Geographic Information System (GIS) Officer

Background

The ongoing war in Ukraine has resulted in significant loss of life, devastating destruction of infrastructure and unprecedented displacement internally and towards neighboring countries. 

To preserve development gains in Ukraine as fully as possible, mitigating risks of descent into protracted crisis, embedding activities for early recovery from the onset of the humanitarian effort, and facilitating swift return to pathways and processes for national attainment of the SDGs, UNDP Ukraine has developed the UNDP Resilience Building and Recovery Programme. 

Under pillar 1 of the UNDP Resilience Building and Recovery Programme for Ukraine (i.e., Government Capacities for Crisis Response & Management / National Recovery and Development Plan and war damage assessment), UNDP in Ukraine established the project “Strengthening evidence-based recovery in Ukraine” to scale up the support for evidence-based recovery including the development of tools, methodologies and technical standards through a) producing building damage assessments, to be applied in all affected communities b) strengthening the government capacities to coordinate and lead damage assessments and c) building a repository of relevant baseline and GIS datasets, from damage assessments and open sources including the use of a number of digital tools for Secondary Data Review, machine learning, and natural language processing, to inform the recovery efforts. 

Under this project, UNDP established a Decision Support Unit (DSU) to drive and coordinate various assessments and data collection/analysis in various areas, to inform future actions pertaining to the recovery efforts.  In addition, UNDP signed a Memorandum of Understanding with The Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development to launch a building damage assessment (BDA) and support the development of the GIS system. 

Based on the above, UNDP Ukraine is seeking a qualified Geographic Information System (GIS) Officer, who will join the Decision Support Unit under the overall supervision of the Project Manager and will work on providing actionable analysis for UNDP Ukraine and national partners.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the GIS Officer and the overall supervision of the Strengthening evidence-based recovery in Ukraine Project Manager and Chief Technical Advisor, the incumbent will be responsible for the following key tasks:

Damage assessments 

• Review, validate and structure damage assessment data shared by government counterparts and from open source.
• Geocode damage assessments and other relevant raw data into GIS format.
• Support Kyiv School of Economics Institute in the damage assessment process 
• Carry out ad-hoc damage assessments based on available drone imagery and satellite imagery. 

Data Collection

• Source, collect relevant datasets and establish connections with relevant organizations as necessary.
• When relevant, ensure that collected data is geo-referenced, enabling the production of maps and related products.

Data Management & Analysis

• Ensure that all collected data is stored in line with global best practice Data Management Guidelines
• Ensure that data is revised and cleaned and that all revisions are recorded.
• Ensure spatial analysis is conducted on collected data for timely dissemination.
• Keep relevant reporting documents and internal UNDP pages updated within his/her area of responsibility.

 GIS Products (Including maps and web products)

• Develop maps, dashboards and visualization according to the needs of UNDP Ukraine.

Capacity development 

• Prepare and deliver capacity development modules internally and to government counterparts and partners on the use of GIS and remote sensing. 
•  Provide internal technical GIS support to CO portfolios and projects.

Competencies

Core

Achieve Results: LEVEL 1: Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 1: Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements. 

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 1: Open-minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 1: Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty, is flexible. 

Act with Determination: LEVEL 1: Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in the face of adversity, confident.

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 1: Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 1: Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies

Business Management - Communication - Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.

Business Management - Partnerships Management - Ability to build and maintain partnerships with wide networks of stakeholders, Governments, civil society and private sector partners, experts and others in line with UNDP strategy and policies.

2030 Agenda: Planet - Nature, Climate and Energy - Climate Change Adaptation: Embedding adaptation into development policy/planning/decision making; concepts and advancing resilient development; urban resilience; water management.

Business Direction and strategy - Effective Decision Making - Ability to take decisions in a timely and efficient manner in line with one’s authority, area of expertise and resources.

Business Management - Digital Awareness and Literacy - Ability and inclination to rapidly adopt new technologies, either through skillfully grasping their usage or through understanding their impact and empowering others to use them as needed.

Business Direction and strategy - System Thinking - Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system;

Business Management - Working with Evidence and Data - Ability to inspect, cleanse, transform and model data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions and supporting decision-making.

Required Skills and Experience

Education requirements 

• Advanced university degree (Master’s Degree or equivalent) in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geography, Informatics, Data Analysis or related field.
• A first level university degree (Bachelor’s degree or equivalent) in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geography, Informatics, Data Analysis or related field with 2 additional years of relevant experience can be accepted in lieu of Master’s degree. 

Work experience 

• A minimum of 2 years (with a Bachelor’s degree) or up to 2 (with Master’s degree)  of relevant work experience in GIS,  data management, analysis and maps visualization is required 
• A minimum of 2 years (with a Bachelor’s degree) of relevant work experience in GIS,  data management, remote sensing imagery analysis and producing visual map products.

Skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Knowledge of office software packages (Word, Excel etc.); 
• Excellent communication and organization skills.
• Excellent team and networking skills.
• Excellent Data analysis and visualization skills, experience with ArcGIS, QGIS or similar products
• Experience in Geographic Information Systems, spatial data management (including databases use and development), and environmental and natural resource management, including monitoring and interpreting data for reporting, is desirable
• Experience in working with GIS software products e.g., ArcGIS or QGIS, for mapping and spatial analysis, including the development of (open source) geodatabases and sharing GIS products via cloud-based platforms, is a strong asset. 
• Experience in working with data analysis for programme or policy development with/for international development organizations and/or national public sector institutions is a strong asset. 

Required Language(s) 

Fluency in Ukrainian and working level in English.