Data Scientist; PSA

The United Nations University (UNU) is a global think tank and postgraduate teaching organization within the United Nations System. UNU engages in policy-relevant research, capacity development, and knowledge dissemination in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the United Nations. The work of UNU contributes to solving pressing global problems that are the concern of the United Nations and its Member States.

For the past five decades, UNU has been a source of impartial research on sustainability, human security, and economic development. With hundreds of researchers working at institutes in 12 countries, UNU's expertise spans the full breadth of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, generating policy-relevant knowledge to effect positive global change. UNU collaborates closely with other UN entities and leading research institutions across the globe.

For more information, please visit (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)..edu

UNU-WIDER is one of 13 research and training Institutes that comprise the think tanks in the UNU system.

UNU-WIDER is a leading international development economics think tank. The Institute provides economic analysis and policy advice with the aim of promoting sustainable and equitable development for all. The Institute began operations in 1985 in Helsinki, Finland, as the first research centre of the United Nations University. Today, it is a unique blend of think tank, research institute, and UN agency — providing a range of services from policy advice to governments, as well as freely available original research.

More information on UNU-WIDER and its current work programme are available er.unu.edu.

UNU-WIDER is implementing a large research, capacity development, and policy engagement programme in South Africa, called Southern African – Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA-TIED) in close collaboration with the National Treasury of South Africa. Building on the successful first phase of this programme, phase II of SA-TIED will continue to bring together world class researchers with policymakers to combat socio-economic challenges in South Africa but also in the broader southern African region.

A big focus of SA‐TIED relates to its engagements with the policy‐making community as a partner. A key aspect of the programme is to generate robust empirical evidence and use it as a basis to encourage networking and discussion amongst people involved in policy processes across the participating organisations and civil society to bridge the gap between research and policy‐making.

The programme played an important part in making anonymised administrative tax data available for research purposes at a Secure Data Facility at the National Treasury (NT-SDF) and is a key asset in the programme. The availability of administrative tax data for research has enabled many new avenues of research and has provided new perspectives on the South African economy and has dramatically improved the quality and breadth of evidence used to inform policy.

For more information on SA-TIED, please visit .

Based at the premises of the South African Revenue Services (SARS) in Pretoria, South Africa, the Data Scientists will prepare the tax data extractions and assist in strengthening the cooperation between UNU-WIDER, SARS and National Treasury.

The Data Scientists’ responsibilities include the following:

1. Prepare the data extractions

• Write scripts to extract the administrative tax data, anonymize the data, perform quality assurance on the data, write extraction reports.

• Perform basic consistency checks and set up sustainable methods to verify the similarity between successive extractions of the tax data for the National Treasury.

• Assist substantively with related documentation and processes to ensure the timely delivery of data extractions to the National Treasury.

• Work with the team in Pretoria to upload the data extraction to the NT-SDF server.

2. Provide substantive support to data related queries

• Attend to any data queries raised by SA-TIED stakeholders…