FEWS NET West Africa Regional Scientist

The FEWS NET Regional Scientist (RS) position performs operational analysis of agroclimatic conditions to support the needs of FEWS NET reporting responsibilities. They provide evidence for developing assessments of the crop conditions that can feed into the FEWS NET streams of reporting. The RS will work closely with FEWS NET country and regional representatives and partner institutions to synthesize available information to provide a comprehensive view of conditions and outcomes. Furthermore, the RS will engage with the FEWS NET team and partner institutions to build capacity and transfer skills to support the analysis of remotely sensed or earth observation data.

Qualifications
• Advanced degree (Ph.D., or Master’s if accompanied by significant experience) in physical geography, meteorology, environmental science, agricultural engineering, or other related field
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in the application of remote sensing to environmental monitoring
• Experience with GIS and remote sensing software, such as QGIS, ArcMap, ENVI/IDL
• Experience in planning, organizing, and leading virtual and in-person events including workshops and technical trainings
• Fluency in English
• Fluency in French
• African national with experience in West Africa

Preferred qualifications
• Experience in computer programming using Earth Observation data, such as Python, R, Matlab, IDL, etc.
• Experience in facilitating discussion, engaging user communities, and enhancing mutual understanding and partnerships among scientists, data users, policy makers, and the public, as well as other beneficiaries.

Objectives
• Support FEWS NET activities in the region by providing data products and analysis enabling the quantification of conditions of key hydrologic, vegetative, or related parameters
• Develop material and contribute to various reporting streams to highlight seasonal conditions and present a consistent characterization of conditions across platforms
• Serve as the principal liaison with the host institution (AGRHYMET), FEWS NET staff in the region, and other related partners
• Build capacity among colleagues and partners through training users on FEWS NET data and products, web-based platforms, and stand-alone software

Duties
• Conduct interpretation of agroclimatic variables (precipitation, NDVI, soil moisture, crop models, etc.) to identify drought and flood anomalies of potential significance to regional food security
• Create the FEWS NET Seasonal Monitor on a monthly basis during the monitoring season
• Contribute to the development and updating of FEWS NET agroclimatic assumptions for reporting at the monthly seasonal forecast call
• Support the development of capacity at the host institution to produce remotely sensed and derivative information products that add value to the FEWS suite of available data assets