ILRI-CIMMYT vacancy: Agricultural Data Coordinator – Internal

Vacancy Number: A/038/13
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Location: Addis Ababa
Duration: 2 years contract with the possibility of renewal

General: The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is an autonomous, non profit making, international scientific organization operating under the aegis of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). More specifically its mission is:

To encourage, support and undertake activities to improve the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of maize and wheat systems in the interest of poor in developing countries.

The position: We are seeking a dynamic, innovative, self-motivated, and service-orientated professional with excellent organizational, data management and people skills to coordinate data flow in a dynamic research team focused on increasing food security and reducing poverty at an international scale. The position will be based at CIMMYT’s office in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), but will interact with all CIMMYT´s experimental stations and regional offices (country and world-wide) on a regular basis

MAIN DUTIES (Terms of Reference)

Reporting to Head Knowledge Management, the successful candidate will act as an interface between individual researchers, project collaborators, software engineers, and clients of CIMMYT knowledge products, and assist CIMMYT scientists and partners in handling and processing large molecular and phenotypic streams for analysis. As members of CIMMYT, successful candidate will work with a dynamic group of knowledge managers, software engineers, crop modelers, crop scientists and economists.

Key duties and responsibilities will include

• Establishing data standards, documentation, data curation processes, time lines for data entry into institutional data bases/repositories, in agreement with project requirements and the CIMMYT knowledge management strategy.
• Coordinating the receipt, storage, manipulation and quality control of agronomic, economic and survey data for CIMMYT staff enabling accurate data tracking and documentation throughout the analysis pipeline.
• Participating in the design, development and population of versatile institutional databases/repositories, interfaces and output tools.
• Introduce new informatics tools to scientist and research assistants and project collaborators provide on-the-job training, and report back user requirements to CIMMYT software engineers.
• Managing and documenting the dissemination of data (raw and analyzed) to co-operators within CIMMYT and with partner organizations.
• Liaise between researchers who want to make use of own and cross institutional databases, knowledge management specialists, biometricians and software engineers at CIMMYT.
• Interpret data summaries to determine accuracy and validity of data.
• Test user-friendly software tools for molecular and trial data capture, storage and analysis.
• Manage and provide feedback to software engineers to help to improve functionality.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENT:

Education:

• Master’s degree in geographical science, agronomy, agricultural statistics or related fields.

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience in developing and/or using bioinformatics tools for the management of large-volume data sets.

Skills:

• Strong analytical skills with attention to details.
• Ability to investigate and analyze with minimum supervision research activities within CIMMYT’s research programs to make them more efficient by using IT resources.
• Ability to work and communicate with knowledge management specialists, biometricians and software engineers at CIMMYT.
• Good interpersonal skills and a strong desire to support the delivery of improved, products, tools and services to team members and collaborators.
• Good communication skills (written and spoken) in English.
• Ability to work well as part of multidisciplinary and multicultural teams.

Duty Station:        Addis Ababa

Grade:                      3A level 2.

Minimum Base Salary: 19,501 Birr per month (Negotiable depending on experience, skill and salary history of the candidate)

Terms of appointment:  This is a Nationally Recruited Staff (NRS) position based at ILRI’s Addis Ababa campus. Initial appointment is (fixed term) for two years with the possibility of renewal appointment, contingent upon individual performance and the availability of funding. CIMMYT offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits in line with ILRI’s policy applicable for its Nationally Recruited Staff.  CIMMYT is an international and equal opportunity organization and believes that diversity of its staff contributes to excellence.

Applications: Applicants should send a cover letter, resume, relevant documents, testimonials, and the names and addresses (including telephone, fax and email) of three referees knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Human Resources Office, ILRI, P.O. Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Telephone: (251-11)-617-20-00; Fax: (251-11)-617-20-01.  The name and reference number of the position for which the application is made should be clearly marked on the envelopes if mailed, or on the fax applications.  Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Qualified women are particularly encouraged to apply.

To find more about CIMMYT, visit our Website at: http://www.cimmyt.org
CIMMYT is an equal opportunity employer.

To find more about ILRI, visit our Website at http://www.ilri.org/
To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at http://www.ilri.org/ilricrowd/