Project Officer (Data Integration and Dissemination)

UNESCO•Montreal, QC

10d•Onsite

About The Position

Established in 1999, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) serves as UNESCO’s statistical agency for its 193 Member States and 12 Associate Members. Its mandate focuses on producing cross-nationally comparable data to support global, regional and national development agendas across the fields of education, science, culture, and communication and information. The UIS is the official statistical agency of UNESCO and serves as the custodian agency for several indicators under the Sustainable Development Goals. The UIS provides technical support to Member States to help them generate high-quality, transformative data, guided by three core pillars: standards and methodologies, data production, and brokering and outreach. As outlined in its 2022–2029 Medium-Term Strategy, the UIS envisions a world in which countries’ policies and decision-making are grounded in robust statistical information, enabling them to benchmark progress toward national and international goals and to learn from the experiences of others. The UIS provides data and technical inputs for global, regional and funding mechanisms supporting education, including the UN Transforming Education Summit, the Global Education Cooperation Mechanism (GCM), the G7, the G20, and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Results Framework. As part of its mandate to strengthen data reporting, the UIS, in partnership with the Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR), achieved global consensus on the adoption of an SDG 4 benchmarking process. As co-leaders of the data and monitoring function of the GCM, the UIS supports countries in setting and monitoring their national targets for 2025 and 2030. Within this framework, the UIS is responsible for: Developing and maintaining international statistical standards. Supporting Member States in data production and reporting. Ensuring data comparability and interoperability across countries and sectors. Providing data to fuel policies and investments that transform lives and propel global development goals. The growing diversity of data sources — including administrative systems, surveys, learning assessments and emerging data streams — requires enhanced capacity in data integration, metadata governance and the application of advanced analytics, including artificial intelligence (AI). Under the authority of the Director of the UIS and the direct supervision of the Chief of the Education Section, the Project Officer will contribute to the development, implementation and maintenance of data integration and dissemination processes within the UIS. The incumbent will support the production of high-quality, timely and comparable education data and contribute to the update and dissemination of the global education indicator database. The role focuses on technical implementation, data processing, data validation, metadata management, data dissemination, and operational support to standards and interoperability initiatives.

Requirements

Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in statistics, mathematics, data science, economics or a related field with a strong applied statistics component.
A minimum of four (4) years of progressively responsible professional experience in official statistics, data systems or related fields, of which preferably two (2) years acquired at international level.
Demonstrated experience in data integration and interoperability.
Demonstrated experience in managing, extracting and analysing large datasets using statistical software.
Experience in metadata and data quality processes.
Strong technical skills in statistical frameworks, standards and tools.
Experience with data production processes and quality assurance procedures.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Strong technical skill set required for modern data dissemination workflows, including the use of AI.
Ability to work collaboratively in a multicultural environment.
Excellent communication and drafting skills.
Proficiency in R or Python and Stata, and in data warehousing solutions.
Knowledge of international statistical standards (e.g. SDMX).
Familiarity with cloud-based data platforms and APIs.
Excellent knowledge of English.
Good knowledge of French.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a National Statistical Office, international organization or UN system.
Proficiency in SQL.
Experience with AI/ML applications.
Knowledge of SDG monitoring frameworks.
Knowledge of another official language of UNESCO (Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

Responsibilities

Support the design and implementation of frameworks for integrating multi-source data (administrative, survey, assessment and alternative sources).
Contribute to the operationalization of interoperability standards such as SDMX, APIs and data exchange protocols.
Assist in harmonizing datasets across countries and domains to ensure comparability.
Support the development and maintenance of scalable data architectures (data lakes, warehouses, cloud-based systems).
Contribute to the integration of survey-based and administrative data to strengthen coverage of participation, completion and learning indicators.
Support data dissemination and analyses related to equity and socio-economic disparities in education.
Contribute to the development and maintenance of metadata systems aligned with international standards.
Contribute to the development and application of data quality assurance procedures and support documentation of statistical processes.
Support efforts to strengthen data governance, including data stewardship and compliance with UIS standards.
Use statistical software (R, Python, Stata, SQL-based systems) to support data processing, validation and integration workflows.
Apply AI/ML techniques — such as anomaly detection, imputation, classification and NLP — under the guidance of senior staff.
Ensure adherence to UNESCO principles on the ethical and responsible use of AI.
Contribute to the methodological development and production of SDG 4 indicators.
Support Member States in implementing reporting mechanisms and applying UIS standards.
Prepare technical notes, data processing guidelines, data briefs and inputs to analytical reports.
Contribute to the preparation of training materials, guidance documents and toolkits on data integration and dissemination.
Support the delivery of capacity-building activities for Member States and regional partners.
Assist in facilitating knowledge-sharing activities and communities of practice.
Support collaboration with international partners such as Eurostat, OECD, UNSD and national statistical offices.
Participate in technical meetings, working groups and inter-agency discussions as required.