Technical Advisor, Data Science

Technical Advisor, Data Science

Company Overview:

Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with foundations, investors, governments, corporations, communities and civil society to formulate strategies and implement solutions that generate lasting social, environmental and financial benefits. 

For the past 50 years, we have been making Positive Impact possible. With a team of more than 2,500 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of more than 35,000 technical experts, Palladium has improved – and is committed to continuing to improve – economies, societies and most importantly, people’s lives. 

Palladium is a child-safe organisation, and screens applicants for suitability to work with children. We also provide equal employment to all participants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran or marital status. 

Project Overview and Role:

The Technical Advisor, Data
Science will support the design and execution of data science projects
across a variety of domains and techniques. Projects will relate to analytics
around population and patient health, private sector development, agriculture,
education, among others. Projects require expertise in the application of
supervised and unsupervised machine learning, using structured and unstructured
data. Experience with sparse data, poor quality data, and/or data related to
developing countries, is preferred. Expertise in NLP, computer vision, or GIS
are of additional interest. Projects will result in outputs ranging from reports
and analyses to deployed models generating information for decision makers in
real time. The advisor will collaborate internally with project leads and
technical staff to identify and develop use cases, and with Palladium partners
that bring a variety of advanced data science and machine learning
capabilities.

 Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

Primary
responsibilities include:

• Communicate and deliver data science and analytics services with direction from the Senior Technical Advisor in Data Science to the Americas business unit practices and across other Palladium business units globally- including in the Europe and Middle East Region through Palladium UK and Asia Pacific through Palladium Australia;
  
• Support the pursuit of new business opportunities and integrate data science and analytics into proposals and project plans in line with the DIAS practice strategic approach;
  
• For assigned portfolio of projects, provide hands on analytical support, interface with external clients and internal technical, M&E, and lCT team members, local partners and software developers, and other project stakeholders to plan, implement, review and report on projects as needed and requested;
  
• Provide strategic support in the application of the Principles for Digital Development in the development, adoption, integration, and effective use of data science and analytics related to Global Goods and other open source software platforms used in Palladium projects and initiatives, including DHIS2, OpenMRS/Bahnmi, OpenIMIS, OpenLMIS, and community case management systems as they are applied to health and other sector initiatives;
  
• Integrate innovative data frameworks and analytical solutions to leverage data from service delivery, data collection, management, visualization and analysis initiatives;
  
• Lead the preparation of key documents and products reporting on practice workstream, successes and accomplishments;
  
• Support Project Directors in their role to ensure quality technical program implementation and project management.
  

Reporting requirements

The role reports to the Senior Technical
Advisor for Data Science. Reporting requirements include:

• Attendance at all weekly and/or management team meetings
  
• Regular updates with manager
  
• Other reports requested by manager
  

Relationships

The role will form part
of the International Development portfolio, Americas Region

• The role will be required to liaise closely with Team Leaders, Senior Managers, other employees, Professional Service Providers and Donor Agencies.
  

Authority levels

• Compliance with corporate delegated authorities
  
• Appropriate consultation with manager regarding important decisions involving your areas of responsibility
  
• Formulation of sound, evidence-based recommendations relevant in your areas of responsibility to the Data Science Senior Technical Advisor and other staff.

Key competencies and professional expertise required

• Expertise in programming with open-source statistical languages including Python and R required
  
• Experience working with large datasets on cloud-based platforms and/or with distributed computing tools such as Apache Hadoop and Spark is preferred
  
• Project experience using the above tools for supervised and unsupervised machine learning, including regression analysis, classification, deep learning, cluster analysis, dimensionality reduction, etc…
  
• Project experience with Natural Language Processing, including collecting, cleaning, and processing text data, conducting sentiment analysis and topic modelling are strongly preferred. Experience with computer vision and audio data is also preferred.
  
• Documented experience managing a diverse portfolio or work and ability to work in a dynamic and agile environment with changing requirements and priorities.
  
• Knowledge and experience applying the Principles for Digital Development.
  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  
• Ability to travel up to 25%.
  

Core competencies

• Detail-oriented and deadline-driven with strong organizational skills
  
• Highly self-motivated and able to work independently as well as in team settings
  
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively as a member of a fast-moving and multicultural team while maintaining a client-centered focus
  
• Sound problem solving and decision-making skills
  
• Inquisitive mindset, creative, and desire to take initiative to learn new systems, technologies, and skills pertinent to the work of the DIAS Practice and other areas of Palladium.