Planning jobs in Italy

30 October 2025-23 : 59-GMT01 : 00 Central European Time (Rome)

It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status or disability.

The World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse and multicultural working environment.

WFP invests in the personal and professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship and other programmes as well as through internal mobility opportunities.

A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.

We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

Data Scientist

CST-I REG

APP-FG / APP

Remote work from home station with travel expected when feasible

6 months

The GIS and Remote Sensing Unit (APP-FG) part of the Analysis Planning and Performance (APP) Division draws insights from satellite data streams and geospatial datasets to provide a range of crucial information products in support of WFP food security and emergency operations. The Unit’s diverse work ranges from monitoring of drought or extreme rainfall conditions to detection of changes in infrastructure assets as well as high granularity assessments of natural hazard impacts and mapping of cropland and crop types. The Teams work draws on a wide variety of Earth Observation data from low‑resolution long‑record high‑frequency variables (rainfall, vegetation indices, land surface temperature) to very high (sub‑meter) resolution data as well as high‑frequency field‑scale resolution multi‑spectral and SAR data from Sentinel‑1 and Sentinel‑2 platforms. Due to the often extremely large data volumes these are processed at scale on the Team’s cloud‑based computing infrastructure.

A Data Scientist is sought to join the Data Science function in the Unit and contribute to the development of advanced analytical solutions to serve the above operations as well as make significant contributions to their operational implementation in APP‑FG’s cloud computing infrastructure.

The consultant will take primary ownership of analytical work leveraging statistical, geo‑statistical and machine learning techniques using complex climate, environmental and socio‑economic data in support of the Unit’s products and services. These could involve for example:

• EO time series processing such as filtering, decomposition, lag‑correlation analysis and forecasting.
• Multi‑resolution data fusion (e.g. Landsat / MODIS) and the blending of ground‑truth data with remote‑sensed signals.
• Historical, forecasted and projected climate data processing and modelling.
• Dynamic land cover change patterns relevant for hazard mapping and environmental resource analysis using either classic or machine‑learning algorithms.
• Transitioning their work from development to production on cloud‑based infrastructure where relevant.

• Knowledge sharing and common practices within the Data Science function.
• Cross‑functional relationships with stakeholders in the rest of the Unit to co‑design impactful analytical solutions.
• Self‑driven execution of work under strategic guidance from the Lead Data Scientist.
• Quality code and documentation of their work and presentation of results to stakeholders as needed.
• Participation in scientific and humanitarian conferences, workshops and meetings to present work.
• Contribution to writing technical papers and reports for submission to peer‑reviewed international journals.

• Analytical workflows applying statistical, geo‑statistical and machine‑learning techniques to climate, environmental and socio‑economic datasets.
• Quality code and comprehensive documentation for developed models and analyses.
• Cross‑functional collaboration in co‑designing analytical solutions with stakeholders across the Unit.
• Support in transitioning analytical solutions from development to production within the Unit’s cloud‑based infrastructure.
• Presentation of key findings and methodologies within WFP and, where possible, at relevant scientific or humanitarian conferences, workshops or meetings.
• Contributions to the preparation of technical papers or reports for submission to peer‑reviewed journals.

University degree in data science, statistics, mathematics, earth sciences or other quantitative degree.

At least 3 years in data science related fields.

• Demonstrated experience and ability to apply predictive modelling, machine learning and applied statistics to real‑world problems and applications.
• Demonstrated experience with climate, earth observation, remote sensing, agricultural and/or large geospatial data.
• Excellent Python programming skills including experience with data science and raster analysis libraries (e.g. GeoPandas, NumPy, xarray, etc.) for research data analysis and/or modeling.
• Experience with machine learning algorithms and tools (TensorFlow, scikit-learn) and artificial intelligence, deep learning and/or predictive analytics.
• Advanced experience in usage of Jupyter Notebooks.

• Experience using software engineering best practices (e.g. CI/CD, testing, git) and agile methodologies.
• Experience working with cloud technologies or distributed computing platforms such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc., particularly for machine learning applications.
• GIS skills and/or experience (QGIS, GDAL, ArcGIS Pro, Google Earth Engine).

Fluent English with excellent technical reporting ability; good spoken and written knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) and/or Portuguese is an advantage.

WFP Leadership Framework guides the common standards of behavior that guide how we work together to accomplish our mission.

WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation please contact the recruitment team.

The United Nations does not charge any application processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee please disregard it.

We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, language skills and UN Grade (if applicable).

Once your profile is completed please apply and submit your application.

Please make sure you upload your professional CV in the English language.

Kindly note the only documents you will need to submit at this time are your CV and Cover Letter. Additional documents such as passport, recommendation letters, academic certificates, etc. may potentially be requested at a future time.

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organisational needs, job requirements, merit and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination and all kinds of harassment.