Role overview
Job Posting: 02/Mar/2026
Closure Date: 17/Mar/2026, 5:59:00 PM
Organizational Unit: ESS - Statistics
Job Type: Non-staff opportunities
Type of Requisition: Consultant
Grade Level: N/A
Primary Location: Italy-Rome
Duration: 11 months (renewable)
Post Number: N/A
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that Closure Date and Time displayed above are based on date and time settings of your personal device
- FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
- Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non-and under-represented Members and person with disabilities are encouraged to apply;
- Everyone who works for FAO is required to adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and to uphold FAO's values
- FAO, as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination
- All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks
- All applications will be treated with the strictest confidentiality
FAO’s commitment to environmental sustainability is integral to our strategic objectives and operations.
What we're looking for
Design, implement and validate EO based methodologies and indicators for crop area and yield, climate resilience, early warning systems and disaster impact assessments, to enhance existing national agricultural statistical frameworks while ensuring scalability and fitness for purpose in developing country contexts (small holder farming systems, mixed cropping, common land tenure).
Support the preprocessing and use of EO satellite images and time series, and the preparation and use of EO datasets for the EOSTAT, the 50x2030 Initiative and the WCA activities as needed.
Apply geospatial data science and machine learning approaches (e.g. for crop type and land cover mapping, improved area frames and farm registers, for scalable statistical indicators derived from various sources (survey data, national statistics, geospatial data including EO time series and other auxiliary information)) with the objective of filling statistical data gaps and improve statistical processes.
Design and support integrated data collection strategies combining EO, census, survey and in situ data, including data collection and sampling protocols for in situ data and their integration in agricultural surveys/censuses, and the design of digital data collection systems (e.g. ODK, SurveyCTO) to generate essential ground-truth data for model calibration, validation and complementary socio-economic analysis.
In line with EOSTATs framework for in situ data quality assurance, establish end-to-end data quality assurance protocol, from real-time monitoring during field work to post-collection cleaning, harmonization, and documentation of integrated datasets using tools like R, SPSS and QGIS.
Foster data interoperability by linking census/survey and statistical datasets with geospatial data layers (e.g. climate, soil, satellite-derived products) and aligning them with national and global data frameworks.
Collaborate with and/or provide technical assistance to national technical counterparts (statisticians, agronomists, policy analysts) to integrate EO-derived evidence into official statistical production cycles, national crop forecasts, early warning bulletins and disaster impact assessments.
Contribute to the expansion of the EOSTAT and the Data Lab for statistical innovation initiatives, notably by establishing effective collaboration with partners, contributing to the scoping of activities and priorities, and assessing data availability, needs, gaps and opportunities.
Contribute to capacity development activities tailored to the operational needs of national agricultural and statistical agencies, notably by preparing adapted training material, technical documentation, notes, and inputs to training or knowledge-sharing activities and providing tailored training and technical assistance to national counterparts.
Support outreach activities to foster use of EO data access services and platforms in developing countries (e.g. cloud-based EO services and APIs) in line with ESS guidance.
Translate geospatial analysis and trends into clear, actionable technical notes, policy briefs and programme recommendations addressing agriculture production, productivity, and climate adaptation needs.
Support the dissemination of geospatial products produced by the Statistics, including the preparation and maintenance of relevant ISO compliant metadata in FAO Agro informatics platforms.
*CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING
- To apply, visit the recruitment website at Jobs at FAO and complete your online profile. We strongly recommend that your profile is accurate, complete and includes your employment records, academic qualifications, and language skills
- Candidates are requested to attach a letter of motivation to the online profile
- Once your profile is completed, please apply, and submit your application
Please note that FAO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/. These qualifications should be in alignment with the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) mappings.
Candidates may be requested to provide performance assessments and authorization to conduct verification checks of past and present work, character, education, military and police records to ascertain any and all information which may be pertinent to the employment qualifications
Incomplete applications will not be considered
Personal information provided on your application may be shared within FAO and with other companies acting on FAO’s behalf to provide employment support services such as pre-screening of applications, assessment tests, background checks and other related services. You will be asked to provide your consent before submitting your application. You may withdraw consent at any time, by withdrawing your application, in such case FAO will no longer be able to consider your application
Only applications received through the FAO recruitment portal will be considered
Your application will be screened based on the information provided in your online profile
We encourage applicants to submit the application well before the deadline date.
If you need help or have queries, please create a one-time registration with FAO’s client support team for further assistance: **https://fao.service-now.com/csp
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