Nutrition Analyst (Data Science)

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS

3 November 2026-23:59-GMT+01:00 Central European Time (Rome)

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• WFP is a 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
• WFP offers a highly inclusive, diverse, and multicultural working environment.
• WFP invests in the personal & professional development of its employees through a range of training, accreditation, coaching, mentorship, and other programs as well as through internal mobility opportunities.
• A career path in WFP provides an exciting opportunity to work across the various country, regional and global offices around the world, and with passionate colleagues who work tirelessly to ensure that effective humanitarian assistance reaches millions of people across the globe.
• We offer an attractive compensation package (please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this vacancy announcement).

JOB TITLE: Nutrition Analyst (Data Scientist)
TYPE OF CONTRACT: Regular Consultant, Level 1
UNIT/DIVISION: Nutrition, School Meals and Social Protection Service/Programme, Policy & Guidance Division
DUTY STATION (City, Country): Rome, Italy (home-based)
DURATION: 11 months (22 December 2026 to 21 November 2027)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

Background

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is one of the leading global institutions helping to measure and alleviate malnutrition. WFP supports national food and health systems across more than 80 countries as they strive to provide access, safely and systematically, to healthy, nutritious diets and reduce micronutrient deficiencies in women, children and the population at large. A key part of this work is the generation of data on food and nutrition security and status, dietary diversity and access to nutritious foods and nutritious diets, including food costs and expenditure, and using these data to highlight where there are risks of insufficiencies, by target group, geography or vulnerability, reflected as hunger (insufficient dietary energy and coping strategies), unaffordability of nutrient-adequate diets, inadequate dietary diversity, risk of inadequate micronutrient intake and likelihood of micronutrient deficiencies.

When households, and specific household members, are unable to meet their dietary micronutrient needs due to physical, financial or sociological barriers, it becomes necessary to consider additional pathways that can safeguard against micronutrient malnutrition. Large-Scale Food Fortification (LSFF) is a powerful, cost-effective intervention for improving micronutrient intake that can be adapted to many food vehicles and contexts and delivered through different platforms, including both conventional commercial markets and food assistance, including school meals and social protection programs. WFP has long been involved in efforts to expand the scope and impact of LSFF.

Advocacy and decision making about LSFF and other micronutrient intervention programmes and policy, especially about whether, where, what, how and for whom to advocate for and implement such initiatives, require evidence. This includes information on micronutrient deficiencies and dietary intake for different populations, the likelihood that current diets are able to meet the recommended requirements for key vitamins and minerals and current intake of fortifiable foods among specific sub-groups of the population. They also require information about the extent to which different LSFF programmes, programme delivery scenarios, and other micronutrient interventions could assist in filling nutrient intake gaps for key populations. Such evidence is imperative to inform decisions across the LSFF ecosystem, including policy formulation, setting standards and determining whether LSFF is having an impact, in general, and with particular emphasis on those who are most vulnerable, with a focus on gender. However, due to cost, time needed and complexity of primary data collection on vitamin and mineral deficiency (VMD) and dietary intake, there are still many gaps in data needed to quantify the problem, e.g., magnitude and distribution of micronutrient malnutrition and nutrient inadequacy, as well as food consumption patterns within a population, required for proper program design and exploration of new cost-effective vehicles and entry points for fortification. Further, existing data or methods of obtaining data are limited in their ability to describe dimensions of intake inadequacy related to vulnerability in terms of gender, age, geography, biological status and illness.

The WFP specialises in uses of innovative data approaches to support governments make informed decisions about the design and effective implementation of food security and nutrition policy and programs, including the integration of nutrition objectives across food systems - to achieve maximum impact. WFP’s HungerMapLive is widely-used to inform humanitarian programming and food security situation monitoring. HungerMapLive displays real-time information on food insecurity, nutrition and various relevant drivers using primary data collected using remote monitoring, estimates generated using machine learning-based predictive analytics and publicly available secondary data pulled automatically through APIs. The use of innovative methods to use existing data to estimate or predict the risk of dietary vitamin and mineral deficiencies and the potential of different programs, including LSFF, to fill nutrient gaps can support programme and policy decision-makers from national governments and other stakeholders. This activity brings together the analytical and government technical assistance expertise of the Nutrition and Food Quality Service, and data collection and visualisation experience from the HungerMapLive Team.

About the Team

WFP’s Modelling and Mapping risk of Inadequate Micronutrient Intake (MIMI) approach generates and increases access to modeled data on risk of inadequate micronutrient intake at national and sub-national levels, which is critical to advocate for and inform the design and roll-out of large-scale food fortification as well as other micronutrient interventions and complementary programs.

Specifically, MIMI works with academic and policy partners to develop innovative methods for modelling the risk of inadequate dietary micronutrient intake and the extent to which large scale food fortification (LSFF) (of different commodities and fortified according to different specifications) could reduce risk, to inform policy decision-making and advocacy. MIMI’s estimated and predictive analytical models use secondary data on food supply, food consumption and expenditure, socioeconomic status and climate, among others, and allow exploration of nutritional vulnerability by geography, gender and socioeconomic characteristics. To date, methods have been validated against dietary consumption and micronutrient status data in three countries. The outputs have been developed into inputs to display on interactive sub-national maps, with the support of WFP’s Hunger MapLive Team. Importantly, the team are engaging with stakeholders in each of the focus geographies to support and document the application, validation and uptake of modelled evidence to inform policy and advocacy and document the process. The initiative overall has benefited from WFP’s in-country presence and partnerships with the relevant academic and civil society partners, among other stakeholders, to promote transparency, provide a forum for discussion, maximise stakeholder involvement at the global-level, incorporate the views of potential end users at the country level and build community acceptance.

Between 2024 and 2026, MIMI will expand evidence generation and stakeholder engagement activities to an additional eight countries and explore the potential of integrating WFP’s real-time data monitoring into the modelling and analysis. The advertised position reflects work to be undertaken under this new phase.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The Nutrition Analyst (Data Scientist) will play a critical role in the MIMI team, within the WFP Nutrition and Food Quality Service. Under the supervision of the MIMI Team Lead, and working as part of a dynamic, multidisciplinary team of nutritionists, data scientists, policy and advocacy specialists, this position will contribute to the development and application of analytical methods, data analysis and data visualisation, and engage meaningfully and present outputs to diverse stakeholders at the country- and global-level. The Nutrition Analyst will bring knowledge in statistics or data science and technical expertise in the analysis, modelling and visualisation of nutrition and food consumption or expenditure data, especially data from Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys to estimate food and nutrient intake and inform LSFF and other nutrition programmes and policy. The Nutrition Analyst will also have a role in building systems to access diverse data across multiple country contexts, maintaining code management infrastructure and methods documentation, and developing guidance for users of these outputs.

ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead and contribute to research that improves statistical modelling of inadequate micronutrient intake, and intervention scenario modelling.
• Develop novel methods for improving the estimation of inadequate micronutrient intake using secondary data.
• Contribute to thought leadership on the development and application of analytical models to test the potential contribution of fortification and other micronutrient interventions to reducing risk of inadequate micronutrient intake.
• Develop training materials that can be used during in-country capacity strengthening activities.
• Provide training and other capacity strengthening activities on the methods developed and use of household consumption data to estimate micronutrient risk, as relevant.
• Map and explore data and indicators relevant to the estimation of the risk of dietary micronutrient inadequacy
• Collate, clean and process national survey datasets for priority MIMI countries.
• Work collaboratively with team members, and analytical partners to refine and test methods to estimate the risk of inadequate micronutrient intake and conduct analysis for priority MIMI countries.
• Lead maintenance of MIMI’s secure relational database system, ensuring streamlined access to multiple diverse data types from several country contexts
• Lead maintenance of MIMI’s code management infrastructure, ensuring availability of clearly documented indices and guidance notes for team members and future users.
• Engage with stakeholders and analytical partners from priority MIMI countries to identify priority policy questions, landscape data and plan analytical approaches.
• Engage with, present specific analytical methods and findings to and participate in technical-level discussions with analytical partners and stakeholders at the global-level and in diverse countries.
• Support the development of evidence outputs and data visualisations based on user feedback, including preparing outputs for the HungerMapLive.
• Contribute todissemination and policy implementation activities to in-country stakeholders, led by WFP Country Offices.
• Participate in field missions to focus countries and WFP country offices, as required.
• Presentation at academic webinars or conferences, as relevant.

DELIVERABLES AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT:

• Peer-reviewed articles, topic briefs and other external-facing materials as required to present methodology, analysis and validation of results.
• Training materials for use during in-country capacity strengthening activities.
• Analysis of data inputs from priority MIMI countries to estimate risk of inadequate intake of individual micronutrients and micronutrients overall.
• Intervention modelling for priority MIMI countries to estimate the contribution of different micronutrient interventions to reducing the risk of inadequate micronutrient intake.
• Data pre-processed for visualisation on the HungerMapLive platform for all MIMI countries.
• Relevant analysis, synthesis and thematic presentations and publications developed.
• GitHub repository and data infrastructure maintained.
• Presentation of methodology and results to diverse stakeholders nationally and internationally.
• undefined

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Masters degree or higher in Data Science, Epidemiology, Medical Statistics or a related field.

Experience:

3-4 years work experience, some of that on informing health or nutrition programmes a plus. Experience supporting research projects or analyses with diverse stakeholders and data inputs, including research design, data analysis and write up. Familiarity cleaning, merging and processing large, complex datasets, ideally Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys. Experience analysing primary and secondary data. Experience with version control systems (Git) and relevant collaboration tools (issue trackers, shared repositories, etc.) Experience presenting analysis findings to diverse audiences, including government stakeholders, programme staff and academic partners, in a digestible and context-relevant format. Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a team environment, especially with colleagues from diverse backgrounds.

Knowledge & Skills:Proficient in the analysis of large quantitative data sets using R statistical software Analytical and problem-solving skills, with a strong solution and action orientation. Flexibility, sound interpersonal skills and cross-cultural sensitivity.

Languages:Advanced professional level of written and spoken English Professional knowledge of French an asset.

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REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

WFP is committed to supporting individuals with disabilities by providing reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation, please contact: global.inclusion@wfp.org

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REMINDERS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION

• All applications must be submitted exclusively through our online recruiting system. We do not consider CVs or applications sent by email, LinkedIn, or any other channel.

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• At the application stage, the only required documents are your CV and Cover Letter. Additional documents (passport, certificates, recommendation letters, etc.) may be requested later in the process.

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to proceed to the next stage of the recruitment process.

All employment decisions are made on the basis of organizational needs, job requirements, merit, and individual qualifications. WFP is committed to providing an inclusive work environment free of sexual exploitation and abuse, all forms of discrimination, any kind of harassment, sexual harassment, and abuse of authority. Therefore, all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and encourages qualified candidates to apply irrespective of race, colour, national origin, ethnic or social background, genetic information, gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status, physical or mental disability.

About WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change.

Read more about WFP’s history here, and WFP’s mission here

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