The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) seeks to recruit a Research Officer II – Climate Data Science for Livestock Water Source Monitoring and Risk Management Project in Ethiopia. The specific focus of this position is to managing and analyzing large datasets, contributing to the development of livestock water and pasture monitoring system and performing various data science tasks necessary for the successful implementation of project activities. This role is critical for coordinate partnership meeting and follow up and dissemination of project results in Ethiopia.

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) one of 15 CGIAR research centers dedicated entirely to deliver research-based solutions that address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. The Alliance focuses on the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and environment. We work with local, national, and multinational partners across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and with the public and private sectors and civil society. With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people. The Alliance is organized into six key levers: 1)Food environment and consumer behavior – reshaping the food environment and consumer behavior toward healthy and sustainable diets; 2) Multifunctional landscapes – fostering innovation for environmental health and productive landscapes to improve livelihoods; 3) Climate action – mainstreaming climate action in the food system to reduce risks; 4) Biodiversity for food and agriculture – making agricultural and tree diversity available and safeguarding it for the diverse needs of food system actors; 5) Digital inclusion – promoting inclusion in the digital agriculture revolution for equitable benefits; and 6) Crops for nutrition and health – putting nutrition and health at the heart of crop improvement to address the triple burden of malnutrition. The job will provide support to the Climate Action lever in Ethiopia though coordinating the execution and implementation of day-to-day project activities related with remote-sensing and climate risk and vulnerability assessment.

Main Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain cloud-based interactive climate decision support platforms,
• Coordinate the harmonization of diverse data sources, including databases, APIs, and external services,
• Enhance the development of water and pasture monitoring system including data ingestion, data stewardship, transformation, and storage,
• Conduct geospatial data development, cleaning, enrichment, and transformation for comprehensive analysis and reporting,
• Lead and contribute in innovating the community information centers for disseminating climate advisories,
• Lead and support for the development and deployment of data visualization tools and dashboards to support decision-making processes,
• Lead for installing, administering, and populating open-source Python-based geospatial stacks and enterprises databases,
• Conduct and coordinate field data collection related with cliamte and drought risk management in collaboration with partners,
• Provide guidance support and contribute to the evaluation and optimization of models for development and use decision-making tools,
• Facilitate and coordinate consultative workshop with concerned stakeholders,
• Develop Human Centered Design approach for development of agro-climate advisories for pastoral and agro-pastoral areas,
• Co-develop and co-promote Pastoral Community of Practice (PCoPs) ToR /Framework, governance structure and charter as well as human center design,
• Provide capacity building to the stakeholders to improve their understanding of water monitoring, pasture condition assessment, and climate risk and vulnerability assessment,
• Provide support the dissemination of project results through available stakeholder platforms including presentations and reports,
• Review and Evaluate Scientific Literature: Conduct thorough and critical assessments of peer-reviewed scientific papers to determine their relevance and applicability to database,
• Work with farmers and pastoralists, their representatives, and other key stakeholders to improve uptake of products/ technologies/innovations developed under this program,
• Actively takes part in planning, coordination, and implementation of project activities for multiple projects or for a moderately complex project,
• Contributes to resource mobilization through significant input to proposal development,
• Leads the writing of project reports, blogs, and outputs of projects,
• Translates SMS and other agro-climate advisories and technical contents of project results and briefs into easily understandable languages or formats,
• Identifies, documents, and shares project experience, successes challenges and lessons learnt,
• Performs other duties as requested by the supervisors.

Minimum Requirements:

Education:

• Masters’ degree in Meteorology or Data Science from a highly recognized university
• Specialized knowledge of climate modeling with Computer science background

Experience:

• Five years of solid work experience in climate data analysis and climate database administration.
• Solid work experience in developing decision support tools preferably in the drylands
• Practical experience on analysis and processing multi-dimensional climate and geospatial datasets using advanced python packages
• Proficient in developing and utilizing sub seasonal-to-seasonal and seasonal climate forecasts
• Proven expertise in Machine Learning and AI applications to multidimensional climate data.
• Must have extensive work experience on development of scripts used to backup, schedule, monitor, manage and analyze the database.
• Experience in utilization of open-source geospatial analysis tools (QGIS, GEE, GDAL, etc…)
• Extensive experience in building custom ETL and design and implementing RESTful APIs
• Proficient in installing, administering, and populating open-source Python-based geospatial stacks and enterprise databases.
• Experience standing and maintaining a Geoserver instance
• Skilled in using Git for version control and Docker for containerization
• Adaptive project management is a plus.

Duty Station: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Position level: HG 14

Minimum Base salary:

• Birr 54,708 per month

Terms of appointment: Initial appointment is for one year renewable appointment based on performance and funding availability. The Alliance offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits in line with ILRI salary applicable for its National Staff. The Alliance is an international and equal opportunity organization and believes that diversity of its staff contributes to excellence. The ILRI campus is set in a secure, attractive campus with dining and sports facilities.

Applications: Applicants should provide a cover letter and curriculum vitae; names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to be included in the curriculum vitae. The position and reference number: CDS/ABC/35/24 should be clearly indicated in the subject line of the cover letter. All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ on or before 12 December 2024.

ABC/ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training).

To find more about the Alliance, visit our Website at https://alliancebioversityciat.org

Suitably qualified women are particularly encouraged to apply.

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