Associate Programme Officer (User Researcher) (AD1205)

The Informatics Programme of the UN Environment Programme - World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is offering a  Associate Programme Officer role for a social scientist with a strong interest in the online delivery of tools to aid decision making. This role will focus on engagement with a wide community of users, seeking to make better decisions for biodiversity by using the websites, tools and applications developed by the Informatics Programme. 

The role will be varied and include the following:

• Organise and conduct user interviews for the purposes of research, testing and engagement.
• Assist with developing pathways to impact for new projects within the Informatics team and developing key metrics to assess our impact.
• Engage across the Centre to build our capacity to deliver projects with an intense user focus, leading to transformational real-world change.
• Take responsibility for community engagement with our audiences for new and existing products, including the biodiversity data partners in the Planet+ Initiative and the Secretariats and National Parties to Multilateral Environmental Agreements as we deliver multiple products to support the global biodiversity framework.
• Support the technical delivery and reporting associated with existing and new projects.
• On behalf of UNEP-WCMC attend, relevant scientific conferences, technical workshops and other specialist meetings both in the UK and overseas.

This role will involve international networking and collaboration within an closs-knit team environment. The programme, with its experienced, ambitious and impact-oriented staff, provides an excellent environment to develop and contribute to your own skills.

We are looking for a conscientious and motivated social scientist.  The successful candidate will ideally have a broad understanding of environmental decision making within an online, data-driven context and a flexible skill base to enable contributions to a variety of projects. You will have a social science or ecology undergraduate degree and relevant experience in the application of social science methods in a policy context.  We will provide you with the chance to strengthen your awareness and understanding of the international policy making, reporting and use of environmental data. You will have opportunities to further develop your analytical and project management skills in an exciting landscape of digital transformation projects. In addition to training and development opportunities, we offer a competitive salary and benefits package, including generous pension contributions. If you are looking for a rewarding and challenging post, enjoy working in collaboration with others and have relevant expertise, we want to hear from you.

WCMC attaches great importance to addressing safeguarding and ethical considerations in all activities carried out by its staff, including where partner organisations or individuals are part of the delivery of our work. This includes children and vulnerable adults in the community who may be vulnerable to abuse. WCMC act with integrity, are transparent and expect applicants to share the same values.

WCMC is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all staff and job applicants. We aim to create a supportive and inclusive working environment in which all individuals are able to make best use of their skills, free from discrimination or harassment, and in which all decisions are based on merit. We do not discriminate against staff on the basis of age; race; sex; disability; gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity; religion; faith or belief.

We will provide you with the challenge of working on high profile conservation projects, where your work really makes a difference to the field of conservation in an area aligned to our strategic aims and broader global initiatives. In addition to training and development opportunities, we offer a competitive salary and benefits package, including generous pension contributions.

WCMC is a UK charity that promotes for public benefit the conservation, protection, enhancement and support of nature and natural resources worldwide. We do this by collecting, storing, processing, analysing, interpreting and sharing data that increase our knowledge and understanding of biodiversity and the conservation of nature. Good data are the foundation of informed decision-making and we work with many partners to help them develop their knowledge and capacity to make good decisions.

The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is a global Centre of excellence on biodiversity. The Centre operates as a collaboration between UN Environment Programme and the UK registered charity WCMC.  Together, we are confronting the global crisis facing nature. We do this through our unique position ensuring science, knowledge and insights shape global and national policy, and by collaborating with partners around the world to build capacity and create innovative solutions to environmental challenges. We use our position as respected custodians of powerful and trusted environmental data to create po.sitive impact for people and nature.

If you are looking for a rewarding and challenging post we want to hear from you. Please complete our application form and send it together with your CV and a short covering letter through the link below by 18th January 2021. 

Please note this is not a UN post and we can only accept applications from those eligible to work in the UK.

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