Digital Information Specialists

FAO is seeking Digital Information Specialists to support the development and application of digital solutions, information systems, data-driven tools, and semantic technologies. Assignments may be global, regional, or country-level and may be home-based with travel as required.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of web-based applications and digital platforms supporting FAO knowledge and information products.
• Support enhancement and operation of FAO AGRIS and related systems.
• Develop system integrations, APIs, and data exchange mechanisms.
• Support implementation of AGROVOC and other knowledge organization systems.
• Develop metadata management, indexing, search, and retrieval solutions.
• Design data processing workflows and ingestion pipelines, including quality-control procedures.
• Support database, repository, and cloud infrastructure administration and optimization.
• Develop technical documentation, specifications, and operational procedures.
• Collaborate with IT, information management, semantic, and data analytics teams.
• Provide technical support, troubleshooting, and maintenance.
• Contribute to software engineering, cybersecurity, accessibility, and performance best practices.
• Participate in testing, release management, and continuous improvement.
• Develop and improve information management policies, standards, and guidelines.
• Support organization and dissemination of agricultural information resources.
• Develop metadata standards, application profiles, and documentation.
• Support metadata creation, curation, validation, and quality assurance.
• Contribute to FAO AGRIS metadata workflows and processes.
• Support information quality frameworks and data stewardship practices.
• Coordinate information exchange with internal and external partners.
• Develop training and guidance materials.
• Conduct information audits and gap analyses.
• Contribute to information architecture and metadata models.
• Monitor developments in information management standards.
• Prepare technical reports and knowledge products.
• Provide technical advice and capacity development support.
• Develop and maintain AGROVOC and other knowledge organization systems.
• Design controlled vocabularies, ontologies, taxonomies, and semantic models.
• Support semantic interoperability frameworks and data integration.
• Develop mappings and alignments between vocabularies and metadata standards.
• Manage linked data publication and semantic resources.
• Support knowledge graph development and semantic integration.
• Conduct semantic modelling, concept analysis, and terminology management.
• Support metadata harmonization and enrichment.
• Support multilingual terminology systems.
• Develop documentation, guidelines, and training materials.
• Collaborate with IT and data specialists on semantic integration.
• Monitor semantic web standards and technologies.
• Provide technical advice and capacity development support.
• Collect, process, validate, and analyse data from multiple sources.
• Develop analytical datasets, pipelines, and reporting workflows.
• Conduct data quality assessments and validation.
• Design dashboards, reports, and visualizations.
• Analyse trends, patterns, and indicators.
• Support monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects.
• Develop indicators and performance frameworks.
• Conduct statistical and predictive analyses.
• Support analysis of FAO AGRIS data and usage statistics.
• Analyse user engagement and digital platform performance.
• Collaborate with IT, information management, and semantic teams.
• Prepare analytical reports and documentation.
• Support data governance and quality practices.

Requirements

• For Consultants: Advanced university degree from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in information science, computer science, data science, agriculture, engineering, social sciences, economics, etc.
• Consultants with a bachelor's degree need two additional years of relevant professional experience.
• For PSA.SBS: University degree (or technical degree/certificate) from an institution recognized by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO in information science, computer science, data science, agriculture, engineering, social sciences, economics.
• At least one (1) year of relevant professional experience in one or more of the following areas: information technology, information management, semantic technologies, data analytics, digital solutions, or related disciplines.
• Working knowledge of English.
• Experience with search and indexing technologies (e.g. Elasticsearch, Solr), NoSQL and document databases (e.g. MongoDB).
• Experience with object storage solutions (e.g. MinIO, S3-compatible storage).
• Experience with REST APIs and microservice architectures.
• Experience with semantic technologies, RDF, SKOS, SPARQL and AGROVOC-related implementations.
• Experience with containerization and cloud-native environments.
• Experience developing web applications using modern frontend and backend frameworks.
• Knowledge of metadata standards and schemas (e.g. Dublin Core, AGRIS AP, DCAT, MODS) and with bibliographic and repository management systems.
• Experience with metadata quality assessment and curation.
• Knowledge of open data and FAIR principles.
• Experience supporting scholarly communication, digital repositories or agricultural information systems.
• Familiarity with AGROVOC and controlled vocabularies.
• Experience working with multilingual information resources.
• Understanding of interoperability standards and information exchange protocols.
• Knowledge of semantic web standards and technologies, including RDF, RDFS, OWL, SKOS, SPARQL and Linked Open Data principles.
• Experience in thesaurus, taxonomy and ontology development and management.
• Experience with AGROVOC or other domain-specific knowledge organization systems.
• Experience with semantic interoperability, vocabulary alignment and metadata harmonization.
• Experience with knowledge graph development and semantic data integration.
• Experience with terminology management and multilingual vocabularies.
• Experience using semantic management platforms and tools such as PoolParty, Skosmos, VocBench, Protégé, GraphDB or similar technologies.
• Familiarity with metadata standards and information management frameworks used in research, agriculture, food systems or international organizations.
• Experience with data analysis, statistical methods and reporting.
• Experience with data visualization and business intelligence tools (e.g. Power BI, Tableau, Kibana or similar).
• Experience with Python, R or other analytical programming languages.
• Experience with data cleaning, transformation and quality assurance processes.
• Experience with large-scale datasets, metadata repositories or research information systems.
• Familiarity with open data standards, FAIR principles and data governance frameworks.
• Experience working with agricultural, scientific, bibliographic or knowledge-management datasets is considered an asset.
• Knowledge of semantic technologies and linked data concepts is desirable.
• Experience with web and digital analytics platforms, including Google Analytics 4 (GA4), for monitoring user behaviour, content performance, audience engagement and digital service usage.
• Experience analysing website traffic, user journeys, search behaviour, acquisition channels and engagement metrics to support evidence-based decision-making.
• Experience designing and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) and dashboards for digital products, knowledge platforms and information services.
• Familiarity with event-based analytics, tagging strategies and data visualization tools for reporting and performance monitoring.
• Knowledge of other FA language will be considered an asset.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in multicultural and multidisciplinary environments.
• Communication skills, including ability to present technical information clearly in English.
• Ability to manage priorities and deliver quality results under time constraints.
• Adherence to FAO Values of Commitment to FAO, Respect for All and Integrity and Transparency.

Skills

• Information Science
• Computer Science
• Data Science
• Information Technology
• Information Management
• Semantic Technologies
• Data Analytics
• Digital Solutions Implementation
• Search and Indexing Technologies
• ElasticSearch
• SOLR
• NoSQL Databases
• MongoDB
• Object storage systems
• MinIO
• S3-compatible Storage
• REST APIs
• Microservices Architecture
• Containerization Technologies
• Cloud-native environments
• Web Application Development
• Web Front-End Frameworks
• Backend Frameworks
• Metadata Standards
• DublinCore
• AGRIS AP
• DCAT
• MODS
• Bibliographic Management
• Repository Management
• Metadata Quality Assurance
• Metadata Curation
• Open Data Principles
• FAIR Principles
• Scholarly Communication Support
• Digital Repositories
• Agricultural Information Systems
• Controlled Vocabularies
• Multilingual Information Resources
• Interoperability Standards
• Information Exchange Protocols
• Semantic Web Standards
• RDF
• SKOS
• SPARQL
• AGROVOC
• Thesaurus Development
• Taxonomy Development
• Ontology development
• Systems Interoperability
• Vocabulary Alignment
• Metadata Harmonization
• Knowledge Graph Development
• Semantic Data Integration
• Terminology Management
• Semantic Management Platforms
• PoolParty
• Skosmos
• VocBench
• Protégé
• GraphDB
• Data Analysis
• Statistical Methods
• Reporting
• Data Visualization
• Power BI
• Tableau
• Kibana
• Python
• Data Cleaning
• Data Transformation
• Quality Assurance
• Use of Large-scale Datasets
• Metadata Repositories
• Research Information Systems
• Data Governance
• Web analytics
• Google Analytics
• User Behaviour Analysis
• Content Performance Metrics
• Audience Engagement Monitoring
• Digital Service Usage Analysis
• KPI Design
• Dashboard Monitoring
• Event-based Analytics
• Tagging Strategies

Languages

English