Project Officer (Data Platform Owner)
Organizational Context
UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential. We are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling. UNICEF is a place where careers are built, offering diverse opportunities for professional and personal development.
Job Purpose
The purpose of this role is to ensure the uninterrupted ownership, operational stability, and continued development of the Supply Division Data Platform and its data pipelines during a five-month parental leave period. The incumbent will act as the Product Owner for the Azure Databricks platform, driving end-to-end data services aligned with Supply Division strategy. This includes taking full ownership of data pipelines (ETL/ELT), data integration, and data lifecycle management, translating business needs into robust, production-grade data products and pipelines that are reliable, performant, and maintainable. The role is critical for maintaining the integrity and efficiency of UNICEF's data infrastructure within the Supply Division.
Responsibilities
The Project Officer will be responsible for Data Platform Ownership, acting as the Product Owner for Azure Databricks, managing workspace architecture, cluster strategy, cost optimization, and data lake/lakehouse design. They will define and enforce platform standards, best practices, and reusable patterns, owning the platform roadmap for stability, scalability, security, and performance. Operational health, including monitoring, capacity planning, and incident management, will also be key. Responsibilities extend to ETL/ELT & Data Pipeline Ownership, managing the end-to-end lifecycle of all data pipelines, defining and enforcing standards for reliability, observability, resilience, and efficiency. This includes establishing a centralized monitoring framework, automated alerting, and standardized error handling. The role involves incident management, root cause analysis, and driving migration from legacy systems to Databricks-native pipelines. Further responsibilities include Data Architecture & Integration, defining enterprise data architecture, establishing data integration patterns, and ensuring interoperability and single source of truth principles. Data Governance, Catalog & Purview Ownership involves implementing and evolving Microsoft Purview for data cataloging and governance, defining data ownership models, and ensuring end-to-end data lineage visibility. Finally, Data Quality & Reliability Engineering includes defining and implementing data quality controls, establishing automated validation rules and SLAs, and owning the resolution of data quality issues. Product & Project Management involves owning the data platform backlog and managing delivery across engineering teams, ensuring adoption of Agile and DataOps practices.
Work Experience
A minimum of two years of relevant professional experience in data engineering, data platform management, or a related role is required. Experience with cloud data platforms (e.g., Azure Databricks) and ETL/ELT processes is essential. Experience in product ownership and agile methodologies is a strong asset.
Skills
Azure Databricks, Data Pipeline Management (ETL/ELT), Data Architecture, Data Governance, Microsoft Purview, Data Quality Management, Agile Project Management, DevOps/DataOps, CI/CD, Cloud Data Platforms, Product Ownership, Monitoring and Alerting