Hydrology Advisor
Organizational Context
The UNOPS Africa Regional Office supports over 250 projects across 40 countries, focusing on fragile and conflict-affected settings. The Horn of Africa Multi-Country Office (HAMCO), based in Addis Ababa, delivers project management, procurement, and infrastructure services in Djibouti, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Sudan, with an emphasis on health, agriculture, and economic development. HAMCO is establishing a multi-disciplinary Water Security and Climate Adaptation expert team to support planning, design, and management of water infrastructures.
Job Purpose
The Hydrology Advisor serves as a senior technical and strategic expert, leading the hydrological, climate adaptation, and disaster mitigation technical outputs for the office’s water-related projects. Reporting to the Senior Portfolio Manager, the role provides authoritative technical advice, analyzes complex environmental data, and produces high-quality specialized outputs. Key functions include solving complex, data-scarce hydrological challenges, ensuring infrastructure designs are climate-proofed, and contributing to regional water security strategies. This position is crucial for embedding climate change projections and disaster risk reduction into water resource management within the Horn of Africa's vulnerable landscapes.
Responsibilities
Provide specialist technical advice and strategic design support in hydrology, water resources, and climate change adaptation. Ensure climate-resilient methodologies are implemented for infrastructure design to withstand extreme weather and climate shifts. Support decision-support systems for optimal, conflict-sensitive water allocation, balancing ecosystem needs with various demands. Ensure technical designs meet international quality standards. Engage in data collection, field verification, and hydro-meteorological modeling, providing accurate progress reports and technical briefs. Offer rapid technical responses to emerging project and regional environmental needs. Share advanced knowledge on hydrological assessments, climate modeling, forecasting, early warning systems, nature-based solutions, and managing data-scarce environments. Support the Senior Portfolio Project Manager in reviewing, pitching, and delivering projects with hydrological or climate-adaptation components, and technically supervise team members. Uphold principles of human rights, gender equity, and aid effectiveness.
Work Experience
Requires a minimum of 7 years of combined experience in hydrological modeling development, climate change impact evaluations on hydraulic infrastructures/catchments, and real-time drought/flood forecasting. Experience in water system risk assessment, teaching, applied research, capacity building, and publishing in peer-reviewed journals is desirable.
Skills
Hydrology, Water Resource Management, Climate Change, Geographic Information Systems, Capacity Building