Data Scientist - Associate (SC6) / Assistant Level (SC5)

The Data Scientist will support AI initiatives at WFP's MENAEE Regional Office by identifying, training, and optimizing AI models, performing exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, and natural language processing tasks. The role involves collaboration, documentation, and contributing to the organization's data science knowledge base.

Responsibilities

• Identify state of the art AI models that fit the use cases at hand.
• Train/retrain AI models with relevant annotated datasets.
• Assess model performance, identify areas of improvement, and fine-tune hyperparameters to optimize the models using techniques like grid search or Bayesian optimization.
• Perform exploratory data analysis (EDA) to gain insights into the data, identify patterns, correlations, and outliers using visualizations and statistical techniques.
• Create new features from existing data to improve machine learning model performance including feature extraction, transformation, and selection.
• Work on natural language processing (NLP) tasks such as sentiment analysis, text classification, or named entity recognition using NLP libraries like NLTK, SpaCy, or Transformers.
• Collaborate with team members, document work, and maintain a clear and organized record of analysis, code, and results.
• Contribute to the organization's knowledge base or data science repository.

Requirements

• University degree in Computer Science, AI, or Data Science.
• Two to Three years of relevant experience.
• Working knowledge of AWS is considered an advantage.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or R.
• Solid understanding of statistics including hypothesis testing, regression analysis, probability distributions, and statistical modeling techniques.
• Solid understanding of machine learning algorithms and techniques such as supervised and unsupervised learning, feature engineering, model evaluation, and model selection.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills including drafting, formulation, and reporting.
• Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners including grassroots community members, religious and youth organizations, and authorities at different levels.
• Familiarity with tools and approaches of communications for development.
• Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment.
• Ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel.
• Self-motivated with ability to work on MVPs in an agile environment and meet tight deadlines.
• Sound security awareness.
• Affinity with or interest in leveraging AI in humanitarian domain volunteerism as an enabler for durable development and the UN System.
• Proficiency in English (read, write, speak).

Skills

• Python Programming
• R Programming
• AWS
• Statistical Modelling
• Hypothesis testing
• Regression Analysis
• Probability distributions
• Machine learning algorithms
• Supervised learning
• Unsupervised learning
• Feature Engineering
• Model evaluation
• Model Selection
• Exploratory Data Analysis
• Natural Language Processing
• Data Science Documentation
• Agile Methodologies
• Security Awareness
• Communication for Development

Languages

English