Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is filling the position of
Information Technology Officer in the Technical Support Unit
The position is located in the Paris area (Plateau de Saclay, France).
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The IPCC was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide policymakers with rigorous, transparent, and objective scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options. The IPCC is now undertaking its Seventh Assessment (AR7) cycle. The IPCC Working Group I (WGI) assesses the physical science underpinning past, present, and future climate change. The WGI Technical Support Unit (TSU) provides scientific, technical, operational and communications support that underpin and implement the WGI assessment.
The Technical Support Unit (TSU)
The TSU works at the unique IPCC interface between science and policy in the provision of the climate knowledge and information that is relevant for policy needs and decision making. The team is responsible for facilitating and implementing the assessment process undertaken by the author teams and overseen by the WGI Bureau. The team is hosted by Université Paris-Saclay and located in the facilities of Ecole normale supérieure (ENS) Paris-Saclay.
The Information Technology Officer Role
The Information Technology (IT) Officer reports to the Head of TSU and works closely with all TSU staff members. This position will also be part of the IPCC Web Team and liaise with the IT Officers of the IPCC Secretariat and other TSUs (WGII, WGIII, TFI) on coordinated process and infrastructure activities across the IPCC. The IT officer also collaborates closely with IT officers from University Paris-Saclay which is hosting the TSU and neighboring institutions for data management. The IT officer also contributes to the preparation and IT logistics of international meetings organized by WGI.
The successful candidate is central to the efficient work of the Technical Support Unit team in implementing the assessment process of Working Group I, facilitating the work of author teams from around the world. Activities will range from system administration to the development of supporting collaborative IT environments.
We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic in supporting rigorous, timely and robust operations for the preparation of the IPCC assessment of the state of the art of climate knowledge for policymakers and stakeholders around the world.
Duties and Responsibilities
Responsibilities include:
- System administration;
- Maintenance of data archive, document version control, backup and security;
- Evaluate the requirements of the TSU and stakeholders. Based on the analysis, design, develop and implement tools that are deemed necessary in collaboration with the IPCC Secretariat;
- Maintenance and update of WGI website and tools on the IPCC website;
- IT guidance and support to the WGI TSU staff;
- IT support for IPCC authors, review editors, expert reviewers and Bureau members working with WGI TSU IT resources and tools;
- Participate in regular meetings and activities of the WebTeam consisting of IT officers from the Secretariat and other TSUs;
- Coordinate with the Secretariat to test and manage tools for nominations of authors, review comments, glossary etc.
- IT support for WGI international workshops and meetings, in cooperation with local organizers.
Requirements:
- Degree in Information Technology;
- Relevant professional IT experience;
- Knowledge of system administration of local networks with the highest security requirements;
- System knowledge of Windows, Linux, networks, backup systems and related software;
- Good understanding of LAMP Stack (emphasis on PHP and MySQL), HTML, CSS, JavaScript, WordPress, interacting with third-party APIs;
- Experience in Office365 and Microsoft Office, Exchange Online, Azure Information Protection, SharePoint;
- Good working level of written and spoken English;
- Willingness to travel to provide IT support at international meetings;
- Autonomy, flexibility and capacity to respect time constraints;
- High level of motivation and social skills, ability to work in an international context.
Additional assets:
- Ability to manipulate and transform electronic documents using VBA;
- Expertise in different coding environments (e.g. Python, R, Matlab, shell scripting etc) and data development, access and curation would be an asset;
- Experience in open-source community development, code and data versioning (e.g. GitHub, Bitbucket, etc) and the development of best practices would also be an asset.
Application
The position is a fixed term contract for 3 years from Université Paris-Saclay with a possibility of extension for the duration of the IPCC Seventh Assessment cycle planned for 5-7 years.
Please send by 12 November 2023 at the latest, your application consisting of a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae, and contact details of two referees, to Clotilde Péan, Head of the WGI TSU.