Nutrition Data Advisor (GS 12/GS 13 Equivalent)

Overview

Global Health Technical Professionals (GHTP) is a US Agency for International Development (USAID) program that offers early- to mid-career global health professionals the opportunity to advance their careers supporting the USAID Bureau for Global Health and its implementing partners. GHTP is helping USAID improve global health outcomes in communities around the world by building a new generation of global health technical professionals who reflect the diversity of the American people.

Credence and its partner, the Public Health Institute (PHI), are both employers for the Global Health Technical Professionals (GHTP) project which provides expertise in support of USAID global health programs. The hiring of this position will be through the PHI and as such the selected person will become a PHI employee.

Summary Statement

USAID’s Center for Nutrition (CN) within the Bureau for Resilience and Security (RFS) provides technical and programmatic leadership in nutrition-sensitive agriculture, food systems, and food safety in support of Feed the Future and the RFS Strategy. The CN also plays a broader, Agency-wide role as the Secretariat for the USAID Nutrition Leadership Council (NLC), and in collaboration and partnership with the Bureaus of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and Global Health (GH), provides cross-bureau leadership for technical strategy development, external engagement, data analytics and knowledge management in support of the Agency’s Multi-Sector Nutrition Strategy (2014-2025), the USG Global Food Security Strategy (2017-2021) and the USG Global Nutrition Coordination Plan (2016-2021). The CN is responsible for strengthening linkages between USAID’s multi-sectoral nutrition programming by harmonizing strategies and resources while providing technical guidance, oversight, and programmatic coordination to the field. These linkages to USAID’s Agency-wide nutrition objectives are supported by a focus on coordinated monitoring, evaluation, and strategic analytics. RFS/CN seeks to hire a Nutrition Data Advisor to support nutrition analysis across the Agency to strengthen the use of data for programming, evaluation and impact reporting.

Job Requirements

The Nutrition Data Advisor will serve as a member of the Center for Nutrition (CN) within the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS). The Nutrition Data Advisor will demonstrate a clear understanding of multisectoral nutrition priorities, and the ways in which data and analysis can support advancing nutrition priorities. Sitting within the CN, the Nutrition Data Advisor will work in a matrixed fashion to support both the CN’s focus on nutrition-sensitive agriculture, food systems and food safety, as well as work with nutrition and data experts in other Bureaus to coordinate and advance Agency-wide nutrition objectives. The Nutrition Data Advisor will work to organize, manage, analyze and visualize nutrition data that will facilitate a data-driven culture within the CN. To advance Agency-wide nutrition priorities, the Nutrition Data Advisor will have robust engagement as a member of the cross-bureau Nutrition Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group and other cross-bureau working groups as applicable. The Nutrition Data Advisor will identify nutrition evidence gaps and work collaboratively with the RFS Analytics and Learning Division (ALD) within the Office of Policy and Analysis, and Engagement (PAE), the Research Community of Practice, and other bureaus to fill these gaps. Across Bureaus and within RFS, the Nutrition Data Advisor will contribute to global analysis of programming effectiveness and impact, efforts to innovate measurement, and trend analysis, including forecasting and futures analyses.

Responsibilities

To perform this job successfully, the Nutrition Data Advisor must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The Nutrition Data Advisor will:

• Work collaboratively with CN colleagues and support leadership, including the Agency Chief Nutritionist to establish nutrition analytic priorities;
• Collaborate with ALD within RFS/PAE to develop an implementation plan to address identified analytic priorities;
• Aggregate, document, visualize, and disseminate sectoral evidence and best practice;
• Present results of data analyses in an easily understood manner;
• Conduct nutrition analyses drawing from a wide-range of multisectoral data sources including the DHS, MICS, FTFMS, USAID financial data, Living Standards Measurement Surveys, Feed the Future data, or USAID host country government data sources, USAID Performance Plan and Report (PPR) data, and quarterly-reported USAID programmatic data, and more;
• Collaborate within and across bureaus to contribute to data analyses, data visualizations and maps to enhance information, communications, and demonstration of USAID’s technical expertise and programming impact in multi-sectoral nutrition for use in briefings, publications, presentations, and reports.
• Support USAID Field Missions to facilitate access to data on global nutrition, agriculture food systems, public health and USAID programmatic and financial data;
• Participate in USAID and industry communities of practice, and work collaboratively with USAID’s nutrition subject matter experts, engaging stakeholders in the development and prioritization of data analyses;
• Produce programmatic data visualizations and dashboards using Tableau software;
• Clean and verify data integrity and quality before analysis;
• Participate in professional continuing education, skills training and professional meetings to enhance relevant technical skills and career development;
• Complete and execute an Individual Learning and Training Plan and Annual Work Plan;

At a GS-13 level, the Nutrition Data Advisor will additionally:

• Connect nutrition evidence to program and policy implications and recommendations;
• Support USAID Field Missions to conduct advanced analyses on country-level nutrition;
• Advise on reporting practices, organizational templates, enablement and adoption of analytics programs;
• Interpret programmatic data visualizations and dashboards using Tableau software;
• Advise leadership, including the Agency Chief Nutritionist to establish nutrition analytic priorities;

Qualifications

• Minimum of a Master’s degree and 5 years of relevant experience or a Bachelor’s degree and 7 years of relevant experience in nutrition, public health, epidemiology, social science, applied mathematics, statistics or equivalent
• Minimum of Seven (5) years of professional experience in international development, public health, or nutrition programming, research, or data analysis. The required number of years may be lowered for candidates with demonstrated experience or relevant graduate degrees / relevant professional certifications (e.g., Tableau Desktop, data science specializations from accredited training programs). Demonstrated experience in data analysis, visualization, statistics, epidemiology, or job duties/responsibilities generally related to the PD requirements is preferred.
• Demonstrated knowledge of common sources of nutrition data in developing countries across public health, agriculture, and other domains.
• Demonstrated experience in analysis and presentation of nutrition, public health, agriculture, food security, or other data.
• Experience with advanced data manipulation in formats such as Excel, Google sheets, etc. Tableau Desktop Associate Certification is preferred or should be successfully achieved with the first six months of employment. Demonstrated experience with common data science tools (such as Tableau, R/Python, Alteryx, Qualtrics) is preferred.
• Intellectual curiosity to find new and unusual ways of how to visualize and analyze data.
• Comfort working both independently and collaboratively.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to travel internationally and domestically approximately 25%.
• US citizenship or US Permanent Residency with the ability to obtain and maintain Facility Access required.