Data Scientist

SEI HQ is looking for an enthusiastic person with strong analytical skills to join our Trase initiative and work within a dynamic team of experts, helping to leverage our capacity to identify, allocate and communicate the environmental, economic and social impacts as a result of agricultural commodity production globally propagated through international commodity supply chains.

The role

Are you interested in working in an international setting with people from diverse backgrounds to tackle major environmental and sustainability challenges? SEI HQ is looking for an enthusiastic person with strong analytical skills to work within a dynamic team of experts, helping to leverage our capacity to identify, allocate and communicate the environmental, economic and social impacts as a result of agricultural commodity production globally propagated through international commodity supply chains. You will be joining the Trase partnerships (http://www.trase.earth) and the Spatial Intelligence Team that is expanding to respond to a growing demand for spatial data and analyses linked to tropical deforestation and conversion to commodity production and supply chains.

You will work in collaboration with experts across the Trase Supply Chain Mapping, Research, Data Products and Impact teams, as well as in-country experts and partners in commodity producing countries in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Key duties and responsibilities

• Obtain, organize and develop datasets, as well as running quality assurance protocols on the assets stored in the Trase Spatial repository available on Google Earth Engine
• Apply existing Trase methods for measuring commodity deforestation, commodity deforestation exposure and future risk linked to supply chains
• In collaboration with Trase colleagues and partners, advance methods to measure deforestation and other environment and social impacts associated with commodity expansion, investments and trade
• In collaboration with Trase colleagues and partners, advance methods to better evaluate the effectiveness of country and corporate zero-deforestation commitments and implementation measures
• Work with Trase Impact team to respond to demand from Trase users for new or bespoke data products and spatial analyses
• Think creatively about bringing new data and technical solutions to process, access and analyze Trase data, including to overcome data gaps and link to third-party datasets
• Support wider Trase team in developing data products to democratize access to Trase spatial data, including developing statistics and easy-to-access numbers to address specific questions around impact metrics
• Help develop partnerships with leading experts and practitioners to deliver robust science and ensure Trase’s work remains credible, actionable and policy-relevant
• Present research and project results in meetings and international conferences
• Lead and co-author publication of communication pieces, including blog posts, insights, policy briefs and peer-reviewed articles.

Who you are

The successful candidate has a strong background in spatial data and analyses, linking agricultural production systems and environmental and social impacts, preferably with a focus on tropical ecosystems and supply chains. You are motivated to make data and research accessible to a diverse range of audiences, including the private sector, governments and civil society, and ideally have practical experience in how to drive uptake and use of data products by different users.

You are able and willing to work both independently and as part of a team in a highly flexible and exciting research environment while also being comfortable investing time as needed in basic maintenance, monitoring, documentation and processing tasks. You are a team player with patience and calm in situations with tight deadlines. You are also adaptive and results-oriented with the ability to multitask.

As we work with a wide array of different stakeholders, you need strong interpersonal and communication skills and enjoy interacting and networking with actors in cross-cultural settings and from very different disciplines (data and sustainability scientists, communications specialists, development, policy and campaigning organizations, and public and private sector stakeholders). Respect for colleagues and the development of a supportive, fun and collaborative working environment is something you value strongly.

Formal qualifications and knowledge

• Experience working in multi-disciplinary teams working on sustainability in agricultural, land-use or forestry sectors with familiarity on technical (data processing and analysis) and thematic areas of work (application of data to challenges facing supply chain sustainability), as well as experience translating relevance of work for policy, private sector initiatives and/or campaign work
• Master’s level qualification or equivalent work experience in field relevant to sustainable development, especially measuring impacts associated to commodity supply chain
• At least two years’ experience working with GIS, both on platforms or programming languages such as R and Python
• Extensive experience working with raster overlay analysis, preferably on Google Earth Engine with minimal supervision
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, ability to build good working relationships with colleagues and partners and ability to communicate complex ideas to wide audiences
• Fluency in written and spoken English.

Desirable qualifications and knowledge

• Experience with statistical analysis, preferably with spatial statistics, and modeling and predicting land use and land cover changes
• Experience with Git, preferably ability to work in GitHub
• Experience with catalogues, metadata and documentation for spatial datasets
• Proficiency in Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian and/or Mandarin.

How to apply

Please submit your applications by 6 January 2023. We only accept applications in English that are submitted through our recruitment system. Please apply online and include:

• Cover letter highlighting relevant qualifications and experience and why you are motivated by this position
• Curriculum vitae.

You do not need to be a Swedish or EU citizen nor have a work/residence permit in order to apply for a job at SEI HQ.