Senior Program Officer, GIS and Data Analytics for Nature-Based Solutions - 23123

Overview

World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of the world’s leading conservation organization, seeks a Senior Program Officer (SPO), GIS and Analytics for Nature Based Solutions. 

The SPO works closely with the Director, Forest Climate Solutions Impact and Monitoring, several landscape focal points, and the WWF-US Forest Team in the design, impact assessment and monitoring, reporting, and verification of land-based climate change mitigation interventions in countries with tropical forests.  

Responsibilities

• Collaborates closely with WWFUS-based landscape focal points and WWF country program staff in the conceptualization and development of forest-based climate mitigation activities with a focus on carbon and biodiversity impacts and measurements.

• Delivers ex-ante and ex-post activity data, as well as emissions and removal estimates as required for WWF programmatic work; including production and use of input data towards generation of activity data and emissions factors as needed (including GIS and Remote sensing data processing as well as carbon data production and use).

• Identifies and collaborates with potential partners (e.g., from Academia, other NGOs, support agencies, national teams, etc) to access, produce, and deliver relevant data sets and capacities.

• Collaborates with WWF country teams and partners in defining and developing methodological approaches to be used in forest-related monitoring and accounting.

• Provides technical expertise, guidance, and feedback in forest-related climate mitigation estimation design, implementation, and assessment for key projects and partnerships.

• Delivers critical analyses and expert review of proposed state-of-the-art approaches to carbon accounting data in line with the latest science and policy developments.

• Builds the capacities of WWF staff to replicate and apply various methodologies as appropriate.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree -required in fields of study such as Forestry, Ecology, Biology, Remote Sensing, Computer Science, or related field. Advanced degree is preferred in similar fields of study

• Must have at least 6 years related professional experience.

  • At least 1 year of the 6 years of required professional experience must be specifically in forest carbon accounting, land use change analysis, or related work streams for national and/or project-level estimates. 

  • An advanced degree may substitute for some years of experience.

• Must have relevant experience in elaboration and delivery of carbon estimates for mitigation action design and implementation at either national-, subnational-, or project-scale.

• Must have proven capacity in processing, use and interpretation of remote sensing data for the estimation of emissions, including coding in relevant languages/statistical packages and platforms such as Google Earth Engine-Java Script, AWS, Python, R, etc. Ideally with both active (e.g. SAR, LiDAR) and passive optical data use and processing.

• Must have experience as a user of geospatial data processing software and online platforms and code repositories: e.g. Google Earth Engine, Amazon Web Services, Jupiter Notebooks, QGIS, ArcGIS, GitHub, Jupiter, GDAL, ERDAS, ENVI, IDL, etc.

• Deep understanding of field data usage, including permanent plots, forest mensuration, allometric models, and forest inventory techniques is preferred.

• Experienced in field data collection and processing, preferred.

• Possesses a strong foundation in statistics, knowledge of analysis of variance design, hypothesis testing, multivariate analysis, and experience in data visualization, preferred.

• Demonstrates the willingness to learn from colleagues and partners, solve problems, and is very proactive and self-motivated.

• Ability to work in a multidisciplinary/multicultural environment.

• Excellent written and verbal communications skills.

• International work/research experience preferred.

• Experience in delivery/facilitation of technical training to others preferred.

• Committed to building and strengthening a culture of inclusion within and across teams.

• Must be able to travel if any future need arises

• Identifies and aligns with WWF’s core values: Courage, Integrity, Respect, and Collaboration:

  • Demonstrates courage by speaking up even when it is difficult, or unpopular.

  • Builds trust with colleagues by acting with integrity, owning mistakes, and holding oneself accountable.

  • Welcomes other points of view and ideas, recognizing and embracing different and contrary perspectives with kindness, curiosity, and encouragement.

  • Makes conscious efforts to promote cooperative practices, behaviors, and ways of working across many groups and individuals.

WWF is committed to maintaining a safe and healthy workplace and requires all US-based staff to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.  WWF will consider requests for accommodation from the vaccine requirement based on disability, medical contraindication, sincerely held religious belief, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local law.  

Please Note:

• We are looking to fill this position quickly. Applications will be reviewed as soon as they are received.

To Apply:

• Submit cover letter and resume through our Careers Page,  Requisition #23123

• Due to the high volume of applications we are not able to respond to inquiries via phone

As an EOE/AA employer, WWF will not discriminate in its employment practices due to an applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, or protected Veteran status. WWF values diversity and inclusion and welcomes diverse candidates to apply