Data Engineering Consultant, Data and Analytics/DAPM, NYHQ, remote. Req# 585672

Remote | New York City

Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
Location: Remote | New York City
Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
Occupational Groups:
- Engineering
- Statistics
- Information Technology and Computer Science
Closing Date:

UNICEF requires the services of an external consultant to support the development and maintenance of GenAI (RAG and RPA) and data science driven spatial and other data discovery, harmonization, validation, curation and analytics in several areas: Wash Insecurity Analysis (WIA), automation of SDG Country Brief Production, automation of indicator data pipelines, and delivery of SDG abd CRAVE consultation results indexed and pushed through SOLR, made available for consultation, and deployed to multiple platforms including GeoSight and its Indicator Data Warehouse. The WIA work shall be performed iteratively in coordination with the Global WASH Cluster (GWC), PG-WASH and Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) team, maintaining the 2024 and 2026 focus countries, and delivering on the 2026 focus countries as they are determined. Working with the GWC, PG-WASH and JMP team and a regular part of virtual and physical team meetings, the consultant will also work to identify novel frontier data technology approaches as an innovation workstream. The consultancy shall also assist in further testing, validation, and refinement of AI-driven data workflow for the Data and Analytics Section of the Office of Strategy and Evidence, in Data Bricks, GeoRepo, GeoSight, Consult, Indicator Data Warahouse, and other platforms as required. Finally, the consultancy will support the Frontier Data Network as it continues to enable new data and technology capabilities at Frontier Data Nodes and with other UNICEF data science teams including leveraging big data assets with spatial analytics, machine learning, and other AI approaches.

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines fordeveloping countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

Consultancy: Data Engineering Consultancy

Duty Station: DAPM, Data & Analytics

Duration: 1 Feb 2026 – 31 Jan 2027

Home/ Office Based: Remote

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

The WIA work shall be performed iteratively in coordination with the Global WASH Cluster (GWC), PG-WASH and Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) team, maintaining the 2024 and 2026 focus countries, and delivering on the 2026 focus countries as they are determined. Working with the GWC, PG-WASH and JMP team and a regular part of virtual and physical team meetings, the consultant will also work to identify novel frontier data technology approaches as an innovation workstream.

The consultancy shall also assist in further testing, validation, and refinement of AI-driven data workflow for the Data and Analytics Section of the Office of Strategy and Evidence, in Data Bricks, GeoRepo, GeoSight, Consult, Indicator Data Warahouse, and other platforms as required.

Finally, the consultancy will support the Frontier Data Network as it continues to enable new data and technology capabilities at Frontier Data Nodes and with other UNICEF data science teams including leveraging big data assets with spatial analytics, machine learning, and other AI approaches

Scope of Work

Support coordination with stakeholders (e.g., UNICEF staff, other agencies, national government, private sector partners) to identify relevant spatial and other data sources at subnational level for analytic needs, especially for WIA.
Working with WASH analysts and the Frontier Data and Technology Unit (FDTU), organize data in standardized SDMX-based data structures, maximizing reuse of available reference data standards.
Using GenAI, especially RAG and RPA, design and implement contextualized automated SDG country briefs, working with analysts to perform QA, and working with evaluation specialists to define and implement semi-automated QA frameworks]
Undertake data preparation, including data identification, data compilation from different sources, cleaning, standardization, and validation. Create as needed reusable scripts in Python to harmonize data from multiple sources into a common data structure, including sources from dynamic APIs, managing those scripts in UNICEF’s common analytics environment, Data Bricks and in its GitHub repository.
Store data in agreed upon data warehouse and spatial platforms (such as ArcGIS Online/Enterprise, Indicator Data Warehouse, GeoSight, GeoRepo) using scripts and available APIs.
Collaborate through the Frontier Data Network team with Frontier Data Nodes in Regional Offices, and other UNICEF data science teams (Giga, Supply Division, OoI) in supporting big data sources, new spatial analytics methods, new machine learning models, and other AI approaches
Document work and methodologies used, including the documentation of custom scripts, any harmonization strategy implemented, newly identified data sources, and any analytics, and data processing work.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables:

Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline

1. Maintain existing and identify additional relevant geospatial, indicator and other data sources at subnational level for WIA for existing 2024-2025 countries and new countries added in 2026

- Existing data sources for the WIA maintained and updated for current countries (Mali, El Salvador, Burkina Faso, Niger, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon)

- Data sources for new WIA countries idenfied and added to reach total of 25 countries agreed upon with donor (ECHO).

31 May 2026

2. Update, expand, and improve the management of the ETL (extract, transform, load) process for WIA and other analytics projects including structuring, cleaning, standardizing, and validating multiple sources into common data structures, including from dynamic APIs, and managing these scripts in UNICEF’s common analytics environment, Data Bricks and Github using automated scripts and RPA.

- Maintain existing SDMX data structures and create new data structures to hold new data sources for WIA countries, ACLED, JRC flood monitoring, and IDMC in the Indicator Data Warehouse, including Data Flows, Data Structure Definitions, and Code lists.

- Code reusable Python ETL Pipelines for data sources for the 25 countries agreed upon with donor (ECHO) and maintain the ACLED, IDMC and JRC flood monitoring

- Implement RPA to automate the listed pipelines

31 Jul 2026

3. Maintain, update and expand WIA and other data in the indicator data warehouse and geospatial platforms, including ArcGIS Online/Enterprise, Indicator Data Warehouse, GeoRepo, GeoSight, and powerBI using scripts and available APIs.

- WIA data stored in the Indicator Data Warehouse and made available to GeoSight and integrated with the Global WASH Cluster website

- SDG Country Profile reports generated and stored using OpenAI RAG systems

- SDG and CRAVE Indicator consultation data stored in the indicator data warehouse and made available to data.unicef.org

30 Sept 2026

4. Collaborate through the Frontier Data Network team with Frontier Data Nodes in Regional Offices, and other UNICEF data science teams (Giga, Supply Division, OoI) in supporting big data sources, new spatial analytics methods, new machine learning models, and other AI approaches, with one deliverable specifically focused on frontier data technology innovation for WIA.

- Novel data sources and methods used to enhance the WIA for one pilot country

- Two frontier data technology initiatives supported and documented, including data, models, code, methodology

30 March 2026

5. Deliver GenAI-driven SDG Country Profiles using Retrieval Augmented Generation supported by evaluation frameworks

- Semi-automated quality assurance over RAG-genrated SDG Country Profiles executed for all countries using human in the loop strategy

- Documentation on QA process used to enable repeatability

30 Nov 2026

6. Document code scripts, analytic methods, harmonization strategies, and newly identified data sources

- Documentation available on Data Bricks, GitHub, data.unicef.org

31 Jan 2027

Travel: WASH Insecurity Analysis conference; Frontier Data Technology Unit retrospective

Qualifications

Education:

University degree in CompSci, Software Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, Physics or a related field

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

5 years of experience working with data and analytics tools;
Proven experience in implementing ETL pipelines over heterogenous data using Python, R and SQL;
Experience discovering and harmonizing development data using scripted approaches for access with both file-based and API methods;
Experience using cloud-based analytics platforms and data and spatial data processing tools, e.g. Data Bricks, ArcGIS Desktop);
Experience building RAG systems for report generation.
Experience working with GenAI QA frameworks such as DeepEval
Experience using data science packages, e.g., Pandas, Numpy;
Experience wrangling UNICEF domain data and international development data is an asset;
Fluent in spoken and written English.
Additional official UN working languages are a plus

Requirements:

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and

- Upload copy of academic credentials

- Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :

- the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
- travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
- Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
- Indicate your availability

- Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.

- At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.

- Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

We do our best to provide you the most accurate info, but closing dates may be wrong on our site. Please check on the recruiting organization's page for the exact info. Candidates are responsible for complying with deadlines and are encouraged to submit applications well ahead.

Before applying, please make sure that you have read the requirements for the position and that you qualify.
Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.

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