Research Analyst Consultant. Florence Italy. Office of Strategy & Evidence /Remote

Consultant Programme & Policy

Overview

Provide technical analytical support to the Urban Poverty study.

You have:

• Master's (or Higher) in Data Science, Spatial Econometrics, Geography, Computer Science, Economics, Statistics, Public Policy, or a related highly quantitative field
• At least 3 years of relevant experience in quantitative research and advanced data analysis.
• Demonstrated experience working with geospatial data and spatial analysis.
• Practical, demonstrable experience building and tuning supervised machine learning models for socio-economic or spatial analysis.
• Expert-level proficiency in Python or R AND proficiency in Stata for survey data processing.
• Demonstrated experience with Google Earth Engine (GEE) and standard GIS platforms including processing multi-spectral remote sensing data.
• Strong data visualization skills and a proven track record of analytical academic writing.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken) is required.
• Familiarity with handling Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) or Living Standards Measurement Studies (LSMS).
• Knowledge of the United Republic of Tanzania's urban landscape, social protection landscape and poverty profile.
• Relevant research experience working with UNICEF, other international organizations.
• Ability to organize own work and carry out a computationally heavy research project with limited supervision according to deadlines.

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

Contract Duration 6 Months

Working arrangement: Home/Remote based

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, 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. We offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical analytical support to the Urban Poverty study in the United Republic of Tanzania and produce a working paper for publication and a policy brief for advocacy. Background UNICEF Office of Strategy and Evidence – Innocenti (UNICEF Innocenti) and UNICEF Tanzania Country Office (TCO) are collaborating to generate high-quality, policy-relevant evidence on urban poverty and deprivation in Tanzania. The collaboration aims to produce a peer-reviewed working paper and a policy brief that will inform UNICEF advocacy, programme design, and resource mobilization in support of urban social protection, targeting, and inclusive urban development. Rapid urbanization in Tanzania has intensified spatial inequalities, particularly within large urban centres where informal settlements and localized deprivation are often masked by aggregate statistics. While recent global studies have produced micro-estimates of wealth and poverty, these models lack the spatial granularity required to map intra-urban disparities relevant for city-level planning and intervention. This research addresses that gap by developing an urban-focused, high-resolution poverty mapping approach, integrating geospatial data and machine-learning techniques. The analysis will focus on six Tier-1 cities—Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha, Dodoma, Mbeya, and Zanzibar City—where the density of survey data enables robust model training and validation. Within this context, UNICEF Innocenti seeks to recruit a Research Analyst (Consultant) to provide technical and analytical support to the study, contributing directly to the processing of geospatial data, predictive modelling, analysis, and drafting of the working paper and the policy brief

If you would like to know more about this consultancy, please review the complete Terms of Reference here TMC0001943 TOR.pdf

Minimum requirements:

• Education: Master’s (or Higher) in Data Science, Spatial Econometrics, Geography, Computer Science, Economics, Statistics, Public Policy, or a related highly quantitative field
• Work Experience: At least 3 years of relevant experience in quantitative research and advanced data analysis.
• Demonstrated experience working with geospatial data and spatial analysis.
• Practical, demonstrable experience building and tuning supervised machine learning models (e.g., Random Forest, XGBoost) and deep learning architectures (e.g., CNNs) for socio-economic or spatial analysis.
• Skills: Expert-level proficiency in Python or R (mandatory for Google Earth Engine integration, CNN feature extraction, and ML pipelines) AND proficiency in Stata (mandatory for all survey data processing). The consultant must be able to deliver clean, reproducible Stata .do files for the survey integration phase, and clear Python/R scripts for the geospatial and machine learning phases.
• Demonstrated experience with Google Earth Engine (GEE), standard GIS platforms (e.g. QGIS, ArcGIS), including the processing of multi-spectral remote sensing data (e.g. Sentinel-2, VIIRS) and vector data (e.g. OpenStreetMap).
• Strong data visualization skills (e.g. generating continuous spatial heat maps) and a proven track record of analytical academic writing.
• Language Requirements: Fluency in English (written and spoken) is required
• Desirables: Familiarity with handling Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) or Living Standards Measurement Studies (LSMS), particularly experience in mitigating the spatial displacement (jittering) of GPS survey clusters.
• Knowledge of United Republic of Tanzania’s urban landscape, social protection landscape and poverty profile
• Relevant research experience working with UNICEF, other international organizations.
• Ability to organize own work and to carry out a computationally heavy research project with limited supervision according to deadlines.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to

provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Qualified candidates are invited to submit the following documents via the online recruitment portal, TMS (Talent Management System):

• An up-to-date TMS profile and curriculum vitae (CV)
• Cover letter
• A separate financial proposal TMC0001943 Financial proposal.docx

Remarks:

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

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Potential interview questions

Added 2 months ago - Updated 2 months ago - Source: unicef.org