How can you make a difference?
Traditional health messaging often fails to resonate with adolescent communities, particularly around sensitive topics like HPV vaccination where cultural beliefs, peer influence, and misinformation shape decisions more powerfully than expert recommendations. Recent breakthrough research from the Mercury Project's multi-country study "Developing a Scalable Community-Driven Approach to Combatting Health Misinformation" has demonstrated that when communities create their own health messages, these crowd-sourced communications significantly outperform standard expert designed campaigns. The approach works because it harnesses authentic language, cultural references, and persuasive strategies that naturally emerge from within communities, the same peer-to-peer channels through which both accurate information and misinformation already spread. The consultant will support the data science components of a project that establishes a systematic, evidence-based methodology for developing and testing crowd-sourced peer-to-peer messaging to increase HPV vaccination uptake among adolescents in Uganda and Kenya. Building on the Mercury Project's successful demonstration that community crafted messaging can increase vaccine impact by up to 50% compared to standard government messages, the consultant will test in both online and offline settings whether authentic peer voices can overcome the cultural barriers and trust deficits that limit current HPV vaccine coverage, which remains as low as 35% in some countries. This project evaluates whether crowd-sourced, community-generated messaging can outperform traditional expert designed communication in increasing HPV vaccination uptake among adolescents. The study integrates community message generation, AI-powered thematic clustering and message refinement, crowd forecasting, and cRCTs. The Data Science Consultant will play a central role in designing, implementing, and validating the data pipelines, NLP models, and experimental analytics that underpin this methodology. The consultant will lead the end-to-end data science workflow, including:
• Large-scale text data processing (11,000+ responses)
•Natural language processing and clustering
• LLM-assisted message generation
• Experimental design support and statistical analysis
• Integration of behavioral and administrative datasets
If you would like to know more about this consultancy, please review the complete Terms of Reference here:<a href="https://secure.dc7.pageuppeople.com/apply/TransferRichTextFile.ashx?sData=UFUtVjMtlqmH7a_VVjVdiiViX8VaSX5sq4U0zB62FuFFJJmtrQFD052g3Cb-3hZitqqkoVTgCPtVo-CfHQ4uXfNgGlkEFYP_zZl1qQIJ4SM6fvudm38OrmH_9e7MfUqOCTgM76NYGzXOPTe9nVgqeA8bhoXifw%7e%7e" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TMC0002327 TOR.pdf</a>
Minimum requirements
<strong>Education</strong>: Master’s degree in data science, Statistics, Computer Science, Economics, or related field
<strong>Work Experience:</strong> At least 5 years of experience in applied data science and behavioural science
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills
Demonstrated experience with natural language processing, and Bayesian statistics Demonstrated experience in conducting RCTs and experimental methods, and text analytics, including with large data sets
Demonstrated experience in applied data science and behavioural science principles, theories, and models
Proficiency in Python (preferred) or R, NLP libraries (e.g., Hugging Face, spaCy)
Experience working with large, real-world datasets
Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required (spoken/written)
Desirable
Experience in global health, immunization, or behavioral science
Experience in Sub-Saharan Africa contexts
Familiarity with platforms like RapidPro or U-Report
Experience in integrating AI/LLMs into applied research
For every Child, you demonstrate...
UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: <a href="https://www.unicef.org/careers/get-prepared#Values" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UNICEF Values</a>
UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. <a href="https://www.unicef.org/careers/equity-inclusion-and-diversity-unicef" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone</a>, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.
UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage <a href="https://www.unicef.org/accessibility#contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Accessibility | UNICEF</a>. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.
UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.
Qualified candidates are invited to submit the following documents via the online recruitment portal, TMS (Talent Management System)
An up-to-date TMS profile and curriculum vitae (CV)
Cover letter
A separate financial proposal <a href="https://secure.dc7.pageuppeople.com/apply/TransferRichTextFile.ashx?sData=UFUtVjMtYkjtFR5vTwoRZf7NloE75vihcY-tAbmvF_agtrHUbP1BV_3Z_s5sHM7PCRrmix60mDWFo5sRpkRRnH6iFJwaX-ufOgbZxAm1cKEmOFqbhdZNcfpVl-NUNCgoMyDIYD3cZsYCHr-_LS7H6ZVD4_73cA%7e%7e" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TMC0002327 Financial proposal.docx</a>
<strong>Remarks: </strong> <strong><em>If the TOR or financial proposal documents are not visible on certain recruitment platforms, please visit our official page </em><a href="https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/filter/?search-keyword=&work-type=consultant" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Vacancies | UNICEF Careers</em></a><em>.</em></strong>
UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.
All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found <a href="https://www.unicef.org/careers/unicef-job-categories" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.