Data Analyst, Multiple positions

Background Information – UNOPS 

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries to achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

UNOPS has operated as a self-financing entity within the UN system since 1994.  Throughout this time, UNOPS has successfully delivered services to other UN entities as well as a variety of partners. UNOPS has, over the years, undertaken the delivery of increasingly complex engagements such as project implementation services for large physical infrastructure projects, multifaceted public health projects, and highly complex procurement assignments.

UNOPS is navigating a period of transformational change internally across all areas of the organization. Together with the steadily increasing size of UNOPS portfolio, UNOPS leadership structures, management practices, oversight mechanisms, as well as UNOPS ability to collaborate and manage knowledge, are being reshaped and improved through this process. 

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

Process Innovation and Digitalisation Programme (PID) 

UNOPS is embarking on a Process Innovation and Digitalisation journey. The Programme aims to ensure UNOPS delivers the highest quality projects - sustainably, on time, and within budget - for partners and beneficiaries.  

The Programme is expected to last four (4) years. It will enhance UNOPS’ operational efficiency, effectiveness, and agility, overhauling processes and leveraging digital technologies and solutions. It will improve UNOPS’ collection and use of data, capacity for foresight, capacity for planning, knowledge management, and reporting. 

The Programme works closely with the UNOPS Information Technology Group (ITG) unit is focused on innovation and harnessing cutting-edge technology to deliver solutions to UNOPS that truly address business needs. UNOPS ITG is responsible for architecting, designing, delivering, and managing all UNOPS IT infrastructure and business applications. 

Role of the Data Analyst

UNOPS is looking for a Data Analyst to join the ITG Data team (IICA2) and be dedicated to the PID programme. The Data Analyst will build reports in SQL leveraging data in BigQuery, develop dashboards, programme management and reporting tools to support the successful planning and implementation of the PID programme. 

Ideal candidates are self-starters, who take initiative to improve PID data analysis and reporting and are able to demonstrate both technical expertise and business acumen. They won’t necessarily be experts in procurement, finance, HR or project management, but they have the ability to pick up a project in any of these fields and deliver accurate, cohesive analysis and data products.

They will also help to build data literacy in the organization by sharing their knowledge and expertise.

The key functions of the role include:

• Technical support

• Operations development

• Capability development

• Maintenance support

1. Technical support

• Assist with conducting analyses on complex and connected data, proposing and testing hypotheses, deriving statistics, trends and insights

• Conduct data quality analysis and testing of data sources and tools

2. Operations development

• Support the gathering and documentation of PID requirements and expectations, reporting requirements, design preferences, and quality criteria

• Provide analytical support to the supervisor in the development and implementation of BigQuery databases, tables and SQL queries to store, structure, compare and extract data, as well as exploiting other tools within Google Cloud Service as appropriate

• Recommend processes and tools to assure ongoing quality and integrity of data

• Support the design, development, testing, implementation and documentation of data tools, including dashboards and reports

  • Draft detailed concept designs and specifications for consultation and sign off, using a range of analysis and statistical techniques to provide insight into the functioning and management of a project or program

  • Develop, test and implement, including quality assurance of the resulting tools and underlying datasources

  • Present to PID stakeholders, revising and updating as necessary based on feedback from users and stakeholders

  • Document key decisions made in development and provide documentation to project stakeholders on how to use and maintain

• Liaise with ITG personnel to ensure all developed tools are:

  • compliant with UNOPS data security and governance policies

  • consistent with UNOPS ITG standardised approaches to developing SQL queries and nomenclature

  • professionally designed and implementing following standard UNOPS and/or project templates and branding guidance

  • implemented in such a way that the business unit retains ownership of dashboards and data sources at the end of the assignment

3. Capability development

• Support in the development and delivery of capability development programs and documentation for personnel and key users on data tools, including in their use and ongoing maintenance

• Support in the provision of internal training as required on skills and technologies within the scope of experience of the consultant, including on dashboard development

4. Maintenance support

• Assist with ongoing maintenance of data tools, including updating data sources, implementing improvements and providing other ad-hoc support as required
  
  

• Candidates with a high school or secondary school diploma (minimum requirement) should demonstrate a minimum 6 years of relevant work experience
• Candidates with a technical or professional diploma should demonstrate a minimum 4 years of relevant work experience
• Candidates with a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent  should demonstrate a minimum 2 years of relevant work experience
• Preferred academic qualifications and/or certifications should be in the field of Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Economics or equivalent

• A minimum of two years of professional experience in analysis and/or evaluation of business-related data and/or statistics is required.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience in SQL skills are required.

Desired Experience:

• Advanced knowledge of and experience using the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) (including Big Query) and advanced ANSI SQL skills are desirable.
• Experience in business statistics, data management, analysis, visualization and modelling is desirable, ideally with a focus on one or more of the functional areas for UNOPS (e.g. infrastructure, procurement, project management, human resources, financial management, and other management services)
• A high level of expertise in spreadsheet tools (e.g. Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel) is desirable.
• Experience with scripting languages (e.g. Python, Google Apps Script, Javascript) is desirable.
• Experience with artificial intelligence/machine learning methods and tools, particularly in the GCP environment is an asset.
• Experience in large-scale digital transformation would be an asset.

• Full working knowledge of English is essential.
• Knowledge of another official UNOPS language (French, Spanish) is an asset.

Contract type:  Individual Contractor Agreement - ICA
Contract level: International ICA1 - ICS8
Contract duration:  Open-ended, subject to organizational requirements, availability of funds and satisfactory performance

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes.

• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments.

• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures,  languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 

• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities.

• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process.  If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

Terms and Conditions 

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 

• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. For more information on a retainer contract here.

• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda.

• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.