Research Management Coordinator - Spatial Analyst

•  27 Apr 2022
•  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
•  Full-time
•  The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

Apply Now

The Position: The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) seeks to recruit a Research Management Coordinator/Spatial Analyst who will provide support to the Multifunctional Landscapes Lever of the Alliance in Ethiopia and beyond for the development of decision support tools, dashboards, and data analytics etc. components associated with various projects. She/he will also coordinate various Alliance Ethiopia projects and national initiatives associated with data, analytics, DSSs and dissemination channels. She/he will be a member of the Alliance which is based at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) campus in Addis Ababa.

General: The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) hereafter Alliance delivers research-based solutions that address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. The Alliance focuses on the nexus of agriculture, nutrition and environment. We work with local, national, and multinational partners across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and with the public and private sectors and civil society. With novel partnerships, the Alliance generates evidence and mainstreams innovations to transform food systems and landscapes so that they sustain the planet, drive prosperity, and nourish people. The Alliance is organized into six key levers: 1) Food environment and consumer behavior - reshaping the food environment and consumer behavior toward healthy and sustainable diets; 2) Multifunctional landscapes - fostering innovation for environmental health and productive landscapes to improve livelihoods; 3) Climate action - mainstreaming climate action in the food system to reduce risks; 4) Biodiversity for food and agriculture - making agricultural and tree diversity available and safeguarding it for the diverse needs of food system actors; 5) Digital inclusion - promoting inclusion in the digital agriculture revolution for equitable benefits; and 6) Crops for nutrition and health - putting nutrition and health at the heart of crop improvement to address the triple burden of malnutrition. The candidate will provide technical support to the Multifunctional landscapes lever in Ethiopia, more specifically on the coordination and management of projects linked with database and analytics systems to support the agricultural transformation effort of the country. The candidate will also support the development of DSSs aimed to address agricultural bottlenecks in developing countries. She/he will liaison with national and international partners to inventory and map efforts related to ‘digital solution’ in the country to design modality for integration and harmonization. She/he will also support efforts associated with establishment of a web-based mapping applications in support of land restoration, climate smart agriculture, fertilizer recommendation, and disease surveillance works in Ethiopia with capabilities to develop link through API and an integrated dashboard. The major outputs will be effective coordination and harmonization of efforts related to digital solutions, technical support in database management, harmonization, analytics and development of decision support tools, advisory services, dashboards and automation of data collection and standardization guidelines. He/she will provide mentorship and capacity building to the Alliance team, its PhD/MSc students and national partners.

Key duties and responsibilities:

The Research Management Coordinator/Spatial Analyst will provide technical support in the design and development of frameworks, decision support tools and agroadvisory services. She/he will also coordinate and manage projects associated with development of digital solutions with an effort to develop harmonized systems. She/he will specifically provide the following specific functions:

• Coordinates project activities associated with Sustaining Soil Health Initiatives (SSHI, GIZ/Gates), Excellence in Agronomy (EiA, CGIAR Initiative), Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research in Africa (AICCRA), Sustainable Intensification of mixed highland systems (SI MHS, CGIAR Initiative) and other similar national efforts to co-identify entry points, co-define synergies, promote complementarities to generate products that are more than the sum of the parts;
• Works with multi-disciplinary team of landscape ecologists, climatologists, soil scientists, agronomists, hydrologists, gender specialists, social-scientists, market experts and others to support development and piloting of integrated decision support tools that can enhance date-drive and science-based decision making;
• Develops automated toolkit and workflows to improve and map existing data standards (dictionaries, ontologies, etc.) and enable standardized (FAIR) soils/agronomy and CSA data collection and assure quality;
• Provides scientific leadership in analysing and synthesizing soils/agronomy and CSA best-bet technologies, tools, and approaches in Ethiopia and beyond;
• Develop/refine existing scripts and tools for statistical analysis that can be used to augment, curate, aggregate and analyze climate, hydrologic and agronomic data;
• Supports modelling (crop, soil carbon, climate, hydrology, agronomy) activities by assuring that data is standardized to required specifications;
• Develops and strengthens partnership between the various bureaus and regional agricultural research institutions to enhance coordinated effort towards co-developing inclusive and farmer tailored technologies, recommendations and agroadvisory services;
• Works with the Alliance team and other project partners to develop location- and context-specific agroadvisory tool through bundling climate, fertilizer, agronomy, disease, and CSA related DSSs available within Alliance and/or other partners;
• Uses time serious satellite and climate data to assess trend and develop future scenarios with implications of environmental and socioeconomic domains (drought, soil moisture, flood, index-insurance, pest, and disease);
• Designs and develops DSS to facilitate matching land management options with landscape characteristics and design suitable land use and management plans;
• Publishes major scientific findings in journals, book chapters, blogs and other communication outlets and supports communication and compilation of knowledge through engaging experts and facilitating workshops;
• Contributes to the resource mobilization efforts of the Alliance and the CGIAR Research Programs through writing research proposals, building capacity in our partners, engaging with the University sector by co-supervising postgraduate students and creating harmonization with national and regional partners.

Minimum Requirements:

Academic and professional qualifications:

• PhD or MSc Degree in environmental science, data science, system research, GIS or related field with substantive coursework in geospatial analysis and modeling.
• In depth knowledge in a technical and specialized field of study.
• Understanding of theoretical concepts/principles and their context.

Work Experience:

• PhD with 3 years’ experience or Masters degree with 10 years’ experience.
• Experience with adapting agricultural practices to local biophysical and socio-economic conditions.
• Understand farm/plot and landscape level processes, their interactions, feedbacks and emergent behavior to customize complementary technologies. 
• Significant expertise in planning and executing ISFM agronomic and CSA practices at farm and landscape scales.
• Considerable practical agricultural experience, including experience on facilitating input evaluation, on-farm experimentation and working with farmers.
• Significant expertise on data analytics and modelling to execute the above and other activities

Additional skills:

• Experience in designing digital data collection using software such as Survey CTO or ODK, and database programming. 
• Skill in agricultural database design, development and management
• Experience in land use, agronomy, GHG emission, climate and/or hydrological modelling
• Demonstrated experience working with open source geospatial technology stacks, e.g. PostGIS, GeoServer and Mapserver
• Demonstrated experience in web mapping interface design and development using some of the collaborative tools and platforms: Git, GitHub, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AngularJS, JQuery, Leaflet and OpenLayers.
• High standards for code quality, maintainability, integrity, performance, and standards
• Excellent team player, self-motivated and independent problem solver.
• Good communication skills and command of English.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of the context of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia and agronomic knowledge of the major crops and cropping systems of Ethiopia and region.
• Stand-out examples of demonstrated modelling skills, systems/tools, dashboards, and the likes using programming languages.
• Demonstrated ability to write proposals and fund raise.

Duty Station:    Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Position level:   HG 17

Minimum Base salary:                

• Birr 114,379 per month (Negotiable depending on salary history of the candidate)

Terms of appointment: Initial appointment is for two years renewable appointment based on performance and funding availability. The Alliance offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits in line with ILRI salary applicable for its National Staff. The Alliance is an international and equal opportunity organization and believes that diversity of its staff contributes to excellence. The ILRI campus is set in a secure, attractive campus with dining and sports facilities.

How to Apply

CLICK HERE

Applications: Applicants should provide a cover letter and curriculum vitae; names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to be included in the curriculum vitae. The position and reference number: RMC/SA/C/07/22 should be clearly indicated in the subject line of the cover letter. All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ on or before 27 April 2021.

To find more about the Alliance, visit our Website at https://alliancebioversityciat.org

Suitably qualified women are particularly encouraged to apply.