Result of Service

The objective of this consultancy is to contribute to the development of ESCWA development tool to enhance economic and social analysis of job markets in the Arab region. The preliminary description of this consultancy can be summarized as follows: 1 – Design and Develop scalable, reliable data pipelines to collect, process, and store data from various sources (databases, APIs, files). 2 – Ensure pipelines handle large volumes of data efficiently and can be scheduled to run periodically. 3 – Integrate data from different sources such as cloud storage, on-premise databases, and third-party services. 4 -Implement data cleaning, normalization, and validation processes to ensure that incoming data is accurate and ready for analysis. 5 – Develop tools to standardize, enrich, and transform data into formats suitable for downstream use (such as machine learning models or dashboards).

Work Location

UN-House ESCWA / Hybrid

Expected duration

6 Months

Background: The world is currently experiencing the Fourth Industrial Revolution. With this transition, the velocity of change and the sheer number of innovations are unprecedented. This revolution will inevitably eliminate many current lines of work yet has the capacity to bring in new lines of employment. The agility of this revolution makes the jobs of the future difficult to predict using traditional techniques. Given this background, this project will tackle three main issues:

 

– The lack of timely information to monitor the dynamism of the labor market needs;

– The mismatch between human capital accumulation and labor market demand;

– Labor market policies and regulations are mostly outdated and unprepared for the impact of automation on jobs in most ESCWA countries. Almost all countries in the region are still heavily reliant on costly household/establishment survey data which is not carried out periodically. To assess job market policies, skill sets for newly created job categories that are and will continue to come about from the Fourth Industrial Revolution must be surveyed in a more innovative way. Without a new monitoring technique, information on the impact of technological change on available skill sets cannot be properly assessed.

One finding that we can build on conventional survey (household establishment) results is that workers with higher educational attainment are expected to benefit the most from jobs in the formal sector if high-quality education is made available and better job market matching schemes are put in place. Looking at the ESCWA region, educational attainment over the past three decades, during which the region excelled in primary and secondary education (mid-skills), suggests that the population does not necessarily have adequate skills for newly created jobs. Also, in the absence of up-to-date and active labor market policies, the mismatch between market demand (especially in the formal sector) and education is translated into higher informal sector activities in most ESCWA countries. This project is expected to provide a forum for ESCWA countries to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR) while factoring in the number of jobs needed between now and the attainment of the 2030 Agenda.

The key aim is to support ESCWA States for the upcoming change in jobs and skills due to technological advancements taking place while considering the national characteristics. Ultimately, we will help member states harness job opportunities emerging from the advent of newer technologies, while taming challenges to attain outcomes stated in SDG-8 support member states sustain economic growth (8.1), reach high levels of economic productivity (8.2), promote productive activities (8.3), attain full productive employment and decent work for all (8.5) and reduce the number of youth not in employment, education or training (8.6). Duties and Responsibilities: The individual contractor shall carry the following duties:

1- Prepare datasets for ESCWA’s flagship products.

2- Assist in data analysis (regular expression searches, data aggregations and reporting of KPIs) as well as structuring of raw data for their use as inputs to ML models.

3-Monitor data flows, identify issues like pipeline failures, and resolve problems related to data availability, quality, or performance.

4 – Use monitoring and alerting tools to ensure the stability of data operations.

5 – Use version control systems (like Azure DevOps) to manage changes in code and data pipelines.

6 – Implement Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) processes to automate testing and deployment of data pipeline updates.

A Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, statistics, bioinformatics or related area is required. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of 3 years of professional work experience in building and maintaining enterprise data pipeline is required. A minimum of 3 years of experience using scomputer languages (R, Python or SCALA) to manipulate data and draw insights from large data sets is desirable.

Knowledge of a variety of machine learning techniques (clustering, bagging, decision tree learning, artificial neural networks, data mining, data analysis, etc) is desirable. A minimum of 3 years of experience in working in remote global teams with the ability to clearly communicate technical details to relevant audiences is desirable. A minimum of 3 years of experience and passion for a fast-paces and agile environment and delivering functional perfection in short time windows is desirable. A minimum of 3 years of experience in working for international non-governmental organizations such as NGOS, UN bodies and other relevant structures is desirable. A minimum of 3 years of experience in data science and NER human intervention is desirable.

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA. For this position, fluency in English is required and fluency in Arabic is desirable. Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Additional Information

Recruitment for this position is on a local basis. The incumbent is required to have the legal right to live and work in the specified working location.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.