Associate Data Specialist
Organizational Context
The UN Secretariat's Resident Coordinator System (RCS) reform aims to enhance the UN Development System's effectiveness in achieving the 2030 Agenda and SDGs. UN Resident Coordinator Offices (UN RCOs), led by empowered Resident Coordinators, support countries in development priorities. This role is within the UN RCO in Gaborone, Botswana, reporting to the Head of RCO.
Job Purpose
This Associate Data Analyst role supports the UN Resident Coordinator Office (RCO) in Gaborone, Botswana, by developing and delivering data science solutions to improve program planning, decision-making, and implementation. The position contributes to creating products that offer situational awareness, insights, and predictive assessments for program management. It also identifies opportunities for innovative approaches and evidence-based reasoning to address complex organizational issues. As the RCO's data focal point, the role coordinates UNCT monitoring and evaluation of Cooperation Framework implementation, system reporting, and data capacity strengthening, particularly in gender-responsive data and new statistical methodologies. The role collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to advance data initiatives and best practices.
Responsibilities
Manage data collection systems, analytics, and strategies to optimize statistical efficiency and quality. Analyze and interpret trends using statistical methods to identify key variables in data. Coordinate process improvements for data analytics tasks, acquire and clean data, and maintain databases. Develop reports, dashboards, and tools to summarize findings for management. Track and report on data initiatives. Create basic data visualizations to support decision-making and communications. Assist with project tasks, data collection, initial analysis, and reporting issues. Produce data products like reports and newsletters. Gather business requirements to identify pain points and support data-driven analysis. Compile data insights and prepare materials for stakeholder communications. Stay updated on data analytics best practices, technologies, and tools. Contribute to data collection and preliminary analysis for model assessments. Design and develop data science products using advanced analytical methods. Develop processes to monitor model performance and data accuracy. Contribute to data analytics capacity building through training. Identify gaps in statistical capacity and assist in finding solutions. Support data preparation, verification, and routine reporting tasks. Lead the development of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) products for UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks. Co-design digital tools and dashboards with national statistical partners. Assist in UNCT statistical capacity-building and mapping technical assistance. Support MEL cycles for national counterparts.
Work Experience
A minimum of two years of progressive experience in translating business requirements into technical solutions is required. Experience with data manipulation, statistical methods, and the data lifecycle (collection, wrangling, analysis, visualization, reporting) is necessary. Proficiency in database management for data extraction, transformation, and loading is needed. Demonstrated skills in data storytelling and visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, R) are required. Experience troubleshooting complex data problems and communicating technical information to diverse audiences is essential. Experience with core data science concepts, statistics, and predictive modeling is desirable.
Skills
Data Science, Data Analytics, Statistical Methods, Data Manipulation, Data Visualization, Database Management, Reporting, Communication, Teamwork, Problem-Solving, Trend Analysis, Business Requirements Translation, Data Storytelling, Monitoring and Evaluation (MEL).