Position: Data Analyst
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Job description
Do you want to help mentor and guide African journalists to use
interactive data visualisations for storytelling?
Code for Africa (CfA) has an immediate vacancy for a full-time Data Analyst in Kenya to join our Data Academy team. Candidates must have demonstrable experience in data science and should be comfortable with peer training/mentoring.
Kiswahili speaking
applicants based in Kenya will have an advantage.
CfA’s Data Academy,
which spearheads our training partnerships and data analysis and storytelling
initiatives. It also includes CfA communities such as the WanaData women data science/storytelling network
and the africanDRONE civic
drone community, as well as the sensors.AFRICA sensor journalism
initiative, with a network of more than 50+ newsroom and university partners
across Africa. The Data Academy is also custodian of other major CfA public
infrastructure, such as the continent’s largest open data portal, open.AFRICA, and Africa’s largest census data
portal, HURUMap.
The successful candidate
will work with an agile transnational team of other data analysts, digital
designers and data journalists in the Data Academy, with additional support
from CfA’s software engineering and forensic research teams, in 20 countries
across the continent.
The successful candidate
will join CfA’s Data Academy team. The Data Academy team is responsible for
running data journalism and technical training for partner newsrooms,
universities and local community events in Africa.
You will join the Data
Academy’s team to help produce national and transnational digital projects, on
a range of social justice topics, by assisting partners with data research and
data collection/liberation, data analysis and wrangling. You will work with
specialist CfA teams to help partners transform their data into visualisations
or storytelling.
And, you will then help
partners share their insights and new skills, via community meetups and
peer-support networks, as well as through presentations at workshops/webinars.
Other aspects of your training duties will include customising CfA courseware to
include local examples and presenting curricula at local events/universities.
The candidate should
have a strong strategic analysis and critical thinking skills, as our projects
are varied and fast-paced, so you need to quickly understand and learn new things.
You will need to possess a keen attention to detail and a good eye for both
quality and aesthetics. You should be comfortable handling multiple tasks with
multiple ongoing deadlines and should have previous experience working on the
digital collaboration tools that CfA uses, such as Slack, Google Drive, and
Trello.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s
degree in a quantitative related discipline (e.g. information technology,
statistics, operations research, bioinformatics, economics, computational
biology, computer science, mathematics, physics, data science, natural
language processing or machine learning) or in qualitative discipline
(e.g. education, data journalism) or equivalent practical experience.
- 4
years of work experience in data analysis related fields.
- Be
comfortable with training, skills coaching or related peer mentoring roles.
- Have
the ability to work creatively and accurately under pressure with
excellent attention to detail.
- Good
interpersonal skills and communication with all levels of management.
- Organised
and able to create multiple timelines and schedules.
- Ability
to multitask, prioritise, and manage time efficiently.
- Excellent
leadership, team-building, and self-management skills.
- Excellent
verbal and written communication skills.
- At
least two years of experience as a trainer, technical skills coach or
related position.
- Master’s
degree in any quantitative research/data analysis related disciplines.
- Expertise
with statistical data analysis such as linear models, multivariate
analysis, stochastic models, sampling methods.
- Applied
experience with machine learning on large datasets.
- Experience
articulating and translating business questions and using statistical
techniques to arrive at an answer using available data.
- Demonstrated
skills in selecting the right statistical tools given a data analysis
problem. Effective written and verbal communication skills.
- Experience
with statistical software (e.g., R, Python, MATLAB, pandas, or equivalent)
and database languages (e.g., SQL, NoSQL, etc.)
- Demonstrated
leadership and self-direction. Willingness to teach others and learn new
techniques.
- Relationships
with universities and media houses are a plus.
Responsibilities
- Schedule,
manage and run training sessions with newsroom partners under the
supervision of the Academy project managers.
- Actively
support, mentor and motivate journalists to help them with the timely
completion of their training aims and story production.
- Create
weekly and monthly reports for Academy project managers
- Train
at and support WanaData, Hacks/Hackers and other Academy events.
- Track
and compile data collected about participants and the impacts of the
training sessions.
- Create
training strategies, and initiative, including conceptualising and
developing training materials.
- Support
the CfA’s data research, wrangling and visualisation processes and tasks
to improve CfA’s products, content and brands with other wranglers and
designers.
- Work
with journalists and developers from across the continent to design and build
engaging static and interactive visualisations and tools.
- Research
and mine datasets to create impactful analyses and visualisations on CfA’s
key topics.
- Produce
maps, satellite images, charts, infographics, data visualisations and
other dataviz components for stories, microsites and publications.
- Work
proactively and think critically to improve data and design components of
tools and stories created by the team.
- Train
and advise CfA’s key stakeholders and partners on the use of data and tech
to amplify their impact.
What We Offer:
- A
competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for
performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
- A
dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international
travel, and generous vacation benefits.
- Ongoing
opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies
to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
- A
chance to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and
interacting with colleagues around the world.
How to apply
Please complete this form by 28 February 2021
