Climate Impacts and Solutions Data Scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International

The Alliance of Bioversity International is seeking a Climate Impacts and Solutions Data Scientist in Nairobi, Kenya. The role focuses on modeling climate impacts on agriculture, synthesizing evidence, and developing data solutions. Responsibilities include implementing analytical approaches, contributing to data products like the Adaptation Atlas, and training junior staff. The position emphasizes automation, documentation, and collaboration on technical reports and tools to support climate adaptation in food systems.
Job Description

The organization

The Alliance of Bioversity International (www.bioversityinternational.org) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) (www.ciat.cgiar.org) delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstream innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people in a climate crisis.

The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.

About the position

The Alliance’s Climate Action Research Lever seeks to recruit a Climate Impacts and Solutions Data Scientist, who has a background, experience, and interest in topics related to climate impacts and adaptation, with special emphasis on modelling, data science, and evidence synthesis. This position will design, implement, and contribute to activities estimating potential losses in crop and livestock systems due to climate change and potential solutions for a variety of projects in Africa, Latin America, and more. Significant effort will be directed towards synthesizing evidence, through formal meta-analysis and applying this information to answer new questions. The scientist will carry out complex technical tasks that involve automation and coding (through R and/or Python), taking them from conceptualization through to analysis, quality control, write-up and publication. An important part of this position is the ability to automate work end-to-end, in an organized and scalable manner, and with appropriate documentation, metadata, and tutorials. The position will contribute to data projects including Agriculture Adaptation Atlas (http://adaptationatlas.cgiar.org) and Evidence for Resilient Agriculture (http://era.ccafs.cgiar.org). The scientist will help oversee work of junior staff. The data scientist will also support the development of technical reports, scientific writing, open and replicable packages, tools or similar, and partner training.

Main responsibilities
• Implement and document analytical and modeling approaches to estimate losses in crop and livestock systems due to climate change.
• Develop estimates of loss reduction due to the implementation of adaptation solutions in crop and livestock systems through a combination of evidence/data synthesis, analysis, and modeling.
• Contribute to the expansion and analysis of key data products such as the Adaptation Atlas and ERA and others.
• Develop and document replicable analytical pipelines in R/Python and make them available through libraries/packages as needed.
• Co-design and co-create training materials for data science workflows, use of tools.
• Contribute to the organization, documentation, and publication of software tools, functions, work flows etc.
• Leverage Digital Inclusion and Climate Action team capacities to implement to implement training workshops to colleagues and project partners.
• Lead technical discussions with partners on data acquisition, problem understanding, research objectives, and predictive approaches to be used.
• Contribute to the reporting, scientific paper writing, with effective communication to partners.

Requirements

Education and requirements
• Professional with PhD in statistics, data science, agronomy, geography, ecology, or related areas, with more than three years of experience. Candidates with MSc and substantive subject-matter and technical expertise are also encouraged to apply.
• High proficiency with R and/or Python, with specific expertise on meta-analysis, use of geospatial data, modeling (crop and/or livestock systems responses to climate), and large databases and datasets
• Experience in cloud computing including with Google Cloud/Google Earth Engine and AWS
• Experience in using modelling approaches and machine learning.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Knowledge and interest in livestock production systems is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate multi-disciplinary efforts, mentor junior staff, and in general work with stakeholders (both internally and externally)
• Experience working in an international context and interacting with stakeholders across various countries in Latin America and Africa.
• Fluent in English required. French or Spanish a plus
• Experience in analysis of climate data and remote sensing data is a plus.

Terms of employment

This is an international recruited position, and will be based in Nairobi, Kenya. The initial contract will be for up to two (2) years, subject to a probation period of six (6) months and is renewable depending on performance and availability of resources. This position is graded at a level BG10 in a scale of 14 levels being BG14 the highest level.

The Alliance Bioversity-CIAT offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits. We are an equal opportunity employer, and strive for gender, diversity and inclusion in our staff, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic.

Applications

Applicants are invited to visit (https://alliancebioversityciat.org/careers) to get full details of the position and to submit their applications. Applications MUST include reference Ref: 102934 Climate Impacts and Solutions Data Scientist as the position applied for. Application and CV should be saved as one document using the candidate’s last name, first name for ease of sorting.

Note: The Alliance does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training). The Alliance also does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.

Applications closing date: 7th April 2023

Please note that email applications will not be considered.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

We invite you to learn more about us at:http://alliancebioversityciat.org

Interested applicants can apply via this link.