We improve lives
The IDB Group is a community of diverse, versatile, and passionate people who come together on a journey to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our people find purpose and do what they love in an inclusive, collaborative, agile, and rewarding environment.
About this position
We are looking for a driven, committed, rigorous data scientist. As a data scientist, you will apply your analytical, technical, and problem-solving skills to strengthen the data foundations that power the IDBโs open knowledge ecosystem.
You will work in the Felipe Herrera Library team, part of the Knowledge and Learning Division, which is responsible for promoting and disseminating open knowledge produced by the Bank and ensuring the quality of metadata in the public-facing publications and data catalogs. You will work closely with library specialists responsible for interoperability, taxonomy, metadata, and knowledge product catalogs, you will play a central role in ensuring high-quality data flows, actionable insights, and reliable analytical support for KLDโs strategic priorities.
What youโll do
- Apply knowledge of NLP, Generative AI, and LLMs to assist with classification tasks, controlled vocabulary alignment, entity/keyword extraction, and metadata enrichment in collaboration with taxonomy specialists.
- Systematically and comprehensively review the quality, completeness, and relevance of existing metadata applied across publications, datasets, and other knowledge assets, leveraging algorithmic or agentic approaches to ensure consistency, accuracy, reliability and alignment with IDB standards and best practices to enhance discoverability.
- Align metadata across different standards and schemas, including internal taxonomies, external vocabularies, and industry frameworks such as Schema.org, DataCite, Dublin Core, and DCAT-3 to promote interoperability and a consistent user experience across IDB platforms.
- Support structured metadata-cleanup, enrichment, and retagging cycles, applying data-driven methods to update, adjust, or remove metadata to improve discoverability, classification accuracy, and semantic clarity.
- Analyze metadata usage patterns across systems and databases (publications catalog, open data catalog, knowledge graphs, search tools, etc.) to identify inconsistencies, redundancies, gaps, and opportunities for improved coherence and interoperability.
- Partner with team members managing interoperability and metadata standards to diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve data issues, recommending systematic improvements and AI-driven solutions that enhance end-to-end data quality, including the design of automated or semi-automated business rules and validation routines (e.g., scripts, checks, dashboards) to continuously monitor metadata quality, flag anomalies, recommend corrective actions and strengthen metadata governance.
- Support the process of updating the IDBโs knowledge taxonomy, including metadata mapping between legacy and current terms and across projects and analyzing terminology usage and user search logs to inform design decisions.
- Apply Search Engine Optimization (SEO) principles to metadata to improve the visibility and ranking of IDB knowledge products in search platforms.
- Produce concise technical documentationโincluding data dictionaries, mappings, workflow descriptions, and process notes as necessaryโto ensure transparency and continuity across projects.
What you'll need
Education: Bachelorโs degree (or equivalent) in data science, computer science, library science, taxonomy, or other fields relevant to the responsibilities of the role.
Experience: At least 2 years of experience in the following:
- Strong grounding in metadata standards, controlled vocabularies, and classification systems.
- Skills in SQL, Python, and working with APIs to retrieve, process, and clean metadata.
- Ability to build dashboards or reports using modern BI tools.
- Experience applying AI/LLMs or automation techniques to metadata or dataโquality workflows.
- Demonstrated ability to evaluate and improve data quality across systems.
- Strong analytical, problemโsolving, and communication skills.
Languages: Proficiency in Spanish and English, spoken and written, is required. Additional knowledge of French and Portuguese is preferable.
Requirements
Citizenship: You are a citizen of one of our 48-member countries. Must be eligible to work in job location(s) without the need for sponsorship.
Consanguinity: You have no family members (up to fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity, including spouse) working at the IDB, IDB Invest, or IDB Lab.
Type of contract and duration
-Local Remote Consultant Full-Time, 12 months (up to 48 months, subject to eligibility) rendered 100% remotely from place of residence of the selected candidate. Services are expected to be provided from a country where the IDB Group has offices.
What we offer
The IDB group provides benefits that respond to the different needs and moments of an employee's life. These benefits include:
-A competitive compensation package.
-Leave and vacations: 2 days per month of contract + gender-neutral parental leave.
-Health Insurance: The IDB Group provides a monthly allowance for the purchase of health insurance.
-Savings plan: The IDB Group cares about your future, depending on the length of the contract, you will receive a monthly savings plan allowance.
-Fully remote modality.
-Development support: We offer learning opportunities to boost your professional profile, such as seminars, 1:1 professional counseling, and much more.
-Health and well-being: Access to our Health Services Center that provides preventive care and health education for employees.
Our culture
At the IDB, we work so everyone brings their best and authentic selves to work while finding their purpose. Our people consistently strive for excellence, and we recognize and celebrate the impact of their contributions.
In our efforts to drive innovation, we intentionally include all voices, cultivate a sense of belonging and champion fairness. We welcome individuals from underrepresented groups to join us and share their unique perspectives.
We ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to participate in the job interview process. If you require an accommodation to complete this application, please email us at accommodations@iadb.org.