About the Project

Animals, plants, and microorganisms harvested and grown in water play a significant role in sustainably feeding and nourishing the world. Globally, 800 million people depend on small-scale fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods. But these vital aquatic food systems are hindered by the insecure livelihoods of those in related jobs, their low capacity to adapt to climate change, and the loss of marine nature.

The Asia-Africa BlueTech Superhighway project, supported through the UK’s Climate and Ocean Adaptation and Sustainable Transition (COAST) program under the umbrella of the Blue Planet Fund (BPF), will focus on enabling communities to adapt to and mitigate against climate change as well as responsibly and sustainably manage marine and coastal nature and resources resulting in improved food and nutritional security as well as employment and income opportunities.  The project will be implemented in two phases over seven years, starting with Phase 1 in Bangladesh, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

About the Position

The recruited Postdoctoral Fellow / Scientist will work with WorldFish scientists and international partners to support research and development of innovative data approaches, algorithm integration, tools, models, and analytics to assess the performance and adoption of technology innovations in relation to aquaculture and fisheries, and more in general to aquatic food systems.

The research will focus on the design and use of big data approaches and information & communication technologies (ICT) in relation to aquaculture and fisheries innovations, aquaculture systems, geospatial vessel and value chain tracking, and information systems, and more broadly to social and economic disciplines.

The recruited Postdoctoral Fellow is expected to explore and understand data from a geographic perspective, determine relationships, detect, and quantify patterns, and assess trends to support decision-making.

Topics considered particularly relevant for this postdoctoral position are: big data approaches, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, knowledge discovery in databases, text & data analytics, statistics, and visualization.

The successful candidate will:

• Collect, assemble, process, and visually interpret large datasets to identify and describe patterns in aquaculture and fisheries productivity, performance, and systems and corresponding explanatory factors using data mining and machine learning.
• Conduct research with spatial data to solve complex location-oriented problems related to the aquatic foods value chain and support decision-making.
• Conduct research to identify input, production, climate, environmental, market, and socioeconomic data sources (structured and unstructured) and automate data collection /processing into structured databases with standard meta-data.
• Develop and/or adapt seamless ICT-based tools for field data collection, passive data capture, and cloud-based processing for primary data.
• Work collaboratively with the work package leads, the Project Leader, senior experts, and partners to develop user-friendly decision support tools (dashboards and/or web apps) and ICT-based aquaculture/fishery advisory systems, including back-end design and contributions to front-end architecture, as well as training in tool use and efforts to assure dissemination of key innovations.
• Develop and lead an active training program for WorldFish colleagues and partners in project countries to increase data analytical skills and to institutionalize big-data capacity.
• In coordination with the MELIA and Data team, co-develop and support a digital dashboard to facilitate the management of the project and research
• Under the guidance of senior team members, including the work package leads, produce high-quality scientific publications from project findings.
• Represent the project and WorldFish in national and international fora.
• Ensure timely reporting of project activities and outcomes per WorldFish and donor requirements.

Requirements

The successful candidate will have:

• PhD Degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Computer Engineering or similar discipline with application in and/or strong knowledge of aquaculture and environmental issues. Candidates may also have a PhD in Biological, Agricultural or Environmental Science (or related discipline) with strong evidence of computational elements, statistics, coding, or computer engineering skills.
• A candidate with at least 2 years of highly relevant research experience will be considered for a scientist position where study experience is also highly relevant to the requirements of this position.
• Proficiency in at least one common programming and statistical computing language (e.g. Python, R, MATLAB, FORTRAN). Experience with R package development, API deployment, R Shiny development, and functional programming
• Demonstrated experience using GitHub
• Knowledge of software development lifecycle and best practices (version control, code review, unit testing, continuous integration/delivery, etc.)
• Demonstrated experience using machine learning with deep neural architectures to identify patterns in agricultural, climate, environmental, and remotely sensed data, and to make practical inferences from research results.
• Practical experience and working knowledge in a distributed computing system such as Spark, Hadoop and the ability to build automated workflows across machines and platforms in cloud computing environments.
• Working knowledge of open-source web mapping tools (Geoserver, PostGreSQL, PostGIS, OpenLayers).
• Experience with interactive visualization of data (dynamic graph, map) via online information systems.
• High degree of cultural sensitivity and proven record of effective working relationships in multi-disciplinary, diverse teams particularly in developing countries.
• Able to multitask and work within deadlines with minimum supervision.
• Strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to work in multicultural and interdisciplinary teams.
• Excellent communication skills and high proficiency in written and spoken English.

Desired Skills/Experiences

• Knowledge of Java / Javascript is beneficial. Familiarity with cloud storage providers (e.g. Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, Azure).
• Familiarity with Docker containers.
• Knowledge of software development lifecycle and best practices (version control, code review, unit testing, continuous integration/delivery, etc.)
• Ability and desire to travel and spend periods of time in the field/community level.
• Desire and drive to work in a development and research context to alleviate poverty and eradicate malnutrition.

Benefits

This is an Internationally Recruited Staff (IRS) position with annual salary ranging between USD USD 47,900 – USD 69,700 per annum (for Scientist level) and USD 40,900 – USD 47,000 per annum (for Post-Doctoral Fellow level). WorldFish’s IRS shall receive comprehensive health insurance, life insurance, accident, and long-term disability insurance. Internationally recruited staff employed outside of their home base/country of nationality will also be eligible to receive relocation assistance, a housing allowance, home-leave plane tickets for self and eligible dependents and education assistance for school-age dependents between age 4 and high school graduation. All benefits are subject to terms and conditions.

The duration of the contract will initially be for a three-year period for Scientist position and two-year period for Post-Doctoral Fellow position with possibility for extension, depending on funding and performance.

Your application must include:

• A copy of your curriculum vitae,
• A cover letter which addresses key requirements stated above; and
• Contact information of three professional referees who may be contacted if you are short-listed for the position.

To be considered, applications must be submitted by no later than 24:00 (MYT), 16 August 2023.

Location: The post holder will be based in Penang, Malaysia. This position will involve international travel.

The screening will start immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Due to the high volume of applicants for WorldFish positions, we appreciate all interest, but only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Our Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment

WorldFish has seven offices across Asia, Africa and the Pacific, with more than 400 staff and 27 nationalities who contribute to a dynamic multicultural work environment.

WorldFish is committed to promoting a work environment where diversity and inclusion is valued and we seek to have gender balance in the organization. We aim to also seek balance across other diversity dimensions.

People in WorldFish are treated equally irrespective of gender, ethnicity/race, national or social origin, disability, religion, political affiliation, age, family size, marital status or any other form of personal identity.

We are an equal opportunities employer and strongly encourage qualified women and men from developing nations to apply.