Technical Associate – Environmental (GIS and Coding) - Retainer

The UNOPS Global Portfolios Office (GPO) brings together diverse expertise to help partners deliver impact worldwide. With hubs in New York, Geneva, and Vienna, and expert teams operating globally, GPO leads multi-regional initiatives that advance sustainable development, climate action, and peacebuilding - including in some of the world’s most challenging environments.

By leveraging our collective expertise and global networks, GPO supports UNOPS’ strategic priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals across more than 130 countries. We work closely with major global partners - including governments, international financial institutions, and UN agencies - to deliver a wide range of services, such as project management, fund management, hosting services, and HR support.

Our thematic focus spans climate action and energy, health, peace and security, sustainable development, and humanitarian action, supporting high-impact initiatives across critical global priorities.

UNOPS Development and Special Initiatives team works with UN partners and Member States. This portfolio offers support for various initiatives and priorities of the UN Secretary-General in pursuit of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. Additionally, it helps the UN Secretariat in implementing global programs in areas such as political affairs, climate, counterterrorism and peacebuilding, among others.

UNOPS has signed an agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to implement the project activities for the Global Programme on Nature for Development. 

UNDP’s Global Programme on Nature for Development brings together three different initiatives -- the Equator Initiative, Learning for Nature, and the National Biodiversity Initiative under one program in order to identify, foster, showcase and celebrate nature-based solutions that help achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at local, national, and international levels. The work of the Global Programme on Nature for Development contributes to UNDP's Strategic Plan 2026-2029 by charting sustainable development pathways through the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystems; and by promoting inclusive and effective democratic governance in the area of natural resources. 

The Equator Initiative brings together the United Nations, governments, civil society, businesses and grassroots organizations to recognize and advance local sustainable development solutions for people, nature and resilient communities. The Equator Initiative seeks to: 

• Recognize the success of local and indigenous initiatives;

• Create opportunities and platforms to share knowledge and good practice;

• Inform policy to foster an enabling environment for local and indigenous community action; and

• Develop the capacity of indigenous peoples and local communities to scale-up their impact. 

The National Biodiversity Initiative supports countries to manage their ecosystems and biodiversity in order to improve national planning and governance of biodiversity, ecosystems, and development, and to promote resilience for sustainable development. The National Biodiversity Initiative works in three project areas: National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) Support, National Reporting, and Capacity Building. The use of spatial data for spatial planning is a cross-cutting theme across these project areas, including work through our flagship platform UN Biodiversity Lab, created in partnership with the UN Environment Programme and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.  

Knowledge Sharing is a main goal of the Equator Initiative, Learning for Nature and the National Biodiversity Initiative. The Equator Initiative has a large series of research papers, books, and other publications focusing on local approaches to poverty reduction and conservation, informed by community-based initiatives.180 case studies in over 30 languages have documented the Equator Prize winners’ innovative practices that deliver the win-win-win solutions that ensure social, economic, and environmental sustainability. The National Biodiversity Initiative shares knowledge on the role of spatial data in biodiversity planning, policymaking, and reporting through blogs, case studies, and story maps.   

Learning for Nature is a capacity-building offer provided by the Global Programme on Nature for Development, cutting across the three areas of work. This program connects biodiversity policymakers, change-makers, and on-the-ground subject matter experts to facilitate the delivery of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Access to the global multi-stakeholder networks mobilized by the Equator Initiative, Learning for Nature, and the National Biodiversity Initiative allows Learning for Nature to circulate knowledge while promoting best practices. Building on our learnings on the ground, Learning for Nature seeks synergies, builds linkages, and engages thousands of course participants through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), webinars, self-paced e-learning modules, and private training courses.  

For further information please go to:

www.equatorinitiative.org, www.nbsapforum.net, www.learningfornature.org, www.unbiodiversitylab.org

This is a position to support a project which UNOPS is implementing for the United Nations Development Programme. The incumbent of this position will be personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility. 

UNOPS is seeking the support of a Technical Senior Assistant – Environmental (GIS and Coding) to advance the Global Programme on Nature for Development’s work to support governments to use spatial data and systematic conservation planning in their efforts to plan, implement, monitor, and report on their commitments to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the other Rio Conventions, and the nature-based elements of the UN 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. 

This is a UNOPS position, and the incumbent will be contracted by and remain under the administrative responsibility of UNOPS. The incumbent will report to the Manager of the Global Programme on Nature for Development.

The goal of the assignment is to provide GIS and coding support for the UN Biodiversity Lab (UNBL) and a variety of projects and initiatives that bring together the world’s governments, UN agencies, and leading scientists to develop and implement approaches around the globe to identify Essential Life Support Areas (ELSAs) where nature-based actions to protect, manage, or restore biodiversity and ecosystems can more effectively and efficiently meet national commitments and priorities for biodiversity, climate, and sustainable development.

Under the supervision of the Senior Technical Manager the duties and responsibilities include: 

Data Management 

• Assist the project team to review data on UN Biodiversity Lab against UNBL data standards.

• Assist the project team to maintain an inventory of current data that is available on the UN Biodiversity Lab platform.

• Assist the project team to determine how frequently each dataset needs to be updated and develop/implement a timeline for data updates.

• Support the development of any necessary data sharing agreements with data providers.

• Assist in gathering, processing, and uploading datasets, building data pipelines, or correcting data access parameters and configurations (WMS, WFS, GEE, ESRI, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, Vector Tiling services etc), into the UN Biodiversity Lab platform, including managing correct available metadata.

• Assist with GIS processing needed to render data into the formats required by the UN Biodiversity Lab platform. These may include, but are not limited to, data projection issues, data cleaning issues, and web optimization of data.

• Assist the project team in the update and creation of thematic data collections on UNBL.

• Assist the project team to carry out geoprocessing and analyses of data layers to create data stacks needed for analyses to identify ELSAs, combining global and national data as relevant.

• Assist the project team to create bespoke ELSA Tools in countries’ secure workspaces on the UN Biodiversity Lab and upload data for ELSA countries or directly connect via API to national data.

• Assist the developers with beta testing of new UN Biodiversity Lab features and functions, including identifying and testing bug fixes.

• Assist the project team in monitoring requests from UN Biodiversity Lab users, including general user inquiries as well as data, success stories and feedback submission forms.

• Assist with UN Biodiversity Lab communications efforts, including drafting user stories and impact information. 

• Assist the spatial planner in the development of scripts and general code.

• Work in and maintain various git (GitHub) repositories.

• Support development of the elsaR package (R language familiarity) and related downstream implementation pipelines.

• Assist in the writing, maintenance, updating, and translation of UNBL online guidance materials in the five UNBL languages using MK Docs.

Administrative Support 

• Attend team meetings, including across the full UNBL partnership, as necessary via Zoom or other online services.

• Provide general administrative support including taking meeting minutes, setting up meetings, etc.

• Coordinate translations of UNBL-related materials with relevant team members.

• Coordinate with the web development team to manage tasks necessary for implementing minor website updates and fixing bugs.

Required

• Advanced university degree (master's or equivalent) preferably in environmental management/sciences, Geography, GIS, remote sensing, computer science, or research around topics prioritized by the Global Programme on Nature for Development with no relevant experience is desirable; OR

• First-level university degree (undergraduate, bachelor, or equivalent), preferably in environmental management/sciences, Geography, GIS, remote sensing, computer science, or research around topics prioritized by the Global Programme on Nature for Development with two (2) years of relevant experience, will be considered an asset; OR

• Secondary school diploma (or high school equivalent) and six (6) years of relevant experience are required.

Required:

• Relevant experience is defined as  work experience in at least one of the following topics at a conceptual and/or practical level: international environmental policy, natural resource management, biodiversity/climate change; spatial planning; GIS analyses; remote sensing; computer science. 

Desired:

• Experience with open-source GIS and spatial database software, including, PostgresSQL/PostGIS, R and R-shiny, GDAL/OGR, Python, Google Earth Engine, and QGIS.

• Experience using version control and git (GitHub). 

• Familiarity with Linux/Unix based operating systems and/or command line interfaces.

• Familiarity with remote work and securely connecting to remote services via standard protocols.

• Experience engaging with the UN and government.

• Experience with applied science, particularly around using spatial data and planning for conservation action.

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