WFP seeks candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our humanitarian principles

Selection of staff is made on a competitive basis, and we are committed to promoting diversity and gender balance

Job Title: Artificial Intelligence Lead

Type of Contract: Regular Consultant – CST Level II

Division: TECX

Duty Station: Remote working

Duration:11 months

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian agency, fighting hunger worldwide. WFP Technology Division is the digital business engine of the World Food Programme, providing our end-users with multi-pronged and resilient technical capabilities able to respond with the agility required in humanitarian operations. The Technology Division (TEC) continues to increase its activities to meet the constantly growing demand from the organization and implement the initiatives related to information and technology.

Recognizing the multi-faceted impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) activities on augmenting business processes, supporting improved insights for decision-making, and evidence generation across the organization, the role of Artificial Intelligence Lead aims to operationalize and achieve the goals of contributing to a more secure, governed, and ethical approach to the adoption of AI in WFP. Candidates understand the impact that can be brought into WFP by allowing data-driven and evidence-based decisions. The incumbent will manage the establishment of a strong foundation for AI which will include development of standards, upskilling and talent acquisition, establishment of processes and implementation of selected technology.

The Artificial Intelligence Lead reports directly to the Chief Data Officer, to direct the transformation of complex technical approaches into tactical steps for establishing a practice supporting the scaling of advanced analytics and AI. Working together with other teams in TEC and with business stakeholders, the incumbent will play a pivotal role in setting the direction for AI in WFP. Note: There is a potential that the candidate may need to change from Remote working arrangement to working in Rome, Italy during the contract duration

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Framework Development
  • Support the development of position papers on AI and contribute to policies on AI Governance: Establishment of principles, standards and guidelines for teams implementing AI projects.
  • Define the end-to-end processes (in consultation with business stakeholders) required to identify opportunities, evaluate and prioritize use cases, resource and launch pilot projects, and monitor results.
  • Partnership: Establish Partnerships with technology providers and coordinate with internal community of business teams to understand needs and support the development of a technical environment to support AI pilots.
  • Provide technical leadership in the development of AI Pilot business cases including benchmarking criteria for pilots and support development of pipeline from model to production.
• Data Scientists and Business teams:
  • Strategically guide Data Scientist team and Business teams to categorize ideas and formulate into AI Pilots.
  • Provide new insights from industry experience to assist Data Scientist team and Business teams on creating appropriate indicators to measure value.

• General
  • Work with stakeholders throughout the organization to identify opportunities for leveraging data and AI to drive business solutions.
  • Develop guidance on mining and analysing data from data sources to drive optimization and improvement of programme development, advocacy and business strategies.
  • Assess the effectiveness and accuracy of new data sources and data gathering techniques.
  • Provide guidance to teams on custom data models and algorithms to apply to data sets.
  • Use predictive modelling to increase and optimize entity experiences, benefit realization and other business outcomes.
  • Develop organization A/B testing framework and test model quality.
  • Develop processes and tools to monitor and analyse AI model performance and data accuracy.
  • Performs other duties as assigned.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

1. Draft Governance Framework: Policy, Guidelines, Standards documentation working with the Responsible AI Task Force
2. Developing the pipeline of AI ideas into initiating AI Pilot projects
3. Develop results framework and indicators with WFP business units.
4. Assist in setting up the AI Sandbox environment.
5. Lead the monitoring of AI pilots.
6. Act as a focal point for the evaluation of AI pilots with WFP business units.
7. Business needs identified and Partnerships established for implementation of the AI pilots and scaling efforts.
8. Working with Knowledge Management team to ensure information on AI is disseminated across the organization.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or PhD) in computer science, data science, analytics, statistics, information management, public or a related field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible experience in innovation development, establishing artificial intelligence practices, applied analytics, business intelligence, information management, statistics, project management, stakeholder management or related area is required.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience working with senior level stakeholders to obtain business goals, vision and direction for advanced analytics and artificial intelligence strategies.
• Hands-on experience of data Science tools such as Jupyter, Matlab, Knime, SPSS, SAS, or similar Statistical Programming Languages such as R, Python, JavaScript and using AI platform tools in Google Cloud/AWS/Azure is desirable.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Knowledge of the data analysis life cycle from ingest and wrangling to analysis and visualization to present findings. Excellent knowledge of statistical and computational methods, such as clustering, classification, correlation, dimension reduction, forecasting, machine learning, detecting outliers, and regression
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to collect, organize, manage, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy. The ability to analyse, model and interpret data in support of decision-making, and convey information succinctly to management. Adept at queries, report writing and presenting findings. Ability to quality-check work completed by other team members.
• Speaks and writes clearly and effectively; listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately; asks questions to clarify and exhibits interest in having two-way communication; tailors’ language, tone, style, and format to match audience; demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.
• Proven skills in working towards a common goal in a team of diverse skills, experience, and cultural backgrounds, with heavy emphasis towards business and non-technical team members. Particularly important is the ability to work remotely and continue to ensure alignment on activities and goals.
• Excellent organization and project management skills.
• Collaborative hands-on team member and relationship-builder with a facilitative nature and strong business partnering skills towards colleagues and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated capacity to handling multiple tasks/work streams in a timely manner and flexible with shifting priorities.
• Committed to excellence and customer-centric mindset.

Languages:

• Fluency in oral and written English with an intermediate knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) or Portuguese (one of WFP’s working languages) is desirable.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

WFP offers a competitive compensation package, which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.

http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our Work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.

Deadline for applications: 18 Oct 2023 at 11:59pm Rome time (CET/CEST)

REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, and complete, and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).
• Once your profile is completed, please submit your application.
• Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language
• Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter
• Additional documents such as passports, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time
• Please contact us at wfprecruitment@wfp.org in case you face any challenges with submitting your application
• Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Qualified female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply.

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.

Saving lives, changing lives