Knowledge and Learning Specialist/Senior Associate
Data, Information Architecture, and Technology Platforms - Felipe Herrera Library
Knowledge and Learning Division KIC/KLD
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
The IDB Group is a community of diverse, versatile, and passionate people who come together on a journey to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our people find purpose and do what they love in an inclusive, collaborative, agile, and rewarding environment.
About this position
We are looking for a dynamic, data-minded, self-starting professional with deep knowledge of information architecture, data flows, and technology platforms to join the Felipe Herrera Library team. As a Knowledge and Learning Specialist or Senior Associate, you will be challenged to use your knowledge for coordinating projects and processes and apply your hands-on technical abilities for experimenting, creating, and investigating as necessary.
You will join the Felipe Herrera Library team (FHL) within the Knowledge and Learning Division (KLD) of the Knowledge, Innovation and Communication Sector (KIC). This team is responsible for supporting the creation and publication of the IDB’s knowledge products and data sets; providing library reference services to all IDB personnel, including physical and digital acquisitions of books and journals, and subscription access to specialized databases, journals, and media sources; the creation, maintenance, and improvement of the IDB Taxonomy used for applying metadata to IDB knowledge products internally in Bank systems and externally on the IDB website; and the design, maintenance, and improvement of methodologies and systems that enhance access to IDB knowledge, such as the Publications catalog (publications.iadb.org), the Open Data catalog (data.iadb.org), the PoolParty ontology management platform, the WorldCat Discovery search application, and our in-house knowledge search engine Findit, among others.
What you’ll do:
Use your client service skills to act as the focal point for system and data interoperability, including data publishing, metadata management, collection curation, and for the use of new technologies to support knowledge management processes to better serve all IDB Group personnel.
Use your leadership abilities to coordinate the development, implementation, application, and updating of standards and processes related to knowledge creation, publication, and sharing as needed, and serve as critical interlocutor between knowledge and learning business processes and information technology systems and establishing relationships with responsible teams.
Apply your knowledge of data interoperability to lead and ensure reliable and seamless data flows between all systems related to the provision of library and knowledge management services, and documenting and/or defining related processes.
Leverage your understanding of taxonomy and ontology, and your understanding of natural language processing (NLP) techniques, to coordinate the classification of publications, data sets, and other knowledge assets. This includes the definition and application of standards, quality control, and leveraging certain tools and services.
Use your programming skills to provide input that will enhance the library’s response to organizational demand for knowledge curation, generation, and synthesis by bringing to bear advances in NLP tools and techniques, including spearheading efforts to strengthen knowledge discovery through service prototyping and automating existing processes and services.
Flex your knowledge of metadata and workflows to facilitate publishing via the institutional Publications catalog (Drupal) and the Open Data catalog (Socrata) by supporting and improving various workflows and ensuring alignment with metadata good practices for interoperability and SEO[CMF1] .
Apply your advanced critical thinking and communication skills to analyze complex business processes as needed and recommend simplified, quality solutions/enhancements to problems identified via troubleshooting, user feedback, and testing.
Work under the moderate supervision of others.
Provide technical guidance to more junior personnel.
What you'll need
Education:
Master’s Degree in Data Engineering, Data Science, Computer Science/Engineering, Information Science, Library Science, or other related technical area
Experience:
At least 3 years of relevant experience in the following areas:
requirements definition and documentation
technology platform development, deployment, and management
demonstrated advanced data skills, including data cleaning/wrangling, visualizations, web scraping, etc.
hands-on data modeling, data analysis, ETLs and data pipelines.
ability to extract and manipulate data from different sources (databases, platforms, tables, APIs, etc.)
experience working with metadata standards and/or taxonomy.
Some experience in, or strong motivation to learn the following is desirable:
Strong proficiency with Python and/or other programming languages used for working with data and text, and related tools such as SciKit-Learn, Jupyter, tensorflow, pytorch
Familiarity with the AWS cloud and services such as SageMaker, ElasticSearch, Lambdas, desired
Understanding of core AI/ML and NLP concepts, and ability to communicate them conceptually.
Strong written and verbal communication skills are crucial.
Previous professional experience in a library setting is desirable but is not a requirement.
Languages:
Proficiency in English, spoken and written, is required. Proficiency in Spanish, or a strong commitment to become proficient, is also required.
Additional knowledge of Portuguese and/or French is also beneficial.
Key skills
Technical track:
Learn continuously
Collaborate and share knowledge
Focus on clients
Communicate and influence
Innovate and try new things
Requirements
Citizenship: You are a citizen of one of our 48-member countries. We may offer assistance with relocation and visa applications for you and your eligible dependents.
Consanguinity: You have no family members (up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity, including spouse) working at the IDB, IDB Invest, or IDB Lab.
COVID-19 considerations: the health and safety of our employees are our number one priority. As a condition of employment, IDB/IDB Invest requires all new hires to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Type of contract and duration
International staff contract, 36 months initially, renewable upon mutual agreement.
What we offer
The IDB group provides benefits that respond to the different needs and moments of an employee’s life. These benefits include:
A competitive compensation package.
Leave and vacation: 24 days of paid time off + 8 personal days + sick leave + gender- neutral parental leave.
Health Insurance: IDB Group provides employees and eligible dependents with a robust medical benefits program which covers medical, dental, vision, preventive care, and prescription drugs.
Pension plan: pre-defined pension plan that provides financial security and support employees in planning for their future.
This vacancy is archived.