Senior Associate, Data Quality - REMOTE - Latin America Open Mapping Hub

Overview

• Work Location: Remote; within the Latin American Region

• Application Close Date: February 12, 2023

• Estimated Start date: April 3, 2023

• Department: Open Mapping Hub - Latin America

• Reports to: Senior Manager, Community Programs LatAm

• Terms: Full time, one year initial contract

• Travel:  up to 20% international travel

• Level:  5

About HOT

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) sits at the nexus of participatory mapping, community-led development, humanitarian response, open data and tech. With a talented and diverse team spread around the globe, HOT is an NGO that supports a dynamic global community of thousands of dedicated volunteers using maps and open data for humanitarian response and the Sustainable Development Goals. Working with humanitarian and development partners like the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, UN agencies, governments and others, the HOT community maps in solidarity with those affected by or at risk of disaster, contributing the maps and data aid workers need to do their lifesaving work.

In 2020 the work of the HOT community was recognized by TED’s Audacious Project, a collaborative philanthropic initiative that serves as a springboard for social impact on a grand scale, leading to an exciting new phase of growth. HOT is expanding its activities: opening four regional hubs and scaling up its support to local mapping communities with the audacious goal of mapping an area home to one billion people in 94 countries at high risk of disasters or experiencing poverty - mapping with communities before they are in crisis.

About the Open Mapping Hub - Latin America

Launched in January 2022, the Open Mapping Hub - Latin America (Latam Hub) is now in transition towards its official, full launch in 2023. The approach to building this regional Open Mapping Hub was done in collaboration with the OpenStreetMap (OSM) community itself, by a team representing a diverse range of profiles, geographies, and areas of expertise.

The Hub is focused on empowering community action through community building and training, leadership development, access to resources and formalization. With a special emphasis on youth and underrepresented groups at the local level. Strengthening the OpenStreetMap (OSM) community on a regional scale through a community-first approach, peer exchange and support will ensure sustainability, enable governments and social and civil society actors to use open data (especially OSM) and open source tools to improve lives and livelihoods, through humanitarian and development work.

The Hub is currently active in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and will expand into other countries in the region.

About You

HOT is looking for a Latin America local who is passionate about open mapping and communities. You are an advanced user of OpenStreetMap (OSM), editing, validating and are used to the most important quality assurance tools of OpenStreetMap. In parallel to strong technical skills, you have proven experience building or strengthening communities around data quality and the development of long-term advanced skills. You understand leadership mechanisms and you are able to stimulate this growth and motivation in individuals of diverse communities, including youth and learners with varied profiles. You have proven experience in training and empathically guide people in their skills development. You have ideas and willingness on how to organize the wide community of OSM in LATAM to create new trends and interest around Data Quality, able to collaborate and co-create ideas with the rest of the LATAM team.

Our preferred candidate is comfortable working in a very fast paced, startup-like environment with a highly motivated, cross cultural and unconventional team. A pro-active, positive, go-getting nature is essential. You should be familiar with the operations and internal functions of international NGOs and knowledgeable about the sector. You will work on a broad range of tasks and projects and have exposure to all aspects of the functioning of the organization. You should thrive in an environment where you direct your own day-to-day tasks in support of HOT’s mission, together with a team of staff and volunteers. You can choose your own office location or to work from home and should love working with remote teams as you’ll spend significant time on the phone, chat and meeting apps.

About the Role

The Data Quality Lead will be responsible for helping the LATAM team develop its community strategy for improving overall OpenStreetMap (OSM) mapping skills with high quality standards.

With a cross-functional role across the entire team, the role will capture community dynamics and opportunities observable across projects and needs, to articulate strategies to improve OSM data quality capacities. The role will conceptualize spaces and programs in the short and medium term, looking for sustainability of actions, on community building and methods for skills transfer to achieve the critical improvement of OSM data quality in the region.

The role will be responsible for designing, developing, documenting and performing data quality checks across all datasets collected through HOT technologies, projects, programs, products and community led activities in the region. This will in turn ensure high quality OpenStreetMap data in the region, grow validation skills of OSM contributors in the humanitarian mapping community and advance sustainable development goals in the region. Additionally, the role will directly enable and perform some data validation directly in OpenStreetMap and coordinate regional validators.

This role will be in regular contact with global peers in the Data Team, Global Community Team, regional hubs (North-West Africa, South East Africa, and Asia Pacific), and the HOT Quality Control & Assurance Working Group, to build on and contribute to global lessons learned.

Advanced OpenStreetMap mappers with advanced experience in validation on this database, with experience of 3+ years in the professional mapping field are required. Experience with the OSM community and empathetic interactions in diverse communities should be demonstrated.

Responsibilities

Problem Statement

• Document the skills and quality standards of Latin American OSM mappers and active OSM validators and their interactions
• Examine the specific problems and barriers of the mapper community in general regarding data quality
• Diagnose OSM data quality and gaps in the region
• Know the state of the debate and positions of the community regarding OSM data quality

Build OSM Data Quality regional strategy

• Recommend activities and interventions to the hub and the local communities or partners, to address these based on data quality metrics prioritized in the region.
• Optimize the efficiency and quality of data collected through the Open Mapping projects.
• Provide input into HOT Tasking Manager and tools related to quality assurance/control and data quality development in coordination with the HOT technology team.
• Expand the scope, quality and completeness of data collection across all HOT Tasking Manager projects, Grants and projects in the region.
• Standardize projects metadata, and liaise with Hub Staff on creating high quality OSM mapping projects and following through on data validation.
• Watch the mapping in the region and provide early warning and escalation on significant data quality issues in coordination with hub staff, HOT global teams and the OSM Data Working Group.
• Develop and publish training materials, lead translations, on OSM data quality.

Strategic capacity building

• Identify directly and through lessons learned from the entire team, the potential for action to sustainably train the community in a differentiated and targeted manner, in coordination with the Data Team.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive, long-term strategy for improving skills and data quality and validation for the region and HOT in general.
• Directly develop and design training for the benefit of the community in differentiated manners that captures the different needs and situations.
• Engage the community in horizontal skill building.
• Serve as the GIS and technical contact point for the team.

Validate changes on the map

• Assist in the direct validation of Tasking Manager projects developed in Latam.
• Coordinate the validation from collaborators and trained groups.
• Contribute directly to the general improvement of the map data.

Qualifications

Essential

• Languages: Spanish fluency & at least intermediate English (able to communicate in simple sentences, use basic phrases, and answer and ask questions in English).
• At least 2 years of proven and successful experience in technical cartography
• At least 2 years as an advanced OSM mapper
• Demonstrate activities where leading interactions and community building processes in the open mapping sector
• At least 5 years of spatial data quality assurance experience
• Demonstrate strong knowledge of data quality assurance methodologies, tools, and processes
• Have demonstrated experience with OpenStreetMap data validation and quality checks using tools such as QGIS, JOSM, OSMCha, MapRoulette, and others
• Have experience in writing clear test plans, test cases and providing detailed feedback for process improvement
• Innovative, creative, able to work independently and capable of leading activities.
• Demonstrated understanding of open source and open data culture and ethos across cultural contexts.
• Comfortable working in a fully or partially remote team environmentAbility to solve practical problems and adapt quickly and calmly to changing or emergency circumstances.
• Open minded with a composed disposition, with understanding of and commitment to diversity and inclusion.
• Proven ability to work as part of a collaborative and multi-cultural team (with remote members).
• Broad cultural competency and experience working across countries and time zones

Desirable

• Languages: Intermediate Portuguese
• Master degree in Geography, cartography data management, computer science or related degree
• Experience working with humanitarian or development agencies/NGOs.
• Passionate about humanitarian, disaster resilience, and development work demonstrated through prior professional experiences.
• Experience running training sessions, workshops or teaching

Are you missing a few of the technical skills listed? We would still like to see your application. While the skills above fit our vision of this role, we are open to those candidates with a strong knowledge foundation that are fast learners and highly motivated to close any skill gaps.

Compensation and Benefits

HOT values transparency and equity. All HOT compensation globally is set according to a framework detailed on our website. HOT also offers:

• Fully remote & flexible work arrangements
• Flexible public holidays
• Paid time off & additional HOTlidays!
• Home Office Allowance
• Healthy Staff allowance or group plan
• Learning & Development Opportunities
• Book Stipend
• Coaching Program supported by The Humanitarian Coaching Network
• Collaborating with a fast-growing, dedicated team who values humanitarianism, free, open-source, and accessible data

Equal Opportunity

We seek to recruit persons that reflect the diversity of the communities we work with. HOT does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender identity and expression, national origin, race and ethnicity, physical ability, religious or belief systems, political convictions, or sexual orientation. Further, HOT seeks to support the development and advancement of staff within the organization. Our staff includes people who are parents and nonparents, the self-taught and university educated, and from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds, lived experiences, and perspectives on the world. HOT is an equal opportunity employer. We seek to live our values and promote inclusivity in all locations. All of our staff work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of all is valued and respected.

HOT is committed to diversity within our team, and recognizes our role in closing the digital divide, including identifying obstacles that certain groups face in developing skills needed for roles in the humanitarian & technology sectors. Women, nationals of developing countries, and members of other underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

To Apply

Please complete the application by February 12, 2023.  Your CV/resume should not exceed 2 pages.

The selection process will consist of the following steps:

• Online Application
• Written Exercise/Assessment
• Panel Interview/s