Vacancies at icipe - African Insect Science for Food and Health

Overall Purpose of the Job

The overall purpose of the job is to lead the Push–Pull Programme teams under the Plant Health Theme. Reporting to the Head of Plant Health Theme, the incumbent is part of a multidisciplinary team providing leadership, research and development strategy to the Centre in collaboration with icipe’s other scientists. It is expected that the job holder will maintain a portfolio of research aligned with icipe’s vision and strategy.

Specific Duties

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Lead and spearhead the development of a coherent vision and strategic framework for the
• Push–Pull Programme in line with icipe’s strategy and goals, and international best practices.
• Organise a Push–Pull Programme structure to cost-effectively utilise resources to meet icipe’s
• research, capacity and institutional building needs.
• Provide cutting-edge scientific leadership to scientists and technical staff to further develop, adapt, optimise and scale up Push–Pull technology to a broad range of agro-ecosystems and farming systems.
• Guide scientists and technical staff within the Programme to ensure timely preparation of annual work-plans, budgets, and scientific and technical reports for donors.
• Ensure that the Push–Pull Programme members continually update skills and methodologies to
• keep up with global cutting-edge knowledge that is relevant to the Plant Health Theme’s research.
• Provide leadership and guidance to scientists in the publication of research outputs in highimpact peer-reviewed journals, as well as provide stewardship of intellectual property developed under the programme.
• Promote and establish collaborative linkages within icipe and with national, regional and
• international institutions in the Programme’s relevant fields of research under the Plant Health Theme.
• Actively seek and secure external support for the activities of the Push–Pull Programme, including resources to develop and grow the research portfolio.
• Manage and develop the staff of the Push–Pull Programme to create and foster a culture of scientific excellence and to ensure that the Programme has the human resources required now and into the future.
• Prudently manage financial, physical and intellectual resources under the Push–Pull Programme.
• Facilitate peer-review of the performance of Push–Pull Programme staff.
• Initiate periodic reviews of the performance of the Push–Pull Programme to ensure relevance and quality.
• Act as a spokesperson and representative of the Programme.
• Ensure that the Programme meets its legal and reporting responsibilities to all stakeholders, includingpartners and donors.

Requirements/Qualifications

• PhD degree in entomology or related agricultural sciences, but preferably with expertise in habitat management, chemical ecology, agronomy or biological control from a reputable university, and postdoctoral training from a highly reputed laboratory.
• Ten (10) years’ experience progressively gained in either a research organisation or a university.
• Excellent publication track record with at least 50 publications.

Core Competencies

• Track record of writing successful proposals for large grants.
• Proven record of managing large resources, both financial and human, in an international research environment.
• Proven experience of working with farmers, preferably in Africa, and transdisciplinary research and development collaboration in social science research, agricultural economics or related disciplines.
• Experience in capacity building through supervision and mentorship of MSc and PhD students,
• and postdoctoral fellows.
• Excellent communication skills are mandatory.
• Track record of exemplary leadership qualities is essential.
• High degree of organisation, adaptability and prioritisation.

Closing date: 6 June 2022

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Overall purpose of the job

The position holder will be responsible for compiling icipe publications; institutional reporting, including donor reporting; maintenance of the icipe website; and preparation of monthly, biannual and annual internal documents.

Specific Duties

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Adhere to the icipe regulations on approval and confidentiality for documents to be used internally and externally.
• Contribute to the timely dissemination of information internally and externally by ensuring editorial timelines are adhered to.
• Contribute to the development of compelling communication products by ensuring proper flow of design, photography, and editorial aspects.
• Edit publications such as newsletters, brochures, fliers and reports and content for icipe’s social media pages.
• Ensure adherence of the Centre’s set standards of editorial quality, content accuracy, messaging, and house style.
• Respond to queries on icipe publications.
• Write and edit video scripts.
• Manage the icipe website.
• Update the lists and links to icipe publications online.
• Manage the icipe social media accounts.
• Prepare corporate programmes, nametags, posters, certificates, business cards and merchandise.
• Follow up external editorial service providers.
• Compile information for the weekly and monthly bulletins
• Compiling regular lists of icipe publications (monthly, biannual and annual)
• Help projects to get media coverage for events
• Publish icipe aid data on IATI, which is an open aid platform
• Edit job adverts for the icipe website
• Work with the ICT unit to develop a modern Intranet platform to simplify and enhance communication within the Centre.
• Work with contributors (e.g. unit heads, scholars) to gather content for the Intranet. This will include contacting contributors to find out if material on the Intranet needs to be updated and encourage contributors to supply new content for the site.
• Collaborate with the Centre's graphic artist to determine the best way to present information.
• Ensure quality and accuracy of content on the Intranet.

Requirements/Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Information Sciences or related field.
• At least 3 years’ experience in manuscript editing and proofreading.
• Experience in media coverage, writing, editing, and publishing scientific and technical materials.
• Experience in academic publishing.
• Evidence of progressive responsibility in language/science editing.
• Experience managing computer-based systems, including databases and intranet.

Core Competencies

• Attention to detail and excellent organisational skills.
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely.
• Ability to interact confidently but flexibly and courteously with scholarly authors and reviewers.
• Ability to handle confidential matters.
• Ability to multi-task and work under tight deadlines.

Closing date: 30 May 2022

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Overall purpose of the job

The Software Engineer is expected to establish agile methodologies that meet standard software engineering principals in delivering a high-quality data-driven geographic information system (GIS) web software that will meet icipe’s 4-H paradigm (Environmental, Plant, Human, and Animal Health Themes) expectations.

Specific Duties

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Design, develop, test, and deploy robust and secure web-based applications in React/Angular/Node JS, Flask, or related programming languages.
• Develop and deploy web-based data-driven GIS applications using modern frameworks such as ArcGIS, Esri JavaScript API, Leaflet, OpenLayers, Python (arcpy, shapely), or related programming languages.
• Create and manage data schemas in a variety of spatial structured query language (SQL) databases, such as PostgreSQL.
• Design and implement public/internal application programming interfaces (APIs) and web services for data exchange.
• Create and execute complex system implementations according to established timelines, budgets, and quality expectations.
• Write Linux scripts, commands and containerize applications.

Requirements/Qualifications

• BSc/BA in Computer Science, Information Technology, or any other related field from a recognized university.
• Strong software engineering skills
• Good understanding of web architecture, implementation, and deployment in relation to Web 2.0 concepts.
• Expertise in programming and deploying data-driven web-based GIS applications.
• Ability to use environmental data and develop applications for visualisation, analysis, and presentation.
• In-depth understanding of the PostgreSQL database.
• Minimum of 1 year of work experience in a relevant area.
• Previous experience at an international/ regional research organisation is an added advantage.
• Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal skills

Closing date: 31 May 2022

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Overall purpose of the job

The Cloud Solutions Architect will develop scalable and cost-effective architectural solutions for on-premises and cloud-managed services to icipe’s 4-H paradigm (Environmental, Plant, Human, and Animal Health Themes). The position-holder will also be responsible for engineering elastic and interoperable solutions that inter-play with the research data management and archiving infrastructure.

Specific Duties

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Design and deploy scalable, cost-effective, interoperable, and robust cloud architectural solutions that adapt to the dynamic business and research data needs.
• Assess deployed system architectures and those under implementation and, working with technical staff,
• reengineer optimal solutions and products.
• Deploy and document application programming interfaces (APIs) in microservice architectures.
• Migrate on-premises and off-premises software, data, and services.
• Develop web applications, preferably in Node/React JS, Django/Flask, or any other relevant front, and backend web programming languages.
• Write Linux scripts and commands and containerisation of applications.

Requirements/Qualifications

• BSc/BA in Computer Science, Information Technology, or any other related field from a recognised university.
• Related certification(s) in cloud managed services is an added advantage.
• Knowledge and skills in cloud-managed services, preferably in Azure and AWS.
• Good understanding of architecting and building secure and cost-effective on-premises and cloud enterprise systems.
• Good understanding of Agile methodologies.
• Knowledge and skills in big data analytics.
• Good understanding of IT security, data infrastructure, governance, and user-centered design practices.
• Sound knowledge of various operating systems (Linux, AIX, Solaris, and Windows) and database management systems (Oracle, Ms. SQL, MySQL, Postgres, and NoSQL DBs).
• Experience in installing end-user applications and supporting end users working on high-performance computing (HPC) systems is an added advantage.
• At least 1 year of work experience in a relevant area.
• Previous experience at an international/ regional research organization is an added advantage.

Closing date: 31 May 2022

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Overall purpose of the job

The position holder will be responsible for collecting and collating data (occurrence, bionomic, and insecticide resistance) from various sources (e.g., Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), VectorBase, MalariaGEN, Global Vector Hub) into the Vector Atlas data-hub. He/She will transform the data to the Common Data Model (CDM) for downstream analyses and will be responsible for developing/adopting bioinformatic pipelines for analysis of genomic and insecticide resistance (IR) data.

Specific Duties

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Abstract, collate and accurately record georeferenced data (occurrence, bionomic, and insecticide resistance) from various sources (e.g., Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), VectorBase, MalariaGEN, and Global Vector Hub).
• Source malaria vector data (genomic and bionomic) from published literature.
• Continuously populate the vector atlas data platform.
• Apply the Common Data Model (CDM) for data integration across platforms.
• Conduct basic bioinformatic analysis of raw sequence data to identify molecular markers associated with insecticide resistance in malaria vectors.
• Assist in conducting training to various stakeholders including icipe postgraduate students on data documentation.

Requirements/Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Bioinformatics, Population Biology
• or related field. The degree should have been obtained from a recognised university in the last three years (2019 – 2022).
• Knowledge of programming languages (e.g., R, C++, Python, and PERL).
• At least 1 year of work experience in a relevant field.
• Experience in genomics, population genetics, data manipulation, and computational biology.
• Previous experience at an international/ regional research organisation is an added advantage.
• Knowledge of commonly used tools for variant detection (samtools, bowtie2, BWA, IGV, ANNOVAR, and GATK) and file formats (BED, VCF, FASTQ, BAM, and FASTA).
• Knowledge of commonly used and publicly available bioinformatics databases (e.g. GenBank, Uniprot, DDBJ, Ensemble, GEO, SRA, ExAC, ESP,ClinVar, VectorBase, KEGG, HGMD, OMIM, PubMed, and UCSC).

Closing date: 31 May 2022

go to method of application »

Overall purpose of the job

The position holder will be responsible for collecting and collating data (occurrence, bionomic, and insecticide resistance) from various sources (e.g., Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), VectorBase, MalariaGEN, Global Vector Hub) into the Vector Atlas data-hub. He/She will be responsible for geospatial data cleaning, pre-processing, and integration.

Specific Duties

The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Abstract, collate and accurately record georeferenced data (occurrence, bionomic, and insecticide resistance) from various sources (e.g., Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), VectorBase, MalariaGEN, and Global Vector Hub).
• Source malaria vector data (geospatial data) from published literature.
• Continuously populate the vector atlas data platform.
• Apply geospatial data integration across platforms.
• Conduct basic geospatial analysis in relation to insecticide resistance in malaria vectors.
• Assist in conducting training to various stakeholders including icipe postgraduate students on geospatial data documentation.

Requirements/Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science/ Arts in Geographical Information System (GIS), Geospatial Modelling, GeoInformation or related field. The degree should have been obtained from a recognised university.
• Knowledge of geospatial scripting languages (e.g., R, Google Earth Engine).
• At least 1 year of work experience in a relevant field.
• Experience in Geographical Information System (GIS), geospatial modelling, geo-statistics, and geoinformation science.
• Previous experience at an international/regional research organisation is an added advantage.
• Knowledge of commonly used tools for geospatial data collection and analysis (e.g., ArcMap, QGIS, and ENVI) and file formats (e.g., ESRI Shapefile: shp, shx, dbf, Geo-referenced TIFF: tif, tfw, and GPS location: gpx and OK).
• Knowledge of commonly used and publicly available geospatial databases (e.g. WorldClim, AfriClim, etc.)

Closing date: 31 May 2022