Vacancies at at Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources

Reporting to the Manager, Geomatics and Land Administration, the Principal Land Administration Expert will assist in handling and coordinating various reports, documents and information received from the field for transmittal (paper and electronic) to clients, maintain databases, and correspondence with clients.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Assist in identifying projects and writing project proposals;
• Assist in making proposals for the implementation of land information systems in RCMRD member states;
• Under the supervision of the Manager, Geomatics & Land Administration, provide advisory/consultancy services and conduct research in land information management systems and land administration in general;
• Assist in implementing land information systems in RCMRD member States;
• Prepare training materials and conduct training in different aspects of land administration and land management, and
• Assist in processing acquisitions & divestitures and other special projects.

Qualifications and Experience

• Master’s degree in Land Administration, Land Management or Land Governance.
• Bachelor’s degree in Geomatics, Land Survey, GIS or related field.
• Five (5) years of experience in the field.

Or

• Bachelor’s degree in Land Administration, Land Management, Land Surveying or related fields.
• Eight (8) years’ working experience.

Salary Scale: The salary for the above position is consolidated and is in the range of: GS7: Ksh. 1, 190, 055 by Ksh. 46, 710 to Ksh. 1, 610, 455 p.a.

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Reporting to Technical Lead- Agricultural Insurance & Gender the Communication & Outreach Specialist will be responsible for communication and outreach activities for the Gender Inclusive Agriculture Insurance (GAIINS) project to different levels of audiences including USAID, high level project and sector stakeholders, policy makers, project partners and the general audience.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and manage a communications strategy for the production and dissemination of a wide array of information and communications on the activities of the GAIINS project through various media outlets.
• Highlight project’s activities, outcomes and successes in various media outlets (newspapers, radio, TVs, social media, etc.) and forums (disaster risk finance community)
• Regularly update the contents of the GAIINS project in the SERVIR Eastern and Southern Africa and RCMRD web pages and in implementing partner media.
• Write news articles based on current events, earth observation research, and project activities.
• Prepare press releases for local and international media coverage (e.g. Agrilinks).
• Develop Policy briefs for high level stakeholders.
• Develop knowledge products e.g. reports, infographics, blogs, board games, educational and training kits.
• Design and develop print communication materials such as brochures and newsletters.
• Record project videos/clips and documentaries for various audiences.
• Design and conduct media interviews.

Qualifications and Experience

• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations, Communication, Media Studies or Journalism with diverse experience in all facets of communication.
• A minimum of Five (5) years of experience in the area of communication.
• Possession of excellent interviewing, writing and editing skills for different media and audiences.
• Working knowledge of USAID/development partners communications and reporting protocols and standards.
• Experience in the design of graphical communication materials and knowledge products – infographics, cartoons, illustrations, reports, blogs, policy briefs, board games, educational and training kits.
• Professional skills in social media engagement and communication on project activities, outcomes and successes.
• Excellent organisation skills.
• Experience in designing information, education and communication materials for diverse audiences such as development partners, policy makers and beneficiary user groups.
• Knowledge and experience in using bulk dissemination facilities such as MailChimp.
• Demonstrable understanding of gender and agriculture, environmental, economic, and social issues.
• An understanding of GIS and Earth Observation operations will be an added advantage.
• Must attach a portfolio of previous work including samples, excerpts and links.

Contract Duration: Two (2) years with possibility for renewal subject to performance and the continued availability of funds. The expected renumeration package for this position shall be Ksh.150,000 per month with other benefits such as Medical Insurance.

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Reporting to the Technical Lead - Agricultural Insurance & Gender, the Statistician will be responsible for statistical data analysis and modeling for the Gender Inclusive Agriculture Insurance (GAIINS) project.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Inform the design of the sampling frame and questionnaires for collection of sex disaggregated geo-located agricultural data.
• Test to validate data management tools.
• Provide input and advice in the data collection process.
• Develop measures for data quality control.
• Develop a data analysis and management plan.
• Develop data analysis structures, algorithms and procedures.
• Conduct data analysis and produce reports.
• Model statistical projections for agricultural data in relation to insurance frameworks.

Qualifications and Experience

• A MSc Degree in Statistics or Applied Mathematics and Two (2) years of experience in the design, implementation and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. Or
• A Bachelor's Degree in Statistics or Applied Mathematics and Five (5) years of experience in the design, implementation and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.
• Three (3) years’ experience in working with statistical panel survey data.
• Experience in economic data mining.
• Experience in handling and manipulating large amounts of data.
• Demonstrable excellent experience in spatial data manipulation in R.
• Experience in using Stata/ SPSS.
• Preference will be given to those who submit sample statistical analysis portfolios using R, stata do files or other relevant statistical software.
• Experience in using GIS and Earth Observation tools will be an added advantage.

Contract Duration: Two (2) years with possibility for renewal subject to performance and the continued availability of funds. The expected renumeration package for this position shall be Ksh.150,000 per month with other benefits such as Medical Insurance.

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Reporting to Geospatial Data Scientist the Assistant Geospatial Data Analyst will perform the duties and responsibilities listed below.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Work closely with a team in crop modelling and undertake data streamlining and synthesis operations from multiple sources for use in both mapping and crop yield prediction.
• Assist in crop training data refinement and label definitions pre-/post field work or from other sources.
• Undertake statistical data synthesis and analytics to interpret and work with geospatial data sampling and validation.

Qualifications and Experience

• MSc degree in geo-information sciences, GIS, with good understanding in the use of remote sensing data to develop applications relevant for decision making.
• At least 2 years of active experience working with geo-spatial data, GIS in the development context.
• Skilled in crop science and basic agronomy.
• Experience with spatial modelling, use of geospatial data, remote sensing and geographical information systems.
• Experience working with satellite imagery / remote sensing data for agriculture.
• Experience in conducting fieldworks to collect or validate spatial predictions.
• Proficiency working in Python.
• Ability to use machine learning algorithms for modelling and prediction.
• Ability to work in a Linux environment and use Linux servers and deploy/run applications on it would be an added advantage.
• Experience in using cloud computation platforms would be an added advantage.
• Ability to use spatial and predictive modelling techniques to conduct research on yield prediction, improved technology targeting and impact modelling.
• Experience with programming in teams, and methods to maintain code integrity, documentation and standards.
• Experience with modelling and forecasting yields, climatic and/or environmental systems.

Contract Duration: Two (2) years with possibility for renewal subject to performance and the continued availability of funds. The expected renumeration package for this position shall be Ksh.150,000 per month with other benefits such as Medical Insurance.

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Reporting to the Science, Data and Technology Lead the Technical Lead for the Gender Inclusive Agriculture Insurance (GAIINS) project will provide technical leadership, coordination, liaison as well as defining and actualising project plans and approaches, leading vision and strategy phase of engagements, and overseeing creative outputs.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide strategic thinking, planning and actualising project implementation plans.
• Coordinate across the technical team and global implementation partners.
• Articulate and communicate the project to intended technical and non-technical audiences.
• Identify, pursue, establish and maintain existing and new beneficial partnerships that effectively align with the project implementation goals.
• Articulate and communicate the project progress in the development of communication materials for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Develop policy briefs and technical communication materials.

Qualifications and Experience

• Master’s Degree in GIS, Remote Sensing, Environmental Science, Agriculture Economics, data science or quantitatively-oriented science.
• Have a minimum of 4 years’ experience in GIS, Remote Sensing, Environmental Science, Agriculture Economics, data science or quantitatively-oriented science.
• Innovative, self-motivated, and results-oriented.
• Excellent team leader and team worker.
• Ability to engage multi-cultural groups and teams.
• Experience in Gender integration in service design and implementation desired.
• Desired knowledge of agriculture and agricultural insurance implementation models.
• Excellent skills in writing technical and communication briefs and materials.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Experience in managing highly complex projects.
• Budgets management.
• Working experience in Geographic Information Systems and Remote sensing.
• Strategic thinking, management, Proactive, Problem Solving, Decision-making, Achievement Orientation, Communication and Teamwork.

Contract Duration: Two (2) years with possibility for renewal subject to performance and the continued availability of funds

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In an effort to support crop yield estimation in eastern Africa, RCMRD is working with a number of models such as RHEAS (Regional Hydrologic Extremes Assessment System) and a recently developed machine learning model termed as Global Earth Observation based Crop Yield and Condition Forecasting (GEOCIIF). For the GEOCIIF model, the Centre anticipates to operate the model to cover three crops in a number of target countries in 2023. Reporting to the Crop Modeller and the Science, Data and Technology Lead, the Geospatial Data Scientist will undertake the responsibilities outlined below.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Support the institution’s crop modelling work, including implementation of three crop models and their anticipated scaling.
• Support big data mining using intelligent algorithms, advanced coding and statistical analysis for complex data synthesis and analytics for several countries in 2022 and 11 countries in 2023.
• Develop required mechanisms for automation and data analytics.
• Assist in establishing capabilities around growing data science needs and propel the region’s capacity in the use of AI, deep learning/machine learning, and crop models.
• Work with stakeholders, governments, and agricultural scientists in the region.

Qualifications and Experience

• MSc. Degree in GIS, Environmental science, Agronomy, Geo-spatial information science.
• Have a strong background in use of Python specifically for spatial data science and modelling, experience in basic crop science, and a passion for building solutions to difficult social problems in agriculture sector.
• Have a minimum of Three (3) years’ experience in industry or applied research and be eager to apply those skills to emerging challenges in agriculture.
• Three or more years working in geo-spatial data science industry or applied research in academia.
• Profound experience with supervised machine learning algorithms (both deep learning and non-deep learning approaches) and with both structured and unstructured data (e.g., tabular administrative data, satellite imagery, text, hard-copy data etc).
• Knowledge and ability to use Linux servers, deploy/run applications on Linux environments.
• Experience in mentoring other staff and training stakeholders, including the ability and interest in sharing knowledge, mentoring others, presenting work and reviewing the work of peers.
• Experience with the design and delivery of a geo-spatial tool or product from start to finish.
• Experience in use of cloud computation platforms.
• Experience working with satellite imagery / remote sensing data for agriculture.
• Ability to analyse statistical data using SPSS, Stata or R. In principle, ability to mine and discover knowledge using intelligent algorithms.
• Experience in conducting fieldworks to collect or validate spatial predictions. In addition, the ability to develop customized field collection applications using opensource solutions.
• Ability to use computer vision algorithms for agriculture applications.
• Ability to apply state-of-the-art data science skills to enable integration and processing of large datasets from multiple sources.
• Experience with programming in teams, and methods to maintain code integrity, documentation and standards.
• Ability to develop and/or refine existing scripts and tools for statistical analysis that can be used to curate, analyse and visualize their data.

Contract Duration: The position is for an initial fixed-term of two (2) years, after which further employment is subject to performance and the continued availability of funds. The expected renumeration package for this position shall be Ksh. 170,000 per month with other benefits such as Medical Insurance.

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Reporting to the Science, Data and Technology Lead, the holder of this position will be required to provide technical leadership and coordination in all SERVIR Eastern and Southern Africa (E&SA) work relating to the Agriculture and Food Security service area. The position will leverage on his/her knowledge and expertise in Agriculture and Food Security, Earth Observation and GIS tools and technologies, with an emphasis on major issues of interest at global, regional and national levels, and therefore contribute to SERVIR's goal of developing services that respond to societal problems in this field.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Identify developmental problem areas through engagement of relevant stakeholders and design of appropriate services to respond to these problems within the scope of the project capabilities and demographic reach.
• Engage partner institutions in problem definition, proposal development, and execution of a project to achieve desired results within your thematic area. Partner institutions could be, but are not limited to, SERVIR implementing partners, implementers of Applied Science Projects, etc.
• Identify, design and implement Earth Observation data, tools, products, capacity building activities to address identified developmental problems in focus countries.
• Coordinate and work with different agencies and SERVIR partners (e.g. governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, research institutes, etc.) to derive products that are relevant to policy and/or operations.
• Develop work plans for the thematic area, in liaison with other Thematic Leads under SERVIR-E&SA and contribute to the overall SERVIR-E&SA work planning process.
• Ensure timely delivery of results for assignments under the thematic area, and strictly adhere to reporting guidelines and deadlines.
• Lead and coordinate analysis of data and information, write articles for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Present the results of the thematic area effectively and communicate findings to diverse audiences, either at policy level, scientific forums, and/or community-based organizations.
• Make timely reports (submissions of proposals, work plans, quarterly reports, annual reports and budgets) to the relevant Technical Manager(s).
• Liaise with the SERVIR User Engagement Lead and M&E Officer to ensure that the outreach and monitoring and evaluation data and information from your thematic area are captured adequately.
• Liaise with the Capacity Development Lead to ensure capacity building activities under your theme are coordinated and delivered appropriately.
• Liaise with the Gender & Environment Specialist to ensure the services designed and implemented under your thematic area are integrated with gender.
• Maintain close consultations with other thematic area leads to ensure activities that cut across your thematic area and others are conducted in an organized manner, avoiding duplication of efforts or conflicting activities.
• Provide technical leadership to the thematic team under you, to work effectively and come up with results as per SERVIR-E&SA's Work Plan and the SERVIR Global Strategic Plan.
• Carry out other activities related to the job as may be assigned by your supervisor.

Qualifications and Experience

• At least a Masters’ degree in remote sensing, Earth observation, GIS, geo-spatial information with a strong bias to agriculture or agronomy.
• Seven (7) years of verifiable experience using GIS & RS for agriculture and food security related work, with at least 3 years in a supervisory position.
• Advanced knowledge of Earth observation/remote sensing and GIS applications.
• Advanced knowledge and skills in standard and recent computing platforms, and good programming skills (Python, R etc).
• Good understanding of crop related models including aspects of yield forecast and estimations, crops and crop type mapping.
• Demonstrated experience in conceptualization of developmental challenges in agriculture area and design of appropriate services to address these challenges.
• Excellent organization and coordination skills with the ability to organize and direct a team to achieve timely positive results.
• Project management experience, including a proven record of productive engagement with government institutions, NGOs and scientists is required.
• Knowledge of major agricultural issues of interest at global, regional and national levels, with demonstrable capacity to engage peers in the thematic area in problem definition, proposal development, and execution of a project to achieve a desired result.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, demonstrable by published work in reputable media (peer reviewed journals, published reports, etc.) in the respective field of specialization.
• The candidate must exhibit the following competencies: proactiveness, problem solving, timely decision-making, achievement oriented, good communicator and teamwork.

Contract Duration: The position is for an initial fixed-term of two (2) years, after which further employment is subject to performance and the continued availability of funds.