Bioversity International – Research Fellow – Climate Information Services Specialist

Job Description

About the position

The Climate Action research area of the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT require a specialist in the area of climate information services (CIS) for agriculture, who has a background, experience, and interest in using climate information to inform decision making for the agricultural sector. This position will design and implement activities on digitally enabled and participatory climate services for a variety of projects in Africa. The Specialist on Climate Services leverages Alliance expertise in modeling and data science and uses their own expertise to design new and improve existing mechanisms to deliver climate-informed advisories at scale, and devise strategies and business models to make the provision of such advisories sustainable. The incumbent will work in a team of data scientists and modelers in Kenya, and in collaboration with scientists in other countries in Africa to understand users’ needs; and design, develop, and deploy agro-climate services, and coordinate activities with partners, as well as coordinate with Alliance scientists from Asia and Latin America on related thematic areas. The incumbent will also design and deploy capacity building activities with stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute in designing and implementation of digitally enabled and participatory agro-climate services by leveraging the previous expertise of the Alliance in Africa and other regions. This will require first understanding the different approaches to climate services at Alliance and elsewhere, documenting the needs of partners and users, and designing project activities that address those needs and build on previous work.
• Advance the area of agro-climate services for the Alliance in Africa, ensuring timely delivery of project outputs, and contributing to coordinating activities across relevant projects.
•  Guarantee an effective, efficient, and responsible development and deployment of climate-informed advisory services and develop and test innovative ideas that leverage digital technologies to scale CIS.
• Engage in bilateral fundraising activities in the area of agro-climate services.
• Design and implement training workshops to colleagues and project partners, including for building climate literacy, developing better forecast systems, amongst others. 
• Continue to build and nurture key partnerships in Africa with key partners including Meteorological Services, Digital Partners, Farmer Organizations, and other CGIAR centers.
• Contribute to technical discussions with partners and develop roadmaps for CIS activity implementation.
• Coordinate activities internally at the Alliance and CGIAR, and stay up to date on activities of key partners (e.g., IRI), as well as on new methods and approaches to CIS
• Contribute and lead reporting, and scientific paper writing.

Requirements

Qualifications and requirements:

•  PhD/Masters level studies (on agriculture, climate sciences, agrometeorology, or related fields), and demonstrated experience of at least 2 years (for PhD) or 5 years (for Masters) working in the field of CIS.
• Extensive experience, training, and knowledge in agrometeorology, climate science, and/or climate services for agriculture.
• Experience in the design and application of participatory methods for CIS needs assessment, and CIS design and implementation at the field scale.
• Experience in designing and deploying CIS systems either through participatory, or digital means, or both. Working knowledge of seasonal forecast tools such as Next Gen is a plus.
• Extensive experience of handling and processing gridded weather and climate data.
• Experience working with partners from academia, NGOs, CGIAR centers, and meteorological services
• Knowledge and experience on climate prediction and/or on the use of climate predictions to inform decision-making.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English. French would be a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate multi-disciplinary efforts and work with stakeholders (both internally and externally) with emphasis in CIS
• Experience working in an international context and interacting with stakeholders across disciplines and (desirably) countries.

Terms of employment

This is an internationally recruited position based either in Nairobi, Kenya or Kigali, Rwanda. The contract will be for two-years period, subject to a probation period of six (6) months and is renewable depending on performance and availability of resources. The Alliance offers a multicultural, collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits; we believe that the diversity of our staff contributes to excellence. This position is at BG08, in a scale of BG14 levels, with level 14 being the highest.

The Alliance is an equal opportunity employer, and strives for staff diversity in gender and nationality.

APPLICATIONS

Applicants are invited to visit  https://www.bioversityinternational.org/jobs/ to get full details of the position and to submit their applications. Applications MUST include reference number Ref: 102958 & 102957-Research Fellow – Climate Information Services Specialist as the position applied for. Application and CV should be saved as one document using the candidate’s last name, first name for ease of sorting.

Note: The Alliance does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing or training). The Alliance also does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

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