E T Consultant- Data Scientist Consultant

World Bank Group•Washington, DC

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The World Bank Group (WBG) Infrastructure Vertical provides public and private solutions to operational teams and clients across the WBG to produce scalable impact. Its mandate is to deliver knowledge for impact to support the WBG to achieve its goals in support of our mission and specifically: providing guidance on creating more and better jobs by: (i) supporting foundational infrastructure and human capital, (ii) policy environment, and (iii) enabling and mobilizing private sector capital. The Disaster Management, Solutions & Impact Unit (KIUSD) supports low and middle-income countries to understand, manage, and reduce their risks from natural hazards and climate change. Within KIUSD, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) umbrella trust fund is a global partnership that helps low- and middle-income countries better understand and reduce their vulnerability to natural hazards and climate change. GFDRR supports analytics and technical assistance to governments in the most vulnerable countries and communities where it will have the greatest positive impact. This position is financed by a Trust Fund and renewal is contingent upon availability of funding, in addition to other factors, including but not limited to business needs, staff performance and skills fit.

Requirements

Master’s degree in a related field (e.g., data science, engineering, applied mathematics, or GIS).
At least five years of progressively responsible professional experience (internships excluded), with a focus on the economics or engineering of resilience, climate change adaptation, or infrastructure.
Strong programming background with demonstrated geospatial and quantitative skills, including fluency in Python, Stata, and R; cloud computing; Google Earth Engine; and open-source GIS software (e.g., QGIS).
Excellent problem-solving abilities, especially in debugging and refining code.
Relevant project-management experience, including managing a software vendor and delivering technology-oriented products (e.g., dashboards or websites).
International experience and demonstrated ability to work in diverse, multicultural environments are required.
Strong analytical skills, ability to think strategically, analyze and synthesize data and information and communicate this to diverse audiences.
Strong problem-solving skills and proven ability to apply these in carrying out research and operational tasks, presenting findings and recommendations, and contributing to resolution of sector and/or country issues.
Excellent organizational skills with ability to work under tight deadlines and handle multiple requests simultaneously, while being detail oriented.
Excellent written and spoken English is essential.

Nice To Haves

A PhD is preferred.
Experience in statistics, economics/econometrics, and/or network analysis is strongly valued.
Demonstrated experience processing and analyzing hazard and exposure data, and interpreting physical asset vulnerability models.
Knowledge of the World Bank key Resilience and Disaster Risk Management priorities and programs is a plus but not essential.
Knowledge of other languages—especially Spanish, French, and Portuguese—is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

Develop and apply in-house resilient infrastructure analytics covering exposure, vulnerability, criticality analyses.
Support the Resilient Infrastructure thematic area in GFDRR (RI) by further developing and applying the “Infrascan” tool, which produces multi-hazard exposure, vulnerability, and risk assessments for infrastructure assets.
Respond to task teams by producing semi-standardized “Infrascan” notes and supporting teams in interpreting and communicating results, including in policy preliminary investment dialogues.
Refine and expand the “Infrascan” tool by adding additional hazards (potentially including drought, extreme heat, and wildfires); increasing automation to make the workflow as close to plug-and-play as feasible across sectors and hazards; and contributing to a bottom-up repository of local datasets covering infrastructure assets, hazards, vulnerability curves, and asset cost estimates.
Contribute to other RI workstreams and help catalyze collaboration with other GFDRR thematic areas and relevant analytics produced by WBG teams.
Run network analysis tools to assess the impacts of hazard-related transport disruptions at urban and inter-regional scales.
Advance the development and analytics for geospatial “predicted employment” layers based on an existing algorithm.
Support the application of methodologies to generate extreme event damage scenarios for system stress testing.
Contribute to other RI analytics, including work on cost–benefit ratios of resilience investments and the identification of critical elements required to maintain infrastructure services.
Take a leading role in the development and application of geospatial and other quantitative tools within RI.
Support the development and delivery of knowledge products and operational toolkits to enhance capacity of task teams to deliver operations related to resilient infrastructure, including assessing impacts and identifying mitigation measures for climate-related hazards and geohazards.
Support task teams in communicating results from RI tool applications through presentations, training, talking points, and concise summaries in multiple formats.
Coordinate with key partners inside and outside the WBG that manage or develop geospatial tools.
Contribute to program deliverables, including preparation of GFDRR communication and dissemination materials, results monitoring, reporting, budgeting, and branding.
Deliver presentations and workshops in a variety of settings, including with task teams, government counterparts, and internal and external events.
Carry out other tasks, as needed, to support the overall objective of the position.