Back Data Engineer (Azure), LVIV, UKRAINE or REMOTE

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

Program / Country Office Summary

Mercy Corps’ Ukraine crisis response seeks to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Ukrainians and other conflict-affected people where they are: displaced inside Ukraine, refugees in Poland, Romania and Moldova, or trapped behind frontlines. We aim to reach 500,000 vulnerable people with multi-purpose cash assistance, in-kind humanitarian support, and protection services across four countries. Almost all of our impact will be delivered in partnership: with Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian and Moldovan civil society organizations through a granting program that matches humanitarian action with capacity strengthening, and with peer international NGOs through a consortium in Ukraine. Mercy Corps is responding to the Ukraine crisis with large-scale consortium programming with a focus on Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA). The Consortium is a partnership between four international humanitarian aid agencies to model and deliver innovative, effective cash and other humanitarian assistance programs to support people affected by the Ukraine crisis within Ukraine.

General Position Summary

The Data Engineer will be the principal Microsoft Azure developer within the UCC data analysis and automation team. They will be responsible for building and iterating Azure data pipelines and databases, providing input into iterations on the UCC Azure architecture design, and supporting UCC data analysts, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) officers, and other data engineers in using the Azure data systems for program decision-making. They will work collaboratively with Mercy Corps’ MEL and IT teams as well as UCC consortium partners to coordinate architectural choices and data standards, translate policies (e.g. data protection policy) into pipeline structures, and train parties within Mercy Corps on how to understand and access the Azure systems.

Essential Job Responsibilities

DATA ENGINEERING & AZURE DEVELOPMENT

• Implement and manage analytical infrastructure on Azure in support of the UCC data architecture, centralizing program data from multiple sources (e.g. CommCare) and organizing it for efficient retrieval and analysis.
• Work with data analysts and MEL officers within UCC to extract, transform, and load data from a wide variety of data sources using tools like SQL, Python; Support efforts to surface data to external tools, including Microsoft PowerBI.
• Interface with UCC consortium partners and other stakeholders to support aligning data standards and structures and development of data sharing agreements.
  • Collaborate with other data engineers to implement algorithms for statistical analysis, prediction, and machine learning.
  • Coordinate with the Mercy Corps IT team as needed, especially to integrate Azure solutions with Mercy Corps SSO technology, integrate with third party data sources, and maintain data access permissions across the data lifecycle.

    DATA SECURITY & BEST PRACTICES

    • Implement data protection measures within Azure in compliance with Mercy Corps’ Responsible Data Policy and with humanitarian data protection best practice.
    • Implement and maintain robust security protocols for sensitive and confidential data on Azure.
      • Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership wherever implementations are conducted
      • Collaborate with the Mercy Corps Data for Impact team to recognize and help adopt best practices in reporting, analysis, and data science.

        Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

        Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

        Accountability

        📚 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯! 🌍🤝 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝗡𝗛𝗖𝗥, 𝗪𝗙𝗣, 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗙, 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗦, 𝗨𝗡𝗙𝗣𝗔, 𝗜𝗢𝗠 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀! 🌐

        ⚠️ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰: 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐍𝐎𝐖!

        Reports Directly To: Data Analysis & Automation Lead

        Works Directly With: Program MEL, Response MEL and PaQ, country IT, consortium partners, other HQ Program units and other departments, including Legal, Policy and Advocacy, Mercy Corps Counterparts at MC HQ offices in Europe.

        Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

        Any skills you have gained through education, volunteer, work, or life experience that are relevant for the position will be considered. Be sure to fully explain transferable skills and success factors and how they apply to this position in your cover letter.

        Required

        • 5+ years of experience in relevant technical field.
        • 2+ years of relevant experience working in an Analytics environment.
          • Demonstrated experience using the Azure technology stack is required (Note: Comparable experience in another cloud environment and a demonstrated ability to quickly learn the Azure environment may be acceptable.)
          • Proficiency in oral and written English required and Ukrainian strongly preferred.
          • Strong programming skills in SQL and Python are required.
          • Ability to apply analytical, computer, statistical and quantitative problem solving skills.

            Preferred

            • Specific experience with Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure SQL, Azure Databricks, and Azure Synapse is strongly preferred.
            • Proficiency in Russian, Polish, and/or Romanian is strongly preferred.
            • Experience with database, data lake, and data warehouse concepts and practical experience in implementing data management systems is strongly preferred.
            • Experience facilitating technical trainings and consultations strongly preferred.
              • Demonstrated experience with DevOps (particularly GitHub) and CI/CD is preferred.
              • Knowledge of other programming languages including Node.js, JavaScript, or R is preferred.
              • Experience in international relief and development programming; especially in MEL or program management functions is preferred.
              • Experience working with geospatial data is preferred.

                Success Factors

                The successful candidate will have strong practical experience in building data infrastructure in Azure, or will have comparable experience in other cloud environments and a willingness/capacity to learn how to translate that experience into Azure. They will have a personal commitment to data quality and security, and an understanding of or interest in learning about humanitarian data protection requirements. They will be able to work collaboratively with internal teams of varying technical capacities and with peers in partner organizations, and will be a supportive resource for colleagues collecting, storing, and analyzing data. They will be an independent problem solver while also ensuring that country/program needs drive the work conducted.

                They will further act in an ethical manner at all times regarding the privacy and security of program participant data, communicate ethical concerns up the chain of responsibility, and ensure the concerns are resolved appropriately.

                Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions