Scientific officer (climate and water department)

Duties and responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Director, Climate and Water Department, the incumbent will perform the following duties:

- Provide coordinated technical management and maintenance of various public websites under the responsibility of the Climate and Water (CLW) Department: the general CLW website with special emphasis on the web pages connecting the water climate and agrometeorological related activities of WMO including the respective WMO programmes managed by CLW, the Commission for Hydrology (CHy) website including its eboard, Theme Area fora and online database of the Open Panel of CHy Experts (OPACHE) members, the World Hydrological Cycle Observing System (WHYCOS) website including the sites of the HYCOS component projects, the Associated Programme on Flood Management (APFM) website, the Commission for Climatology (CCl) website including its Open Panel of CCI Experts (OPACE) pages and the climate knowledge base pages in support of climate change adaptations in various sectors, and the Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM) website including the activities under different Open Programme Area Groups (OPAGs).

- Be the main CLW focal point to the WMO Web Coordination Team and maintain a coordination mechanism of the websites mentioned above with those of WMO partners, such as UNWater and World Water Day.

- Design and maintain internal and external databases, such as INFOHYDRO, HOMS, and provide assistance with the design of online questionnaires for the CHy, CCl and CAgM activities, the uploading of responses from WMO Members and the design of databases for the analysis of responses.

- Design new websites, as required, to accommodate new initiatives and projects, such as the Integrated Drought Management Programme, the climate knowledgebase portal and information on the organization of the Highlevel Meeting on National Drought Policy (HMNDP), taking into account issues of compatibility and consistency with existing web pages.

- Provide technical support for the web pages on WMO climate coordination activities related to the sessions of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention on Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and sessions of subsidiary bodies of these Conventions as required.

- Maintain, and keep updated as a living document, the online versions of selected publications under CLW responsibility (Guide to Hydrological Practices, Guide to Climatological Practices, Guide to Agricultural Meteorological Practices).

- Create ad hoc web pages for the meetings or conferences that CLW hosts and post documents, presentations as well as reports on the web to ensure easy access of such information for the target audience.

- Provide technical support for open source software which is disseminated by the Department, such as the meteorology, climate, hydrology (MCH) database management system.

- Carry out other related duties as required.

Qualifications

Education:
- A university degree in Earth Science coupled with studies in Information Management or Computer Science.

Experience:
- At least three years of combined national and international progressively responsible experience in one of the domains covering hydrology, water resources management, climatology or agrometeorology.
- Experience in managing information in a technical unit in the United Nations system.
- Good knowledge of the activities of WMO or other United Nations agencies.

Other requirements:
- Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office software and particularly, of Excel, Access and of online database softwares, such as PHP/MySQL.
- Good analytical and problemsolving skills.
- Ability to write documents and user manuals.
- Maturity of judgement, initiative and sense of responsibility.
- Ability to establish and maintain effective relationships with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Languages:
- Excellent knowledge of English or French and a good working knowledge of the other language. Knowledge of other official languages of the WMO Secretariat would be an advantage.