Head of Experimentation, Accelerator Lab, UNDP Kazakhstan

Background

 

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

 

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

 

UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with a broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries and territories, UNDP helps nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and the planet. In Kazakhstan, the office’s focus is on sustaining the country’s growth trajectory by diversifying the economy, modernizing institutions, reducing inequalities, and sustainably managing natural resources.

UNDP has begun incubating a number of strategic initiatives aimed at ensuring UNDP is ‘fit for purpose’ to deliver a new generation of solutions in line with the challenges the world faces. One such key strategic initiative is the UNDP Accelerator Lab Network which operates as part of UNDP’s sustainable development offering.

The UNDP Accelerator Labs is the world’s largest and fastest learning network on wicked sustainable development challenges. Co-built as a joint venture with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany and the Qatar Fund for Development, the Network comprises 91 Lab teams covering 115 countries and taps into local innovations to create actionable insights and reimagine sustainable development for the 21st century.

Duties and Responsibilities

 

Experiment portfolio design

• Works with UNDP and partners in mapping the context and nature of development challenges, with a particular focus on understanding systemic issues beyond traditional silos and classifications and identifying drivers of change, and levers for intervention
• Mapping systems and assets, identifying levers and logic for intervention, building hypotheses of change that are a fit to the system level challenges identified
• Identify logic against which to asses fit and coherence of the individual portfolios with the frontier challenges on which they are meant to generate learning
• Together with UNDP and development partners, coordinate portfolios of experiments to target multiple domains of complex problems.

Management of tests and experiments for sustainable development challenges

• Collaborate with UNDP colleagues and stakeholders on the design of experiments across to validate the hypotheses and test the effectiveness of identified prototypes, including (but not limit to) defining variables, formulating hypotheses, and coordinating experimental protocols
• Develop a framework to capture the learning from the experiments in such a way that it favours critical reflection and rapid adaptation over static reporting
• Provide technical guidance for experiment design, roll-out and validation based on the experiment conditions, resources available, and requirements
• Proactively manage risks within experiments including those related to ethics and privacy
• Examine the results from the testing of prototypes and translate them into proposals informing programmatic decisions on next steps and implications for improvement, spin offs and scaling-up, where warrented.

Working out Loud

• Proactively use blog and social media to share findings from the experiments and portfolio implementation
• Help UNDP and partners disseminate insights from Accelerator lab experiments via social media platforms as a way to regularly reflect and engage with external audiences.
• Liaise with UNDP’s global Accelerator Lab network and share learnings and insights from the country-specific experience
• Jointly with the CO, support lab partners to develop an emerging pipeline of new initiatives, support other activities related to the design and operation of the Lab
• Design and deliver engaging and meaningful methods for reflection on learning from experiments
• Proactively use blog posts and social media to share insights, attract partners and help position Accelerator Lab at the forefront of the exploration of new trends.
• Lead other activities related to the design and operations of the Accelerator Lab

Organizational learning and interface with the core business of UNDP

• Help embed a portfolio logic in clients’ work including the existing UNDP Country Programme (as determined and agreed with the senior management)
• Working with clients to encourage reflection and capturing of insights from individual experiments, as they related to the overall portfolio logic
• Work together with your Accelerator Lab colleagues and experts to codify and advance the Accelerator Lab practice and portfolio design in particular.
• Provide technical consultation and training for national partners and the CO through various phases including asset mapping, developing a strategic portfolio logic, experiment design, prototype testing, and evaluation;
• Design and deliver engaging and meaningful methods for reflection on learning from experiments
• Lead other activities related to the design and operations of the Accelerator Lab
• Provide contribute to CO resource mobilization strategy
• Any other related responsibilities as requested by the Senior Management.

Institutional Arrangement

Head of Experimentation reports to the Deputy Resident Representative and works in close collaboration with the CO  programme, operations and projects teams.

Competencies

Core
Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline
Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements 
Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback
Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible 
Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident
Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships
Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination 

 

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Digital & Innovation. Data analysis: Ability to extract, analyse and visualizedata (including Real-Time Data) to form meaningful insights and aid effective decision making.

Digital & Innovation. Innovation ecosystem curation: Ability to identify key players in an ecosystem, engage with them and mobilise them to build a community and over time a movement around a common mission that can bring about changes at the system level. Ability to give sense of purpose and build trust, develop programmes of activities and platforms to build and strengthen relationships.

Digital & Innovation. Collective Intelligence Design: 

Business Direction and Strategy. System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system. 

Partnership management. Relationship management: Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding.
 

Required Skills and Experience

 

Education:

• Master’s degree in Social sciences, Data science, Statistics, Physics, Computer Science, Business Intelligence, Engineering, or related field.

  OR 

  Bachelor’s degree in Social sciences, Data science, Statistics, Physics, Computer Science, Business Intelligence, or related field with minimum of 2 years of additional work experience would be considered in lieu of Master’s degree 

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years of professional experience (with Master’s Degree) or 4 years (with Bachelor’s Degree) in development programming or policy; social innovation; partnership building; engagement (public and private sector) and/or resource mobilization; management consulting.

Required skills:

• Professional experience in development programming or policy, or social innovation, or management consultancy; 

• Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Power Point, Word, Excel, and Outlook; ability to learn new analytical tools;

• Demonstrated capacity in data analysis and visualization. 

Desired skills:

• Proven professional knowledge and experience in social innovation approaches such as Systems Thinking, Behavioral Insights, Qualitative and Quantitative User Research, Co-creation, Prototyping, Lean Startup, Design Thinking, Data Empowerment, and Collective Intelligence 
• Experience of working in UN system 
• Graphic design skills

Required Language(s): Fluency in English, Kazakh and/or Russian 

 

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