Senior Data Officer

Job Posting Organization:
The position is located within the Office for Coordination and Shared Services (OCSS) which serves the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and Peace Operations (DPO) of the United Nations. The DPPA focuses on international peace and security" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #007bff !important;">security through five action areas: sound analysis and early warning, conflict prevention and peacemaking, political crisis management, sustaining peace, and enhancing partnerships. The DPO provides political and executive direction to UN peacekeeping operations globally, maintaining contact with the Security Council and other stakeholders. The organization aims to prevent and resolve conflicts through inclusive political solutions and integrates efforts across various entities in peacekeeping operations.

Job Overview:
The Senior Data Officer is tasked with establishing an effective data ecosystem for peacekeeping in alignment with the UN 2.0 Quintet of Change. This role involves leading initiatives to foster a data community and promote a culture of data-driven decision-making. The Senior Data Officer will oversee the development, management, and optimization of data architectures and services, ensuring compliance with data governance, protection, privacy, and security standards. As a change agent, the officer will drive large-scale data-related transformations, advocate for data sharing, and enhance the use of data in decision-making processes across the organization. The position also entails close collaboration with the DPPA-DPO Information Management Unit to support their objectives.

Duties and Responsibilities:
The Senior Data Officer will lead the establishment of the data ecosystem for peacekeeping, managing the change process and implementing data management and governance protocols. Responsibilities include designing standardized data collection frameworks, facilitating cross-mission collaboration, exploring and acquiring data sources, planning and directing the data management work program, promoting data usage for decision-making, developing procedures for data extraction and visualization, and collaborating with various stakeholders to improve data architectures. The officer will also manage updates to data governance and security requirements, ensuring that all activities align with organizational goals.

Required Qualifications:
Candidates must possess a comprehensive understanding of the data analysis life cycle, including data ingestion, wrangling, analysis, and visualization. Strong analytical skills are essential, particularly in handling both structured and unstructured datasets. The ability to communicate complex data topics effectively to clients, lead teams, and oversee quality assurance of team outputs is crucial. Candidates should demonstrate professionalism, teamwork, and strong planning and organizational skills, with a commitment to gender equality and diversity in the workplace.

Educational Background:
An advanced university degree (Master's or equivalent) in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, information or data management, information systems, or a related field is required. Alternatively, a first-level university degree combined with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.

Experience:
A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible experience in data management, integration, modeling, and optimization is required. Candidates should have experience managing teams and collaborating with stakeholders on data pipelines and analytics initiatives. Proven experience in driving large-scale data-related change processes and delivering big data use cases using Artificial Intelligence, particularly Machine Learning techniques, is desirable. Familiarity with self-service analytics applications such as Microsoft PowerBI, Tableau, or Qlik is also advantageous.

Languages:
Fluency in both oral and written English is required for this position. Knowledge of French or another official United Nations language is considered an advantage.

Additional Notes:
This position is temporarily available for six months and may be filled as a temporary assignment for current UN staff. The role is funded through Extra-budgetary funds and does not guarantee future employment. Candidates must adhere to the UN's standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity, and the organization is committed to diversity and inclusion. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. The UN does not charge any fees during the recruitment process.