About the Role
The Opportunity
Are you a Geospatial Data Engineer Volunteer wanting to use your skills to help people in a humanitarian crisis and ultimately help save lives? MapAction can enable you to volunteer to do just that.
Volunteers have been the heart of the MapAction for over 20 years but the range of skills needed continually evolves. Now we are looking for a enthusiastic Geospatial Data Engineer professional who has a desire to commit to a great team, and to help MapAction make a difference that has a lasting effect on vulnerable communities.
MapAction works with a range of humanitarian partners, from local organisations who are closest to the ground to a range of global UN partners.
Come and be part of something that is exciting and impactful!
Why MapAction?
MapAction is a leading humanitarian mapping charity, delivering information services and products to enhance decision making in disasters and conflicts. In collaboration with our partners, this mapped information helps responders understand vulnerabilities and target their response effectively, contributing to saving lives and minimising suffering. We work through a team of skilled volunteer professionals and a small paid staff team.
We have built a strong reputation in the humanitarian sector, and are a technical partner of the United Nations, Non-Government Organisations and Civil Society Organisations, the Red Cross, Red Crescent Movement, regional entities and national authorities.
The humanitarian sector is evolving, and technical expertise such as GIS, mapping, information management, data processing and visualisation are becoming increasingly utilised for improving decision making in complex humanitarian response. MapAction and our partners are uniquely positioned to provide technical expertise in support of this.
Responsibilities
As a volunteer, we will be able to work with technical staff and volunteers on different opportunities. Once your onboarding is complete, you will be able to choose the tasks and projects that best fit your skillset and interests. Here below some activities that our data engineer volunteers can support with:
MapAction external projects that require a Data Engineer skillset (e.g.: data pipeline automation, hazard exposure platforms, multi-risk models, conflict incident reporting, etc...)
Work with external partners such as UN agencies, International NGOs and Academic Institutions
Conduct and automate data collection and processing scripts
Create and maintain optimal, performant data pipeline architectures, both internally and externally
Propose improvements to infrastructure, schemas, platforms, toolchains and configurations
Assist in the automation, provision and management of development environments, source-code, build-tools, pipelines and deployments
Support ad-hoc Data Processing during MapAction’s Emergency Responses in collaboration with MapAction’s GIS team
Support internal systems maintenance in collaboration with MapAction’s IT Support Engineer
Attend and / or represent MapAction on technical conferences
Train other volunteers or external organizations on Data Engineer tools and processes
What are we looking for?
Requirements
If you feel you are a good match but do not feel like you meet all the requirements, we are still happy to receive your application! The core skills we look for in all of our team members are the following:
A desire to use their skills, experience and dedication in the cause of humanitarian ends
Good team player with leadership and/or project management experience or ambition wherever possible
Exceptional communication skills, to explain your work to people who don't understand the mechanics behind data analysis, and experience in understanding partner needs and requirements, in particular working with non-technical clients
Adaptable, resilient and solution-oriented
Self-motivated and organised
Time to commit to MapAction, for more details on the time commitment, please refer to the “What does it mean to be part of the MapAction team?”
Essential
Degree or equivalent experience in the field of Data Science, Data Engineering, Computer Science, Software Development, Information Technology or a related field
Three or more years of professional experience working in a data or information management team, as a data engineer, data scientist, developer or other similar role
Experience and proficiency working with Python and Jupyter Notebooks
Data pipeline design skills
Knowledge of cloud platforms like GCP, AWS or Azure
Experience and understanding of CI/CD pipelines
Project management experience. Experience in understanding partner needs and requirements, in particular working with non-technical clients.
Collaborative code management using Git & GitHub
Desirable
Experience of participating in a volunteer organisation or open source projects.
Experience with QGIS or ArcGIS
Experience working with geospatial data (raster and vector)
Databases (NoSQL, SQL, Graph Dbs, Principles of RDBs)
Experience with Systems Engineering
Understanding of the Software Development Life cycle
Thorough grounding in containerisation e.g. Docker, Kubernetes
Shell scripting
An interest in software-engineering or data-science e.g. ML / DL / AI / Statistics
Humanitarian knowledge/experience
What does it mean to be part of the MapAction team?
Being part of MapAction means entering a close-knit community of highly skilled and committed and experienced professionals in different sectors. It means using your unique skills to help prepare for, anticipate, or respond to humanitarian emergencies, enabling our partners to provide life-saving support.
At MapAction, training and team building are at the heart of our organisational culture. We have frequent meet-ups online and in person where paid staff and volunteers get together for training opportunities and skill-sharing, to strengthen our service offer.
As a volunteer, you can participate in all levels and areas of the organisation, working alongside our colleague