Geospatial Data Engineer Volunteer

The Opportunity

Are you a Geospatial Data Engineer Volunteer wanting to use your skills to help people in a humanitarian crisis and ultimately help save lives? MapAction can enable you to volunteer to do just that. Volunteers have been the heart of MapAction for over 20 years but the range of skills needed continually evolves. Now we are looking for an enthusiastic Geospatial Data Engineer professional who has a desire to commit to a great team, and to help MapAction make a difference that has a lasting effect on vulnerable communities.

MapAction works with a range of humanitarian partners, from local organisations who are closest to the ground to a range of global UN partners. Come and be part of something that is exciting and impactful!

Why MapAction?

MapAction is a leading humanitarian mapping charity, delivering information services and products to enhance decision making in disasters and conflicts. In collaboration with our partners, this mapped information helps responders understand vulnerabilities and target their response effectively, contributing to saving lives and minimising suffering. We work through a team of skilled volunteer professionals and a small paid staff team. We have built a strong reputation in the humanitarian sector, and are a technical partner of the United Nations, Non-Government Organisations and Civil Society Organisations, the Red Cross, Red Crescent Movement, regional entities and national authorities. The humanitarian sector is evolving, and technical expertise such as GIS, mapping, information management, data processing and visualisation are becoming increasingly utilised for improving decision making in complex humanitarian response. MapAction and our partners are uniquely positioned to provide technical expertise in support of this.

Responsibilities

As a volunteer, we will be able to work with technical staff and volunteers on different opportunities. Once your onboarding is complete, you will be able to choose the tasks and projects that best fit your skillset and interests. Here below some activities that our data engineer volunteers can support with:

• MapAction external projects that require a Data Engineer skillset (e.g.: data pipeline automation, hazard exposure platforms, multi-risk models, conflict incident reporting, etc…)
• Work with external partners such as UN agencies, International NGOs and Academic Institutions
• Conduct and automate data collection and processing scripts
• Create and maintain optimal, performant data pipeline architectures, both internally and externally
• Propose improvements to infrastructure, schemas, platforms, toolchains and configurations
• Assist in the automation, provision and management of development environments, source-code, build-tools, pipelines and deployments
• Support ad‑hoc Data Processing during MapAction’s Emergency Responses in collaboration with MapAction’s GIS team
• Support internal systems maintenance in collaboration with MapAction’s IT Support Engineer
• Attend and / or represent MapAction on technical conferences
• Train other volunteers or external organizations on Data Engineer tools and processes

What are we looking for?

If you feel you are a good match but do not feel like you meet all the requirements, we are still happy to receive your application! The core skills we look for in all of our team members are the following:

• A desire to use their skills, experience and dedication in the cause of humanitarian ends
• Good team player with leadership and/or project management experience or ambition wherever possible
• Exceptional communication skills, to explain your work to people who don't understand the mechanics behind data analysis, and experience in understanding partner needs and requirements, in particular working with non‑technical clients
• Adaptable, resilient and solution‑oriented
• Self‑motivated and organised
• Time to commit to MapAction, for more details on the time commitment, please refer to the “What does it mean to be part of the MapAction team?”
• Degree or equivalent experience in the field of Data Science, Data Engineering, Computer Science, Software Development, Information Technology or a related field
• Three or more years of professional experience working in a data or information management team, as a data engineer, data scientist, developer or other similar role
• Experience and proficiency working with Python and Jupyter Notebooks
• Knowledge of cloud platforms like GCP, AWS or Azure
• Experience and understanding of CI/CD pipelines
• Project management experience.
• Experience in understanding partner needs and requirements, in particular working with non‑technical clients.
• Experience of participating in a volunteer organisation or open source projects.
• Experience with QGIS or ArcGIS
• Experience working with geospatial data (raster and vector)
• Databases (NoSQL, SQL, Graph Dbs, Principles of RDBs)
• Experience with Systems Engineering
• Understanding of the Software Development Life cycle
• Thorough grounding in containerisation e.g. Docker, Kubernetes
• Shell scripting
• An interest in software‑engineering or data‑science e.g. ML / DL / AI / Statistics
• Humanitarian knowledge/experience

What does it mean to be part of the MapAction team?

Being part of MapAction means entering a close‑knit community of highly skilled and committed and experienced professionals in different sectors. It means using your unique skills to help prepare for, anticipate, or respond to humanitarian emergencies, enabling our partners to provide life‑saving support. At MapAction, training and team building are at the heart of our organisational culture. We have frequent meet‑ups online and in person where paid staff and volunteers get together for training opportunities and skill‑sharing, to strengthen our service offer. As a volunteer, you can participate in all levels and areas of the organisation, working alongside our colleagues at various UN agencies and/or other humanitarian partners. Volunteers also steer the organisation's strategic direction and are involved with designing and implementing our operational capacity. You will have the opportunity to travel, whether that’s at training events, project work abroad, missions or representing MapAction at a conference.

Availability for projects, including in‑person deployments

MapAction expects a high level of commitment by volunteers to make themselves available to deliver projects, whether these projects are planned or emergency missions, remote or in‑person, one‑off tasks or longer term commitments. Deployable volunteers are expected to seek a commitment from their employer (if applicable) to permit time off (paid or not) for deployments when necessary. For emergency deployable volunteers, there must be arrangements in place for a quick decision to be taken on availability, including agreement from employers/family if required, in the event of all alerts. This should normally be within 12 hours of the issue of the alert, depending on time‑zone. For non‑emergency deployments and projects logged on the tasking grid, volunteers must respond to a request for assistance (whether yes or no) by the deadline specified on the grid. Volunteers are expected to put themselves forward for at least three substantive (i.e. at least two days work) tasks every year, and are normally expected to contribute at least 10 days of voluntary effort (excluding training) to MapAction every year. It is the duty of all volunteers to do their best to make themselves available for any opportunity relevant to their volunteer role, and avoid perceptions of volunteers selecting only more ‘attractive’ tasks or missions. It is essential that MapAction is able to deliver on all tasks it commits to, and it relies on volunteers to be prepared to step up for a wide range of activities.

As a member of the team, you will be expected to participate in at least 6 internal weekend training events. This must include our annual simulation exercise, which all volunteers are required to attend. Other weekend training events include 6 annual training weekends where we get together in person at various locations around the UK, and 4 online development days. Volunteers should live either within the UK or within reasonably easy and affordable reach of the UK in order to be able to attend face to face training events.

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, communities, and experiences. We value diversity and are dedicated to providing equal opportunities regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. Selection for volunteer roles is based solely on an individual's skills, experience, suitability for the role, and commitment to our values.