Director, Research & Data Informatics at National Drought Management Authority

Job Ref No NDMA V/No.1/4/2026

Position Summary/Purpose

The Director, Research and Data Informatics, will be responsible for strengthening evidence-based drought risk management in the context of increasing climate variability and recurrent droughts in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands. The role entails providing a structured institutional framework for generating, managing, and disseminating credible information, knowledge, and evidence to guide drought risk management policies, strategies, and interventions.

Job Specifications
Duties and responsibilities at this level entail:

• Provides overall leadership and vision for the Research & Data Informatics function, including integration of GIS and remote sensing applications in drought risk management by overseeing the management, review, maintenance, and updating of the national drought early warning system.
• Leads the development, review, and implementation of policies, strategies, legal frameworks and work-plans for research, drought information, data/informatics, GIS/remote sensing, and early warning systems.
• Translates national drought risk management and climate adaptation priorities into implementable data/information strategies, ensuring alignment with the organization’s mandate and national policy frameworks.
• Provides leadership for research activities aimed at improving drought risk understanding, vulnerability analysis, impacts of climate change, livelihood resilience, and drought mitigation strategies by designing research programmes, collaborating with research institutions/universities, and ensuring quality and relevance of research outputs.
• Ensures that research, data, GIS/remote sensing analyses feed into policy advice, planning, contingency planning and decision-making — thereby enhancing evidencebased drought risk management.
• Advises government and the Board on strategic geospatial insights for drought preparedness and response through overseeing timely generation and sharing of evidence required for activation of contingency plans, emergency response, food security interventions, and drought-response funding requests.
• Forges partnerships with global remote sensing institutions, donors, and technology providers.
• Leads resource mobilization efforts — including proposals for research funding, technical assistance, partnerships, grants for drought-resilience and data/information initiatives.
• Ensures sustainability and institutional capacity for GIS and Remote Sensing systems by facilitating capacity-building of internal staff and external stakeholders on GIS/remote sensing, data analysis, early warning interpretation, mapping, reporting
• and use of information for planning and response.
• Represent the Authority in forums on Early warning, geospatial and remote sensing for disaster risk reduction.
• Ensures compliance with relevant governance, public-service, data-governance, procurement, finance and regulatory frameworks (e.g. public service regulations, data protection, ethics).
• Coordinates the publication and dissemination of drought information products (early-warning bulletins, drought status reports, vulnerability assessments, maps) to relevant stakeholders — government, counties, communities, NGOs, partners. Establishes strategic partnerships with universities, international research organizations, and donors.
• Coordinate research and translate research findings to policy briefs to inform drought risk management and climate change adaptation
• Oversees identification and incorporation of new remote sensing data sources and emerging technologies for improved spatial analysis, drought monitoring, vulnerability mapping, and early warning.
• Represent the Authority in global platforms on drought data, analytics, and knowledge management.
• Approve and supervise the production of spatial products: thematic maps, hazard/vulnerability maps, livelihood-zone maps, drought risk maps, early warning dashboards, and other geospatial outputs for internal and external stakeholders.

Person Specifications

For appointment to this grade, an officer must have: -

• Cumulative period of fifteen (15) years’ relevant work experience, three (3) of which should have been in an equivalent or comparable position;
• Bachelor’s Degree in any of the following fields: Statistics/Applied Statistics, Disaster Risk/Management, Computer science (with GIS specialization), Monitoring and Evaluation, Mathematics, Data Science/Data Analytics, Economics and Statistics, Meteorology, Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), Surveying/mapping, Geomatics Engineering, Statistics/Applied Statistics, Geography and Geospatial Techniques, Environmental Science, Remote Sensing/Earth Science, and Geospatial Science from a recognized institution;
• Master’s Degree in any of the following fields: Statistics/Applied Statistics, Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), Geomatics Engineering, Disaster Risk/Management, Computer science (with GIS specialization), Monitoring and Evaluation, Surveying/mapping, Mathematics, Geography and Geospatial Techniques, Environmental Science, Data Science/Data Analytics, Project Management, Computer science/Information technology, Economics and Statistics, Remote Sensing/Earth Observation, Geospatial Science, Meteorology from a recognized institution;
• Membership to a relevant professional body in good standing, where applicable;
• Certificate in Leadership course lasting not less than six (6) weeks from a recognized institution;
• A valid practicing certificate/license where applicable;
• Proficiency in computer applications;
• Fulfilled the requirements of Chapter Six of the Constitution
• Demonstrated merit and ability as reflected in work performance and results; and exhibited a thorough understanding of national goals, policies, objectives, and ability to relate them NDMA functions.