The CCS MEL Technology Coordinator will support the establishment and ongoing maintenance of a harmonized/standardized common data standards, data schema, and data collection tools that would be available for the entirety of the consortium. This includes creating interactive reporting infographics such as dashboards and other business intelligence solutions; establishing harmonized/standardized (but adaptable) questions/variable naming conventions, identifying data types/database schema to be able to establish a harmonized consortium MEL Microsoft Azure cloud database/infrastructure that is integratable with the Mercy Corps MEL Tech suite of tools (including CommCare, Power BI). The MEL Technology Coordinator will also support the setup, piloting, customization, documentation/guidance, development and deployment of the CommCare data management system and data automation system (cleansing/processing/analytics through linkages between CommCare, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI).
The role will provide programmatic support to the MEL Manager and Consortium Director, leading information management and data quality control. It will also effectively assist the CCS MEL Manager in tracking indicators, processing data and establishing monitoring and evaluation practices with high quality standards.
The MEL Technology Coordinator is responsible for the management, implementation and administration of the consortium's Azure databases and will support the information sharing and analysis processes with other programs, organizations and institutions. They also inform the MEL Manager about early alerts related to compliance with minimum standards of monitoring, evaluation and data quality required by donors and partner organizations.
They will support the capacity building and mentoring strategy for the MEL staff of CCS partners on regular Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning activities. Additionally, will work with different team members globally across HQ (PaQ, TSU, HLR, T4D, IT) and with Mercy Corps country/regional program and MEL team members to establish and document the data standards/data schema, workflows and strategies related with MEL automation processes.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY
THIS POSITION DOES NOT HAVE SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY.
Accountability
Reports Directly To: CCS MEL Manager.
Works With: HQ PAQ/MEL team, CCS Director, CCS MEL Manager and CCS partner MEL and Program national/local teams (including Mercy Corps Sudan MEL team).
Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders
Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our projects.
Knowledge and Experience
Required
- Bachelor's degree and/or professional certification in engineering, IT, computer science, economics, statistics, business administration, social sciences or related fields.
- Minimum 5 years of demonstrated professional experience, and a minimum of 2 years of demonstrated professional experience in international relief and development with knowledge of relevant sectoral and/or operational areas.
- The ideal candidate could either be an IT professional with some experience of humanitarian / development work, or, an experienced MEL professional with some working knowledge of data science and/or data engineering..
- Experience in development and implementation of information systems and primary data collection tools is mandatory. Experience of using statistical/programming software (such as STATA, R, Python, SQL) to establish data pipelines to extract, transform, load data between different data storage containers and analysis software is desirable.
- Demonstrated experience developing data collection tools using XLS Forms, or case management platforms such as SurveyCTO, CommCare, ActivityInfo
- Demonstrated experience on harmonizing data collection tools across multiple programs/sectors. Solid concepts of database management and information analysis.
- Demonstrated ability to critically evaluate data, identify errors and weaknesses, and conduct data cleaning and manipulation.
- Experience with descriptive and inferential statistics and conducting aggregate data analysis (combining common data across different programs/datasets).
- Experience facilitating technical training and consultations remotely and or in-person.
- Experience working with an interdisciplinary team of diverse professionals (team members from different cultures - technical, and non-technical) to deliver a functional technical solution that improved business/program processes and decision making.
- Proficiency with MS Office software (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Ability to pick up technical skills in a variety of software platforms and applications through self-directed learning.
- Ability to manage teams and meet deadlines.
- Ability to work independently.
- Excellent communication and organizational skills.
- Proficiency in English
Preferred (not required)
- Knowledge of design and implementation of data architecture platforms, infrastructure, pipelines, and technologies to effectively automate business/program processes.
- Experience with REST and/or OData API integration
- Experience architecting and developing cloud database/storage systems and analytics solutions (such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, etc.)
- Experience developing, implementing, deploying, and maintaining virtual machines, virtual servers
- Experience with Azure Cloud, especially Synapse SQL analytics pools (SQL DW);
- Experience implementing data governance practices and requirements within data systems architecture and process
- Experience with GitHub/Gitlab
- Experience with GIS software (e.g. ArcGIS, QGIS)
- Proficiency in Arabic.
- Azure, Oracle, Google, and/or AWS cloud data solutions design certification desirable.