Data Engineer - Technical Officer IDMC

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) is a global centre of expertise established in 1998 to monitor and report on the situation of people who become displaced within their own countries. IDMC curates and analyses data from a wide range of sources, provides insight into the risk, scale, causes and impacts of the phenomenon and supports partners around the world in identifying and implementing solutions to it. 

IDMC monitors all countries in the world for which we provide verified, consolidated and multi-sourced estimates of the number of people internally displaced or at risk of becoming displaced by conflict, violence, disasters. Our data and evidence are published on our website and via our Global Internal Displacement Database. Our flagship report, the Global Report on Internal Displacement, published every year in May, is the world reference on IDP statistics, featuring trends and thematic analyses, country and regional spotlights, including maps. 

Central to this mission is the Data Management and Risk Analysis Hub, which will host this position. This dynamic team leads efforts to enhance the way displacement data is stored, processed, analyzed, and shared, ensuring it is timely, accurate, and comprehensive. By leveraging on new technologies, the Hub supports IDMC’s commitment to producing actionable data and evidence that drive impactful decision-making.

We are seeking a Data Engineer to play a pivotal role in advancing our data infrastructure and capabilities. This position focuses on designing, building, and optimizing data pipelines and integrating cutting-edge AI/ML applications to elevate IDMC’s operational goals. It is an exceptional opportunity for a forward-thinking professional passionate about harnessing advanced data technologies to address complex humanitarian challenges and contribute to enhance IDMC’s global databases.

What you will do

Your main responsibilities will include:

• Design, implement, and optimize scalable data pipelines, incorporating structured and unstructured data.
• Support the development of robust, automated systems for integrating internal and external data sources.
• Re-engineer existing pipelines to enhance performance, reliability, and quality.
• Blend and process various datasets from various sources to create inputs for exploratory analysis.
• Process, clean, and validate diverse datasets to ensure consistency and usability.
• Contribute to the automation of testing, deployment, and monitoring of data pipelines and AI/ML models using Airflow, Docker, and AWS services.

Collaboration and innovation

• Provide tailored data analysis and technical assistance to team members, addressing specific project needs and enabling informed decision-making.
• Collaborate with the Data Hub team and external consultants to design, prototype, and implement innovative data integration and processing solutions, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.
• Document workflows.
• Present analytical findings and technical recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.

If you are curious and would like to learn more about this opportunity, please see here for the full job description.

 

What you will bring

We are looking for a self-motivated, creative and detail-oriented Data Engineer with a university degree in computer science or related field and minimum 2 years of experience in data engineering, with specific expertise in geospatial data processing and analysis. You should have a strong command of scripting and programming languages, particularly Python and SQL, with an emphasis on data engineering libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and PySpark. You should also have proven expertise in designing, building, and optimizing pipelines to process large-scale data for LLMs and AI applications. You should also be proficient in accessing, processing, and integrating diverse data sources, including structured and unstructured formats such as JSON, plain text, image datasets, and geospatial data layers. This includes experience with API interactions, parsing and transforming complex hierarchical data structures, handling large-scale multimedia datasets, and leveraging geospatial libraries and frameworks for spatial data integration and analysis.

In addition, you will have:

• Experience in deploying and managing data pipelines and AI/ML models on cloud platforms, preferably AWS.
• Comfortable with cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred), containerization tools (Docker), and version control (Git). 
• Experience in working with SQL and NoSQL databases, ensuring robust data management practices.
•  Proven ability to design, implement, and optimize fast, reliable, and scalable data pipelines to support applications using large-scale data ingestion.
• Ability to optimize cloud infrastructure for scalability, performance, and cost-efficiency. 
• Knowledge of geospatial data analysis is a plus.
• Ability to troubleshoot, debug, and resolve issues in data pipelines and production systems.
• Flexible, innovative and effective in working collaboratively as part of a multicultural team.
• Aptitude for critical thinking, analysis, and problem solving.
• Enjoys working in a fast-paced environment and can successfully deliver on short deadlines.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and French is a plus.

What makes this position attractive?

• An exciting opportunity with an international team dedicated to advancing practical, data-based solutions to internal displacement.
• A 12-month contract (80-100% worktime percentage)
• Duty station: Geneva, Switzerland preferred, but other locations where NRC has an office may be considered (candidates must be legally authorized to work in the selected location). For reasons related to the procedure for work permits in Switzerland, only candidates with an EU/EFTA nationality or a valid work permit may work from the NRC Geneva office in Switzerland. Kindly specify your permit in the application if relevant.
• Flexible working arrangements according to the NRC Geneva Hybrid working policy.

We are also looking for people who share our values:

• To be dedicated in what we do;
• To be innovative with our solutions;
• To act as one unified and inclusive team;
• To be accountable to the donors that make our work possible.

Are you interested? Please apply through our online application tool, and make sure to attach a cover letter and your CV.

For reasons related to the procedure for work permits in Switzerland, only candidates with an EU/EFTA nationality or a valid work permit may be considered to work from NRC Geneva, Switzerland.  Other locations where NRC has an office may be considered (candidates must be legally authorized to work in the selected location). Kindly specify your permit/location in the application if relevant.

We look forward to receiving your application!

Important information about the application process:

• Internal candidates only: please click on the suitcase icon labelled “I am an employee” to be redirected to NRC’s internal careers site.
• When creating your profile, include your full name as given on your passport. Complete all the system-required fields for experience, employment history and education.
• Submit your application, cover letter and CV in English, taking care to attach your latest CV.
• Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. NRC is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role and you meet most, but not all the requirements, we encourage you to apply anyway.
• Applications that do not meet the minimum standards in terms of experience or qualifications will generally not be considered. Unsolicited applications not related to this specific job advertisement will not be considered.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. We receive many applicants for each vacant position. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to give detailed feedback to applicants who have not been shortlisted

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a global humanitarian organisation helping people forced to flee.

Join us in assisting millions of people in areas where others cannot, tackling some of the world's most dangerous and difficult crises. Bring your skills and dedication to an organisation recognised for providing high quality aid and for defending the rights of refugees and internally displaced people.

At NRC, we give responsibility to employees at all levels and foster professional growth and innovative teams. You can expect a supportive culture and an open dialogue with management. We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Together, we save lives and rebuild futures.
Safeguarding is central to NRC’s work. We expect all employees to:  • treat everyone with respect and dignity  • contribute to building a safe environment for all  • never engage in any form of exploitation, harassment and specifically sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH)  • always report. NRC has a zero-tolerance approach to inaction against exploitation, abuse and SEAH