Data Science Officer - CST II (Supply Chain)

at  World Food Programme

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

9 septiembre 2024-23:59-GMT-04:00 Venezuela Time (Caracas)
WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

• Education: Advanced University degree in Data Science, Statistics, or Data analysis or First University Degree with additional years of related work experience and/or training/courses in data analysis and/or Data scientist experience.
• Experience: At least 5 years of postgraduate progressively responsible professional experience in Data Science in projects related to optimization and decision-making.
• Knowledge and Skills: Experience in Data analysis and Programming skills in languages such as C+, Python, and/or R.
• Languages: Fluency (level C) in English and at least intermediate (level B) in Spanish.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Venezuela Country Office (VECO) has developed a promising vehicle routing optimization tool for its School Meals Programme aiming to deliver meals to 1.5 million beneficiaries across 2,500+ locations. This solution leverages technology to improve efficiency by optimizing distribution routes between warehouses and schools, leading to cost-savings, time-reduction and reduced environmental impact. The matheuristic optimization model has already been developed, and the input and output UI/UX has been tested and is currently being used at central level in the Country Office to develop optimized distribution plans both for WFP contracted transporters and fresh-food suppliers. While a strong foundation has been laid, VECO seeks to further enhance its optimization tool and create synergies with on-going innovative optimization projects in WFP.
Through collaboration with WFP HQ departments (SCOD and SCOO), VECO identified significant synergies between its optimization tool and the Route the Meals project. Route the Meals, a winning project from the Google Innovation Challenge in collaboration with WFP Innovation Accelerator (INKA), focuses on strategic decision-making for CO’s network by determining the optimal location of warehouses for food storage and identifying efficient routes for delivering such items to their final destinations (e.g., schools), leading to reductions in decision-making time, human errors, transportation and storage costs, and distribution lead times.
This project aligns perfectly with VECO’s project outputs.The CO requires a consultant to act as project manager and continue to develop the tools in order refine them and determine the scalability to other WFP operations.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Under the direct supervision of the Logistics Officer, the incumbent will lead the Supply Chain Data Science team and will supervise national staff assigned to the team. The incumbent will oversee the following activities:

• Lead the Route optimization project. Understand the current logistical challenges met by the Country Office and identify potential data projects allowing the alleviation of these challenges.
• Create the implementation plan for the tool.
• Supervise 2-3 national staff in the unit working on the project.
• Collaborate closely with other staff in relevant unites units (ICT, VAM, etc.)
• Design, coordinate, and manage innovation projects that arise from regularoperations.
• Participate in working groups within WFP and with external partners on relevant innovative topics such as AI and automation.
• Assist the different units in the integration of innovative developed decision-making tools in their operations.