[Hiring] Research Analyst Consultant @AGORA

Role Description

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical analytical support to the Urban Poverty study in the United Republic of Tanzania and produce a working paper for publication and a policy brief for advocacy.

• UNICEF Office of Strategy and Evidence – Innocenti (UNICEF Innocenti) and UNICEF Tanzania Country Office (TCO) are collaborating to generate high-quality, policy-relevant evidence on urban poverty and deprivation in Tanzania.
• The collaboration aims to produce a peer-reviewed working paper and a policy brief that will inform UNICEF advocacy, programme design, and resource mobilization in support of urban social protection, targeting, and inclusive urban development.
• This research addresses the gap in spatial inequalities due to rapid urbanization in Tanzania by developing an urban-focused, high-resolution poverty mapping approach, integrating geospatial data and machine-learning techniques.
• The analysis will focus on six Tier-1 cities: Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha, Dodoma, Mbeya, and Zanzibar City.
• UNICEF Innocenti seeks to recruit a Research Analyst (Consultant) to provide technical and analytical support to the study, contributing directly to the processing of geospatial data, predictive modelling, analysis, and drafting of the working paper and the policy brief.

Qualifications

• Master’s (or Higher) in Data Science, Spatial Econometrics, Geography, Computer Science, Economics, Statistics, Public Policy, or a related highly quantitative field.
• At least 3 years of relevant experience in quantitative research and advanced data analysis.
• Demonstrated experience working with geospatial data and spatial analysis.
• Practical experience building and tuning supervised machine learning models (e.g., Random Forest, XGBoost) and deep learning architectures (e.g., CNNs) for socio-economic or spatial analysis.

Requirements

• Expert-level proficiency in Python or R (mandatory for Google Earth Engine integration, CNN feature extraction, and ML pipelines).
• Proficiency in Stata (mandatory for all survey data processing).
• Ability to deliver clean, reproducible Stata .do files for the survey integration phase, and clear Python/R scripts for the geospatial and machine learning phases.
• Demonstrated experience with Google Earth Engine (GEE) and standard GIS platforms (e.g., QGIS, ArcGIS).
• Strong data visualization skills (e.g., generating continuous spatial heat maps) and a proven track record of analytical academic writing.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken) is required.

Desirables

• Familiarity with handling Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) or Living Standards Measurement Studies (LSMS).
• Knowledge of United Republic of Tanzania’s urban landscape, social protection landscape, and poverty profile.
• Relevant research experience working with UNICEF or other international organizations.
• Ability to organize own work and carry out a computationally heavy research project with limited supervision according to deadlines.

Benefits

• Diverse opportunities for professional and personal development.
• Attractive compensation and benefits package.