Work for the IMF. Work for the World.

The Statistics Department (STA) provides global leadership on statistical methodologies and standards for the Fund, its member countries, and the international statistical community. It supports Fund surveillance and lending operations to strengthen member countries’ capabilities to produce and disseminate macroeconomic and financial statistics for sound policy-making. STA collaborates with other Fund departments, donors, and other external partners to ensure that data needs for bilateral and multilateral surveillance and lending operations are met.

The Statistics Department has an opening in its Data Governance and Services division for a Data Scientist/Sr. Data Scientist position. Under the supervision of the Division Chief and the two Deputy Division Chiefs, the Data Scientist/Sr. Data Scientist identifies new and innovative ways to use economic and other nontraditional data for strategic priorities of the Department and the Fund.  The primary responsibility of this job is to help distill large amounts of data from varied sources to support the needs of Fund stakeholders, increase data quality, present analytical results through innovation data visualizations, and develop innovative ways to collect new data. Additionally, the Data Scientist/Sr. Data Scientist interprets and evaluates results to diagnose problems, support recommendations, measure impact, and create reports and presentations. Candidates should have professional experience and proven research records in environmental (e.g., climate change) issues and socio-economic impacts using nontraditional sources and innovative methods, such as satellite images, geospatial data, and artificial intelligence.          

For the Data Scientist, specific duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Transforms large and complex datasets in a manner that is suitable for analysis.  Works collaboratively with technology and business teams to evaluate new and alternative data sources as well as computing environments and analytical tools to meet emerging data needs for the Fund.

• Supports data architecture decisions and collaborate with technology teams to implement models/algorithms in production systems to improve data elements needed to support business objectives and dissemination methods for the Department and the Fund.

• Designs, develops, and evaluates advanced algorithms that will help the Fund better leverage its economic data to detect potential economic instability in its member countries and meet other Fund business needs.

• Visualizes and reports analytical findings using a variety of methods to promote understanding of key insights for both technical and non-technical audiences. Interacts with Economists and Data Analysts/Data Analytics Officers at all levels on a regular basis.

• Provides coaching and mentoring to Data Analysts and Data Analytics Officers in the Division.

For the Sr. Data Scientist, duties and responsibilities also include:

• Leverages methods from diverse disciplines (e.g. machine learning, statistical modelling, data mining, natural language processing) to improve data collection, complement official statistics, improve data used for bilateral and multilateral surveillance, and measure, monitor, and predict various measures of risk.

• Fosters relationships with data end users to assess business needs and maximize fit-for-purpose utility of the Fund’s data.  Identifies potential for recurring products through collaboration with data users to develop value added products.

• Uncovers alternative sources of data (including tools and methods to collect data digitally), evaluates ways to integrate existing data, and assesses data definitions for meeting data needs.

Qualifications

Minimum qualifications include educational development typically acquired through the completion of a master’s degree, or equivalent, in information management, mathematics, engineering, computer science, programming/systems, data management, economics, physics or a related field of study, plus six years of relevant work experience, or a bachelor’s degree plus twelve years of relevant work experience.

In addition, the candidate should possess: 

• Experience with multivariate analysis, statistical modeling, time series analysis, and/or other statistical techniques in financial services, economics, or similar domains

• Experience with machine learning techniques, economic modeling and forecasting techniques

• Experience working with large data sets and Big Data tools and stack (e.g., Hadoop)

• Expert knowledge in processing and analyzing satellite imagery and other geospatial data in economic, social, and environmental applications.

• Experience with Data Science Platforms (e.g., Domino, Databricks)

• Experience with modeling tools (e.g., STATA, SAS, R, Matlab) and one or more mainstream programming language (Python, Java, C, Scala, C, C++, etc.)

• Strong knowledge of relational database principles (e.g., SQL)

• Experience with planning and organizing work of large or complex teams/projects

• Ability to develop and execute an analytical approach, applying skills to build and implement a plan which addresses broader/more complex problems

• Strong innovation skills and creativity on solving problems with Fund-wide impact

• Strong user-orientation, and ability to work well with a team of diverse staff in a collaborative environment

• Strong drive for results; ability to effectively prioritize, adjust quickly to changing priorities and execute while under pressure

• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to influence, negotiate and resolve conflict

• Strong written and oral communication skills, including proven ability to tailor communication to senior staff and external audiences.

This vacancy shall be filled by a 3-year Term appointment in accordance with the Fund’s employment rules taking effect on May 1, 2015.

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The IMF is committed to achieving a diverse staff, including age, creed, culture, disability, educational background, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, nationality, race, religion and beliefs, and sexual orientation.