DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide core remote sensing and hydrological modelling expertise to implement research-for-development projects.
• Conduct research to enhance understanding of various issues related to water and climate systems and their interconnections with food, energy, and the environment.
• Under the Digital Innovation for Water Secure Africa (DIWASA) project, contribute modelling expertise to develop Water Accounts and utilize Earth Observation data for water availability and scarcity indicators.
• Conduct large-scale modelling of hydrologic systems to produce river discharge and related products for improving water management.
• Design and conduct research to address critical knowledge and policy gaps in integrated water resources management.
• Lead and contribute to proposal writing, development, and communication with donor agencies.
• Establish and maintain core modelling competencies (suite of models, database, and applications) to support IWMI’s research-for-development activities.
• Develop and apply methodologies to assess the impacts of climate change on water-food-energy-environment systems.
• Gather, interpret, and apply hydro-meteorological, socio-economic, and other relevant data for modelling water-energy-food-environment systems.
• Customize or adapt existing modelling and decision support tools to fulfil project requirements.
• Utilize and integrate geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing tools, methods, and datasets to model water resource availability and management.
• Merge field and remote sensing data to develop and execute models and tools depicting surface water and water budget for river basins.
• Collaborate within multidisciplinary teams to achieve project objectives, generate new research ideas, and develop proposals.
• Cultivate relationships with key IWMI partners and identify potential new partners in climate-smart water resources management and modelling of water systems in a changing climate.
• Facilitate internal and external collaboration among researchers, stakeholders, and project partners.
• Produce journal articles, blogs, policy briefs, research reports, and conference papers to disseminate research findings and insights.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

Essential:

• PhD in hydrology, water resources management, environmental engineering management or a related field coupled with 03 years of relevant post-doctoral experience OR; a Master’s degree in the aforementioned fields and a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience.
• Experience in modelling hydrological problems and water systems at large scale.
• At least 03 years of experience conducting water accounting assessments for multiple African river basins.
• Experience in climate change and climate impact assessment on water systems.
• Proven record of relevant peer-reviewed articles in high-end international journals, where the applicant is the first author.
• Experience in conducting hydrologic assessments using cloud-based architecture.
• Experience handling large datasets for modelling water systems, encompassing land, food, energy, and environment.

Desirable:

• Work experience in developing countries, particularly in the West Africa region.
• Experience in mentoring junior research staff members.
• Experience in project administration.
• Experience in proposal development and grant writing.
• Experience in stakeholder engagement with national agencies and transboundary river basin authorities.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES:

Essential:

• A strong understanding and background in river basin hydrology, from local to large scale.
• Knowledge and competency in applying GIS and remote sensing techniques to climate and hydrological problems.
• Proficiency in using diverse large-scale hydrologic modelling tools that use earth observation data.
• Familiarity with hosting hydrologic data and utilizing open data cubes such as Digital Earth Africa, Google Earth Engine or AWS Open Data Registry.
• Proficiency in R and Python for model development, data analysis, and data visualization.
• Skilled in writing and maintaining code in Jupyter Notebooks and managing repositories on GitHub.
• Strong analytical and numerical skills, with the ability to process large temporal and spatial datasets.
• Independent and critical scientific thinking.
• Excellent oral and written language skills in English, including effective listening and strong verbal and written communication abilities.
• Ability to effectively prioritize tasks and plan, organize, implement, and monitor work activities.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships in a multicultural and multidisciplinary environment, demonstrating sensitivity and respect for diversity.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of climate change and agricultural and water management issues in Africa and in transboundary river basins, including the river basins in West Africa such as the Volta River Basin.
• Interest in socioeconomic and poverty implications of water development and management.
• Excellent oral and written language skills in French.a