Terms of Reference Junior Data Engineer
I. Position Information
Title: Junior Data Engineer UN Global Pulse Lab Kampala Type of contract: Individual Consultant/Contractor (IC) Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Starting Date: March, 2015
Duration of the assignment: 6 months Deadline: February 23, 2015
II. Background and rationale
Global Pulse is an innovation initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General, established to harness today’s new world of digital data and real-time analytics to gain a better understanding of changes in human well-being. Global Pulse aims to contribute a future in which access to better information sooner makes it possible to keep international development on track, protect the world's most vulnerable populations, and strengthen resilience to global shocks. Global Pulse is being implemented as a global network of Pulse Labs, bringing together expertise from UN agencies, governments, academia, and the private sector to research, develop, test and share tools and approaches for harnessing real-time data for more effective and efficient policy action. For more information on Global Pulse go to http://www.unglobalpulse.org.
Pulse Lab Kampala
United Nations Pulse Lab Kampala (PLK) (http://www.unglobalpulse.org/kampala) is an inter-agency initiative of the United Nations under the Office of the Resident Coordinator in Uganda that fully commenced operations in December 2013. The first of its kind in East Africa, PLK supports the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) by bringing together partners from academia and the private sector to collaboratively develop new approaches on data
innovation for sustainable development.
III. Description of the assignment
The Junior Data Engineer will be a part of a team that will focus on accessing and deriving insights from large data sets to solve problems.
He/she will support the team in the acquisition, analysis and visualization of data from a variety of sources in order to
i) Help understand emerging human vulnerabilities to socio-economic shocks,
ii) Detect and highlight patterns that could indicate how people are coping with emerging hardship, and
iii) Gather evidence of changes in behaviour and perception correlated with public sector policies and programmes. He/she will support specially the visualization of data on the research conducted by PLK.
IV. Methodology
Specifically, the Junior Data Engineer will:
- Interface application development using technologies such as HTML5, D3 and InfoVis - Data processing and statistical analysis with programming languages including Python - Deployment of applications on Linux servers
V. Deliverables
Specifically, the Junior Data Engineer will:
- Contribute to the efforts of the team in defining, designing and building projects harnessing data innovation to address global challenges;
- Help to develop interactive data visualisations for the web;
- Develop and use software tools to extract, process and analyze data sets from a variety of sources;
- Assist the team in the development of working prototypes and applications for the Pulse Library that will be used by UN agencies and partners;
VI. Duration
The Junior data Engineer is expected to work from beginning of March 02, 2015 to Aug 31, 2015
Deliverables / Outputs Estimated Duration to complete the assignment Target Due Dates Review and Approvals Required
Contribute to the efforts of the team in defining, designing and building projects harnessing data innovation to address global challenges;
TBD TBD Data Engineer/Data
Scientist
Develop interactive data visualisations for the web;
TBD TBD Data Engineer/Data
Develop and use software tools to extract, process and analyse data sets from a variety of sources
TBD TBD Data Engineer/Data
Scientist
Assist the team in the development of working prototypes and applications for the Pulse Library that will be used by UN agencies and partners
TBD TBD Data Engineer/Data
Scientist
WORKING ARRANGEMENTS Institutional Arrangement
With overall reporting to the Data Scientist and manager, he/she will work on day-to-day basis with the basis with the Data Engineer.
The consultant will report to the Manager on a regular basis on the progress but this will be done in line with the set deliverables of the assignment The consultant will liaise, interact, collaborate/meet staff and partners;
UNDP (GPL) will support the consultant in the following:
o Access to all past reports and data relevant to the assignment. These will include donor reports and project documents;
o Access to GPL and its infrastructure;
o Support and assistance to gain access to relevant stakeholders for consultations to the extent possible;
Duty Station
The duty station will be Kampala
Requirements for skills, competencies, education and experience Functional Competencies
Mathematical and statistical aptitude;
Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals; Generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations;
Demonstrates substantive and technical knowledge to meet responsibilities and post requirements with excellence;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities; Corporate competencies:
Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
Education
BSc in Computer Science, Electrical engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or related field. A combination of a first degree and relevant experience may be accepted;
Experience
Working knowledge of various programming languages and experience with software development. Experience with Python is an advantage.
At least 2 years of experience of web application development, preferably having worked on examples of interactive data visualisation.
Experience of writing software to process different types of data (e.g. numerical data, text, images or audio).
Experience of working with Linux servers. Excellent communication skills.
Familiarity with statistical programming and discrete mathematics.
Experience working with open source data processing frameworks desirable Core skills
Ability to conceptualize, plan and execute innovative ideas. Displays open, co-operative behavior with other team members;
Remains calm and in control, and good humoured even under pressure; Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view; Sets priorities, produces quality outputs,
Meets deadlines and manages time efficiently. Excellent oral and written skills.
Language Requirements
Fluency in English (oral and written)
PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS
Payment to the individual consultant will be made on a monthly basis upon satisfactory completion of assigned tasks
EVALUATION METHOD AND CRITERIA
The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
Highest Combined Score (based on the 70% technical offer and 30% price weight distribution) where the minimum passing scores of technical proposal is 70%.
Evaluation Criteria:
Technical Proposal (Maximum 70 points): Relevance of education – 5 points;
Interpretation of the assignment and methodology- 30 points Relevance of experience (professional/work experience)- 30 points
Financial Proposal (Maximum 30 points): To be computed as a ratio of the Proposal’s offer to the lowest price among the proposals received by UNDP.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE:
The consultant is required to submit an electronic application by directly uploading all their documentation in one single pdf on this website (https://jobs.undp.org/ ) no later than February 23, 2015. For clarifications, please send your email to; [email protected] with copy to [email protected] and [email protected]. The application should include the following documents/information:
Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (see Annex II);
Updated Personal CV highlighting past experience in similar assignments and with 3 professional references with contact details (email and telephone);
Financial proposal (in template provided in Annex II) stating an all-inclusive fixed lump sum fee for this assignment in Ugandan Shillings, supported by a breakdown of costs. Such total lump sum price must include professional fee, and costs necessary to conduct the assignment such as communication costs, etc. The consultant will be paid against the completion of specific, measurable deliverables as identified in this TOR.
Annexes:
- Annex I: Individual Contractor General Terms and Conditions
- Annex II: Template to Confirmation of Interest and Availability and Submit the Financial Proposal
