**This position will initially be homebased and is expected to transition to Luxembourg in early 2026.**
UNOPS has signed an agreement with the United Nations to implement defined activities in support of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has a Centre for Humanitarian Data in The Hague, the Netherlands which is focused on increasing the use and impact of data in the humanitarian sector. The vision is to create a future where all people involved in a humanitarian emergency have access to the data they need, when and how they need it, to make responsible and informed decisions. The Centre has four workstreams: data services (managing the Humanitarian Data Exchange platform), data responsibility, data literacy and data science.
An area of emerging interest in the humanitarian sector is data science and anticipatory action: asking what will happen in a particular humanitarian context and using available data and models to arrive at an answer. The Centre’s data science team has supported OCHA’s anticipatory action frameworks in a dozen countries, enabling humanitarian organisations to get ahead of shocks and mitigate their impact. After a successful pilot phase, OCHA is now looking at the modalities for scaling and mainstreaming anticipatory action.
UNOPS is seeking to recruit a Data Scientist to support the management and coordination of projects that apply advanced analytics and AI to humanitarian contexts. The incumbent will lead work to design and operationalize predictive models for hazards such as flash floods, in close collaboration with scientific partners in Luxembourg and abroad. This role combines technical expertise with program management, ensuring that complex analytical work is delivered on time, within budget, and aligned with decision makers’ needs. The incumbent will be expected to bridge the gap between scientific innovation and operational decision-making, ensuring that AI-based tools are trusted, actionable, and support anticipatory action.
The incumbent of this position will be a personnel of UNOPS under its full responsibility.
The Data Scientist will report to the Data Science Team Lead under the overall direction of the Lead for the Centre for Humanitarian Data. The incumbent will be expected to work closely with the rest of the Centre team.
The incumbent will be responsible for the following duties:
Manage overall implementation of projects focused on AI-driven predictive models for hazards such as flash floods.
Act as the main liaison with scientific and humanitarian partners in Luxembourg and internationally, ensuring effective collaboration and alignment.
Oversee the development, testing, and operationalization of AI models for anticipatory action.
Ensure that scientific methods are applied responsibly, transparently, and with clear pathways to humanitarian decision-making.
Coordinate stakeholder engagement and capacity-building activities to promote adoption of AI-based early warning systems.
Communicate progress, lessons learned, and results to partners and wider audiences, ensuring outputs are open and accessible.
