Consultant: Data and Analytics, Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), Hosted Fund, 12 Months, Remote, Req:579780

Job no: 579780
Position type: Consultant
Location: United Kingdom
Division/Equivalent: UNITED HOSTED FUNDS
School/Unit: Education Outcomes Fund
Department/Office: Other
Categories: Operations, Financial Management

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, EDUCATION 

There are few greater challenges faced by the global community than the twin crises of learning poverty and youth unemployment. In response, the Education Commission (chaired by Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy for Global Education) and the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen) came together with our founding CEO (Her Excellency Dr.) Amel Karboul to create EOF. We aim to improve the education and employment outcomes of 10 million children and youth, by supporting governments to utilize a range of innovative finance instruments at scale, including outcomes funds and other results-based financing (RBF) instruments.

EOF is backed by a range of world leaders who support us to shape our approach and achieve our ambitious aims, as well as leaders in education and impact investing.

EOF supports improvements in the quality of education and skills programs, with a special focus on girls and underserved populations, including those in the hardest to reach rural areas. It measures (and pays for) what matters – both core skills like literacy and numeracy, but also critical 21st Century skills such as socio-emotional skills, ICT skills, and other broader fundamentals of a quality education. It helps close the persistent gap between the skills needed by employers and those attained by today's youth.

For all the above, EOF pays primarily on the basis of the results achieved, ensuring that taxpayer-funded domestic resources, aid, and philanthropic funds are only used to pay for what works. This is a game-changing way to finance results in education, focusing attention and realigning systems on the most challenging but most important measure of a program's performance: whether it is improving lives.

Together with our supporters, we believe this is the early stages of a much larger movement, with huge potential to increase learning outcomes for children and youth around the world, though improved aid effectiveness and government spending.

Since our inception in 2018, EOF has:

  • Partnered with governments in Ghana and Sierra Leone to establish the two largest outcomes funds to date in developing countries, mobilising ~$50M for these programs.
  • Established itself as a leading global player in RBF, and the only dedicated center of expertise for RBF in education and skills.
  • Become the first outcomes fund hosted by the United Nations within UNICEF, as a scalable platform to partner with governments around the world.
  • Established a major partnership with the LEGO Foundation, to develop a scale portfolio of RBF programs in early childhood across a diverse range of countries, as well as to amplify the movement and ecosystem of partners around this approach.
  • Had our innovative approach featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, FT, Economist, Brookings, and more.
  • Built our institutional capacity to contract and implement large-scale outcomes funds more efficiently and effectively than historic impact bonds.
  • Established a strong culture of performance and an active focus on ongoing professional development for all our team.

How can you make a difference?

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The Consultant will support the Senior Finance Associate with:

Data Management

  • Onboarding and structuring of datasets into Azure platform.
  • Sourcing of interesting data and onboarding into data environment.
  • Permission and data system maintenance.

Data Analytics

  • Cleaning and analysing data; primarily using Python.
  • Assisting with advance analytics using Databricks & machine learning libraries.
  • Assisting in iteration of modelling and coding infrastructure.

Visualisations

  • Assisting in the development of visualizations.
  • Sourcing and trialling of third-party visualisation software.
  • Working with wider EOF team to refine visualizations.

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT

Deliverable

Description

Estimated number of working days

Deadline/ timeline

Deliverable 1: Create and oversee the implementation of a data asset log for EOF. Working closely with EOF’s operations team, create a data asset log, identifying and integrating relevant external, UNICEF, and internal datasets. Identify a platform to host the log, keeping it up to date, identifying suitable risk mitigation strategies for the most sensitive data sources, and providing technical advice to the operations team on data compliance. 20

Create by the end of June 2025


Quarterly reviews in September 2025, December 2025, and March 2026

Deliverable 2: Identify and implement at least 8 specific optimizations for EOF’s data analytics capabilities to produce meaningful analysis and minimize expenses.

Working closely with the Senior Finance Associate, use DataBricks to monitor, analyse, and optimise EOF analytics, applying data science tools including AI capabilities.


This may include: improving EOF’s ability to monitor and project cashflow, improving EOF’s ability to calculate value-for-money for its programmes, improving EOF’s ability to analyse spend by providers on its programmes and gain insights.

80

At least 5 by the end of September 2025


All by the end of March 2026

Deliverable 3: Build at least 10 new visualization tools for EOF’s team to assist with data sharing internally and externally. Using visualization tools such as MapBox and PowerBI, work with all teams in EOF to improve their communication of data insights through advising them on the most appropriate data visualization tools and leading the set-up and ongoing monitoring of these. 40 All in place by end of December 2025
Deliverable 4: Support the Senior Finance Associate to develop and implement a proactive budgeting process within EOF. Document this in a 5–10-page guidance document that can be shared with EOF’s team through the fiscal year. Support the Senior Finance Associate to develop a fully transparent process to facilitate a smooth budgeting process that is understood by all relevant internal stakeholders. End-to-end integration of all budgets within the cashflow and visualizations to support the budget managers to track spending against their budgets throughout the fiscal year. 15 By the end of June 2025
Deliverable 5:
Support the Senior Finance Associate with onboarding and structuring at least 15 new datasets into the Azure data platform.
Support the Senior Finance Associate to source new relevant data sets, onboard and structure these in the data environment, and contribute to ongoing permission and data systems maintenance. 30 At least 10 complete by the end of December 2025
The remainder by the end of the contract
TOTAL ESTIMATED WORKING DAYS

185

 

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

  • A bachelor's degree in data science, analytics, statistics, economics, applied mathematics, finance, or a related field would be preferred., or a related field, is required.
  • An advanced degree (Master’s) in a relevant subject is preferred but not required.
  • A minimum of 1 year of relevant professional experience in data science, computer science, finance, statistics, economics, business, or a related field, is required.
  • Proven experience with data science through projects or working experience.
  • Proven experience with relevant tools such as PowerBI, MapBox, DataBricks.
  • Fluency in English is required.

DESIRED REQUIREMENTS

  • Experience in the global education sector is strongly preferred.
  • Experience in innovative finance, particularly Outcomes Based Funds, is strongly preferred.
  • Fluency in Spanish, French or Arabic is preferred.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here

 UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check. 

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Interested candidates are required to fully complete their application profile, upload a cover letter and their financial proposal (daily fee rate in USD).

Applications with incomplete profile and without a financial proposal will not be considered.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts. 

Advertised: GMT Standard Time
Application close: GMT Standard Time

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