The UNOPS Global Portfolios Office (GPO) unites the New York Portfolios, including the Peace and Security team (PSC); the Geneva Office; and the Vienna-based Water, Environment and Climate (WEC) teams, to maximize global impact, foster efficiencies and streamline global programmes. Leveraging our collective expertise and networks, GPO supports UNOPS' strategic priorities and the SDGs across over 130 countries. We deliver project management, fund management, advisory services, project implementation, and HR services, working closely with major global partners. Our thematic focus includes sustainable development, climate action, health, peace & security, and humanitarian action.

As part of the Global Portfolios Office, UNOPS Geneva provides comprehensive solutions in secretariat hosting, operational support, and fund management. We manage global programmes, including the Water, Environment and Climate (WEC) Portfolio, offering project management, procurement, HR, and financial services. Geneva hosts the secretariats of eight global partnerships focused on health (RBM, Stop TB, ATscale), nutrition (SUN), water/sanitation (SHF), humanitarian leadership (GELI), urban development (Cities Alliance), and disaster displacement (PDD). We also provide fund management for EIF and UN Water, and operational support to Geneva-based partners like the Global Fund and UNHCR. 

Job Specific ContextUNOPS Geneva Office is providing support to a wide range of portfolios, including UNEP, UNICEF, UNHCR, and other partners.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children—to save their lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfil their potential.

About UNICEF Digital Impact Division (DID)The Digital Impact Division (DID) is at the heart of reshaping how UNICEF delivers lasting results for children. DID is committed to harnessing the full potential of emerging digital technologies to advance UNICEF’s mission. The division works in close collaboration with regional Digital Impact teams and colleagues across headquarters divisions, regions, and country offices to leverage technologies and capabilities that accelerate progress on UNICEF’s goals, strengthen community resilience, and expand access to essential digital services and information.

The mission of DID is to enhance UNICEF’s global digital impact by promoting equitable access to information and services, empowering communities to create lasting, positive change for children, and fostering a more inclusive, interconnected, and sustainable world for every child, everywhere.

About UNICEF Digital InclusionThe Digital Inclusion programme supports governments and partners to improve equitable and affordable digital access for children, schools, and communities. The programme engages with regulators, operators, and public institutions to explore innovative approaches to connectivity, infrastructure governance, and digital public goods.

This position is a Partner Personnel role. UNOPS is supporting UNICEF Digital Inclusion as a UN partner and is acting on its behalf to provide recruitment and administrative support for this position. The selected candidate will be recruited through UNOPS in accordance with UNOPS recruitment rules and will be engaged as UNICEF Digital Inclusion personnel. The incumbent will work under the effective management and supervision of UNICEF Digital Inclusion, not UNOPS.

About GigaGiga is an initiative within UNICEF’s Digital Inclusion. Launched in 2019 as a joint initiative between UNICEF and ITU, Giga has the ambitious goal of connecting every school in the world to the internet.

Half of the world’s population has no regular access to the internet, and millions of children leave school without digital skills, making it more difficult for them to thrive and contribute to local and global economies. This digital divide has widened significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic. UNICEF and ITU therefore joined forces to create Giga, an initiative to connect every school to the internet and address this new form of inequality.

Giga focuses on connecting schools so that children and young people have access to information, opportunity, and choice. Schools also serve as anchor points for their surrounding communities: by connecting schools, local businesses and services can also be connected, creating opportunities for service providers to generate revenue and making connectivity more sustainable. A 2021 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found that a 10% increase in school connectivity can increase effective years of schooling by 0.6% and increase GDP per capita by 1.1%.

Giga’s mission is supported by advanced data science and AI-driven mapping to identify connectivity gaps, optimise investment, and expand access efficiently and equitably. To date, over 2.1 million schools across 136 countries have been mapped using AI and satellite imagery. Giga has supported governments in over 40 countries and helped increase connectivity in more than 20,000 schools globally.

You can read more about Giga’s work athttps://giga.global/ and by following @Gigaglobal on X (formerly Twitter).

Based in Barcelona, Spain, as part of the Giga Barcelona Tech Centre, this position plays a critical role in advancing UNICEF’s global digital connectivity and digital inclusion agenda. The role provides technical leadership on AI and applied science, while ensuring strong alignment with UNICEF wide initiatives such as the Frontier Data Network (FDN). On site presence enables close collaboration with multidisciplinary Giga teams, deep engagement with research and industry partners, and active participation in key technical and forums. The role is instrumental in harmonizing approaches, sharing evidence, and strengthening coherence across UNICEF’s broader data science and AI ecosystem.

Under the overall guidance of the Innovation Manager, the Principal Research Scientist provides strategic leadership and technical oversight for Giga’s Applied Science workstream. They will shape the applied science research agenda, lead advanced AI/ML experimentation, and ensure scientific outputs drive decision making across Giga and UNICEF’s broader digital impact efforts. The Principal Research Scientist also plays a key coordination role across UNICEF, ensuring alignment with other data science and AI initiatives such as the Frontier Data Network (FDN).

Key responsibilities include:

• Provide strategic leadership in the development and implementation of Giga’s Applied Science roadmap, ensuring alignment with global priorities and emerging technologies.

• Oversee and guide complex research initiatives in AI, ML, connectivity mapping, QoS monitoring, forecasting, and socio-economic impact analysis.

• Ensure coherence and alignment across UNICEF’s AI and data science ecosystem, coordinating closely with Digital Impact, Frontier Data Network (FDN), and other relevant divisions to harmonize methodologies and share learnings.

• Set research standards and methodologies, providing authoritative guidance to internal teams on AI, data science, and experimental design.

• Lead high value partnerships with universities, research labs, and private sector actors.

• Ensure scientific rigor through peer reviewed publications, conference contributions, and development of replicable ethical research.

• Translate research into actionable insights that influence strategic planning, policy advocacy, investment decisions, and operational workflows across Giga and UNICEF.

• Represent Giga at senior technical and policy forums, strengthening UNICEF’s leadership in AI for connectivity and digital inclusion.

• Drive knowledge management, codifying research processes, documenting results, and disseminating evidence across country offices, partners, and global networks

Monitoring and Progress Controls      

Required

• An advanced University Degree (master’s degree or equivalent) preferably in data science, Computer Science, AI or a related field is required.

• A first level University Degree (Bachelor`s degree or equivalent) in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the Advanced University Degree.

Required

• A minimum of 7 years of professional experience in AI research or applied data science is required.

• Experience in machine learning, optimization, and data analysis using Python is required, including model development, validation, deployment and translation of findings into operational or policy insights.

• Demonstrated experience in coordinating cross-functional team.

• Experience engaging with academic and research institutions, including managing joint research projects, supervising researchers or co-authoring scientific outputs.

• Proven record of applied research and peer reviewed scientific publications.

• Experience with cloud-based platforms, including Azure ML.

Desired

• Experience in both academic and industry/start up settings is desirable.

• Experience working with governments, multilateral organizations.

• Knowledge of ethical, responsible AI frameworks.

• Please note that UNOPS does not accept unsolicited resumes. 
• Please note that UNOPS will at no stage of the recruitment process request candidates to make payments of any kind.
• Applications to vacancies must be received before midnight Copenhagen time (CET) on the closing date of the announcement. Applications received after the closing date will not be considered. 
• Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process, which involves various assessments. 
• UNOPS embraces diversity and is committed to equal employment opportunity. Our workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities. UNOPS seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. 
• Qualified women and candidates from groups which are underrepresented in the UNOPS workforce are encouraged to apply. These include in particular candidates from racialized and/or indigenous groups, members of minority gender identities and sexual orientations, and people with disabilities. 
• We would like to ensure all candidates perform at their best during the assessment process. If you are shortlisted and require additional assistance to complete any assessment, including reasonable accommodation, please inform our human resources team when you receive an invitation.

• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post. 
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few mandatory courses (they take around 4 hours to complete) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS. Refreshers or new mandatory courses may be required during your contract. Please note that you will not receive any compensation for taking courses and refreshers. For more information on a retainer contract here. 
• For more details about the contract types, please click here.
• All UNOPS personnel are responsible for performing their duties in accordance with the UN Charter and UNOPS Policies and Instructions, as well as other relevant accountability frameworks. In addition, all personnel must demonstrate an understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a manner consistent with UN core values and the UN Common Agenda. 
• It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential personnel. Recruitment in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.