AI, ML and Data Science Specialist (Multiple Profiles)

Organizational Setting

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) promotes the transition to more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agri-food systems. This aims for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, ensuring no one is left behind. The Digital FAO and Agro-informatics Division (CSI) oversees all information technology (IT) activities within the Organization, with a strong emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI). CSI's key responsibilities include defining FAO IT policies, offering strategic advice on AI architecture and standards, technology and operational matters while monitoring organizational compliance. Furthermore, CSI establishes mechanisms for managing FAO’s information and data; protects FAO's information assets ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability; provides core IT services crucial for global operations; supports information and business processes; coordinates organization-wide IT activities to minimize duplication and fragmentation while enhancing integration of information, data, systems, and platforms; and mobilizes IT resources across the Organization.

To enhance the AI/ML capabilities of CSI further, FAO is recruiting a skilled professional focused on AI solutions analysis, design, and development. This position presents an exciting opportunity for a proactive, innovative professional to deliver essential technical support, focusing on the growth, integration, and ongoing development and support of our AI ecosystem. The successful candidate will play a crucial role in developing, maintaining and improving AI-based solutions, ensuring they continue to meet evolving organizational needs.

This role is home-based with a requirement for at least 4 hours of overlap with the CET time zone.

Reporting Lines

The incumbent will report directly to the Senior Information Technology Officer (Artificial Intelligence), with day-to-day activities and coordination overseen by the AI-Solutions Architect Consultant.

Technical Focus 

This role involves supporting existing applications, as well as development and continuous enhancement of FAO’s AI systems portfolio. Responsibilities include contributing to the planning, design, and development of new AI/ML capabilities within the organization's applications. The incumbent will collaborate closely with business teams and the AI-Solutions Architect to understand future needs, providing technical solutions and deliverables that align with the business requirements of the program. Additionally, the role includes contributing to the architectural and system design of AI solutions.

Tasks and responsibilities

AI Solutions Specialist:
•    Gather and analyse business requirements from stakeholders and translate them into technical specifications.
•    Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment of AI projects with business goals, facilitating communication between technical and non-technical stakeholders.
•    Develop and maintain documentation, including business cases, process flows, and user stories.
•    Design and develop full-stack AI systems, leveraging AI/ML services
•    Develop solutions following CI/CD best practices
•    Assemble, extend and integrate AI-based automation and knowledge solutions leveraging low-code platforms

Data Science and ML Specialist:
•    Design and implement ETL processes to integrate data from various sources.
•    Build and maintain data pipelines to ensure data quality and accessibility.
•    Ensure data security and compliance with FAO data policies.
•    Develop and deploy machine learning models according to project requirements
•    Implement and maintain ML pipelines and workflows.
•    Optimize the use of LLMs for NLP use cases with best practices, including fine-tuning of Foundation Models
•    Monitor and evaluate model performance, making necessary adjustments.
•    Analyse large datasets to extract actionable insights, including structured statistical and geospatial 
•    Build predictive models to support FAO's decision-making processes.
•    Develop data visualization tools and dashboards to communicate findings.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    For COF: University degree in Information Technology or related discipline. Public Cloud (Azure, AWS, GCP or Microsoft PowerPlatform) professional certificates and 2 years of experience in full-stack software 
•    For PSA: Relevant technical degree/certificate and at least than 1 year of experience in full-stack software development
•    For both COF and PSA: Additional 1 years’ relevant experience with AI/ML services in multi-cloud environments and/or in Microsoft PowerPlatform and Copilot Studio environments
•    Working knowledge of English. 

FAO Core Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills 

AI Solutions Specialist:
•    Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with experience with requirements gathering and documentation.
•    Ability to translate business requirements into technical specifications and proficiency in business analysis tools and techniques (e.g., SWOT analysis, PEST analysis).
•    Deep understanding of AI technologies and their applications.
•    Experience with AI and LLM frameworks and cloud services (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, AWS Bedrock, Azure AI/OpenAI, Vertex AI, Copilot Studio).
•    Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, JavaScript/TypeScript and familiarity with cloud platforms and services (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure).
•    Experience in front-end technologies (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Angular).
•    Experience with back-end technologies (e.g., Node.js, Django, Ruby on Rails).
•    Familiarity with cloud platforms and services (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure, PowerPlatform).
•    Proficiency in low-code platforms like Microsoft PowerAutomate and Copilot Studio/Copilot for M365
•    Experience with SharePoint environments development.
•    Strong understanding low-code applications performance and scalability.
•    Proficiency with CI/CD tools (e.g., GitHub Actions, Bitbucket Pipelines).
•    Understanding of automated cloud infrastructure management and infrastructure as code (e.g., AWS CDK, Terraform).
•    Experience in containerization and orchestration tools (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).

Data Science and ML Specialist:
•    Proficiency in ETL processes and data pipeline design.
•    Proficiency in multiple database types (e.g, SQL, NoSQL, key-value, document-oriented, graph).
•    Experience with cloud data services (e.g., BigQuery, AWS Glue).
•    Strong understanding of data preprocessing and feature engineering.
•    Proficiency in programming languages such as Python and ML frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch.
•    Familiarity with cloud-based ML platforms, pre-trained AI Models, NLP, Speech & Voice Services (e.g., SageMaker, Vertex AI, BigQuery ML, AutoML Azure ML. etc.).
•    Strong analytical skills.
•    Knowledge of machine learning algorithms and techniques.
•    Proficiency in programming languages such as R or Python and experience with data processing and visualization tools (e.g., Panda, Tableau, Power BI).

All:
•    Outstanding analytical, business process development skills and problem-solving skills.
•    Ability to troubleshoot system, process and data issues; ability to think clearly under pressure.
•    Demonstrated and proven ability to provide superior client service in demanding, deadline-driven situations.
•    Ability to effectively communicate and coordinate with senior business management and peers.
•    Self-motivated and solution oriented with excellent people and project management skills.
•    Work in a highly evolving dynamic business use cases.

Selection Criteria

•    University degree in one of the above-mentioned fields for PSAs is an asset.
•    At least knowledge of one of the other FAO official languages is an asset.
•    Other AI/ML and data science certificates are a plus