Job Details
Description
About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.
About Energy 4 Impact
Energy 4 Impact is Mercy Corps’ Energy Access platform that seeks to reduce poverty in Sub Saharan Africa by accelerating access to clean energy, helping businesses and communities make better use of that expanded access, and working with the private sector to support the sustainability of these efforts. Energy 4 Impact values access to energy not as an end in itself but for the difference it makes to people’s lives every day, in terms of agricultural development, economic growth, humanitarian recovery and climate resilience.
Energy 4 Impact supports the development and growth of privately owned SMEs, and micro businesses, which deliver renewable energy products and services to the poor in rural and urban settings. We advise energy access SMEs on commercial, financial and engineering matters and help them secure the resources they need to grow. We run pilots to test new products, business models and expand into new markets.
The Position
This newly created position will report to the Head of Learning, Monitoring & Evaluation, and Data Management. They will be the primary member of the Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) team responsible to supporting data-related tasks in the team. He/She will be a generalist and support MEL and Programme staff on analysis, data engineering, and, in some cases, data science. He/She will be responsible for setting up data management systems, supporting on other data-heavy and data science issues, and extracting meaning and learning from data, in order to demonstrate project progress and performance, and to evaluate research hypotheses. For the latter, He/She will provide advanced analysis and visualisation, and contribute or lead on the written interpretation of the analysis.
Essential Responsibilities
Data Engineering & Data Management
- Develop and maintain data management pipelines using APIs and cloud computing resources (Microsoft Azure).
- Maintaining local and cloud databases and managing API/scripting links to other applications like PowerBI.
- Create and maintain documentation and training materials for data systems.
- Support Data Scientists on development and deployment of machine learning models.
Data Analysis
- Manage and download data from online data collection platforms, e.g. KoboCollect, ONA, Commcare.
- Data quality checks during surveys, including setting up scripts in Python or R to automate these.
- Cleaning of data sets, including tasks like: matching records between databases, outlier identification, categorisation of written answers, reformatting/standardising responses, removing duplicate records, etc.
- Applying appropriate analysis techniques to extract meaning from data, including calculating relevant statistics and pivot tables.
- Producing understandable, informative, and well-formatted graphs and visualisations to clearly demonstrate results of analysis.
Support to programmatic MEL
- Contribute to MEL system design: hypotheses, logic models, questionnaires
- Provide written interpretation of analysis findings in reports or PowerPoint presentations
- Support the design and development of MEL technologies that will be used to collect, store, analyse, and visualise data – within single programmes or across the MC-E4I portfolio. This include systems that are cloud-based.
Supervisory Responsibility
none
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Head of Learning, Monitoring & Evaluation, Learning, and Data Management
Works Directly With: MEL team, and Programme teams where data & analyses are being generated.
Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders
Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills
Required:
- 4 to 6 years professional experience with data analysis
- Specific experience setting up and maintaining cloud-based data management systems, Microsoft Azure preferred though not required
- Proven experience conducting thorough and quality analysis of survey data sets
- Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s preferred
- Excellent organizational skills including attention to detail and multitasking skills
- Excellent proficiency using Excel and a data-related scripting programming language (Python preferred, R & Stata desired)
Desired:
- Working on analysis of data sets that relate to energy in humanitarian or development contexts
- Experience developing and deploying machine learning and other statistical/optimisation models
- Work in contexts around Africa and internationally
Success Factors
The successful candidate will have highly developed interpersonal and collaborative skills, able to coordinate varied internal and external stakeholders from different cultural backgrounds, empathetic and able to exercise influence diplomatically over colleagues and stakeholders to ensure tasks are assigned in a timely manner and delivered to a high standard. They will be detailed-oriented, with a creative, problem-solving can-do attitude, committed to the team’s success. Most importantly, they will be able to act independently to understand what information and meaning should be extracted from a data-set.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Nairobi, Kenya. It requires up to 10% travel to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited.
Ongoing Learning
In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.
We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.
We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.
Safeguarding & Ethics
Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Mercy Corps does not charge any fees at any stage of the recruitment process.