendations for inputs when necessary.
Participate, conceptualise and plan new CRPs in the area of animal health/animal disease diagnostics and control technologies (including vaccine, evaluate proposals for research contracts and agreements for CRPs in animal health as well as requests for renewal, and coordinate with staff of the Animal Production and Health Subprogramme on research, training and analytical services in support of CRPs.
Plan, organize and conduct consultants’ meetings; plan and conduct training courses and regional seminars and participate in national and international expert consultations, symposia and workshops as required.
Contribute, prepare and review relevant aspects of the animal health component of the Animal Production and Health Subprogramme, work plans, biannual newsletters and periodic updating of the Subprogramme’s website.
Develop and implement innovative and value added approaches to enhance livestock and One Health and to optimize animal health resource utilization.
Competencies and Expertise
Core Competencies
| Name | Definition |
|---|---|
| Communication | Communicates orally and in writing in a clear, concise and impartial manner. Takes time to listen to and understand the perspectives of others and proposes solutions. |
| Achieving Results | Takes initiative in defining realistic outputs and clarifying roles, responsibilities and expected results in the context of the Department/Division’s programme. Evaluates his/her results realistically, drawing conclusions from lessons learned. |
| Teamwork | Actively contributes to achieving team results. Supports team decisions. |
| Planning and Organizing | Plans and organizes his/her own work in support of achieving the team or Section’s priorities. Takes into account potential changes and proposes contingency plans. |
Functional Competencies
| Name | Definition |
|---|---|
| Commitment to continuous process improvement | Plans and executes activities in the context of quality and risk management and identifies opportunities for process, system and structural improvement, as well as improving current practices. Analyses processes and procedures, and proposes improvements. |
| Judgement/decision making | Consults with supervisor/manager and takes decisions in full compliance with the Agency’s regulations and rules. Makes decisions reflecting best practice and professional theories and standards. |
| Technical/scientific credibility | Ensures that work is in compliance with internationally accepted professional standards and scientific methods. Provides scientifically/technically accepted information that is credible and reliable. |
Required Expertise
| Function | Name | Expertise Description |
|---|---|---|
| Animal Health | Animal Diseases | Ability to develop and apply nuclear, nuclear related immunological and molecular techniques to animal disease diagnosis, AMR detection and surveillance, vaccine development and vaccine evaluation. |
Qualifications, Experience and Language skills
- Master’s DegreeAdvanced university degree or equivalent in animal science, microbiology, or immunology or other relevant field. Doctorate degree an advantage.
OtherPrimary Veterinary Medicine degree an asset.
- Minimum of seven years of postqualifying experience in animal health/animal disease control research and development at the national level in a livestock research institute or university with at least five years of experience in national/international livestock development programmes, research, teaching and technology transfer.
- Experience in the use of nuclear and nuclearrelated host immune response technologies to control animal diseases.
- Experience in planning, implementing and coordinating activities related to the livestock research and development sector.
- Experience in designing and conducting training and technical meeting.
- Experience in managing multidisciplinary projects and participation in international research networks an asset.
- Selfmotivation with the capability to bring initiative and innovation to research. This includes (1) the ability to formulate and undertake research programmes and projects and to mobilize extrabudgetary research and development funding; (2) the ability to evaluate research and development projects.
- Understanding of CRPs and TCPs and their life cycles, good knowledge of project management, implementation and monitoring and impact assessment.
- Demonstrated ability to present and communicate project results effectively to diverse audiences.
- Record of published research papers.
- Proficiency in MS Office, which is the IAEA standard (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoin, and the ability to use databases and data analysis tools, including webbased resources.
- Excellent oral and written command of English. Knowledge of other official IAEA languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Russian and Spanisis an asset.
