Scientific development officer

The position we are recruiting for is situated within the Substance use, harms and responses (SHR) unit, and the selected candidate will be reporting to the Head of the Drugs use, harms and addictive behaviours (DHAB) sector.

The jobholder will provide technical expertise and support for the data management and analysis activities of the EUDA. The role involves ensuring robust data management and analysis practices to facilitate the monitoring and reporting of the drug situation across Europe.

The jobholder will oversee the collection, validation, processing, analysis and presentation of data, ensuring accuracy and consistency in line with the EUDA’s strategic objectives.

Main duties

The successful applicant will be requested to perform the following main tasks and responsibilities:

• Manage and validate data collected by the EUDA on the drug situation in Europe. This is undertaken in close collaboration with the Member States and other institutions providing the data.
• Develop and maintain queries, views and tables within a data warehouse for data exploration and analysis.
• Provide support for the development of efficient methods of data validation, storage, transformation, extraction and presentation that are reproducible using scripts.
• Document standard operating procedures for data validation, storage, transformation, extraction and presentation to meet quality assurance requirements.
• Work with scientific analysts to produce tables, graphics and reports for EUDA outputs including the European Drug Report and European Markets Report, and for peer-reviewed scientific articles.
• Review EUDA data outputs for data quality.
• Support the work of scientific analysts, including the preparation for annual expert meetings, data analysis for official reports and scientific manuscripts. 
• Any other tasks at the request of the Head of the DHAB sector and the Head of the SHR unit, including assistance with threat assessment activities when needed.

Main areas of specific responsibility 

• Support all aspects of the production of the Statistical Bulletin, from data acquisition through to final production and output.
• Support the development and maintenance of data explorers and dashboards containing different data collected in DHAB and other sectors and units. 
• Support the development and maintenance of metadata and data governance tools (including SOPs, codebooks, questionnaires, etc.) across all data collection in DHAB and SHR.
• Assist with conceptualisation, development and implementation of appropriate data collection instruments, systems and data analysis procedures. 

External and internal cooperation 

• Collaborate with other EUDA sectors and units on multidisciplinary projects.

Representation

• Represent the EUDA and the SHR unit at appropriate technical, administrative and scientific meetings.

The jobholder may be required to contribute to other areas of work, according to the needs and priorities of the EUDA.

In order to perform the duties of the post and ensure effective communication with the actors and stakeholders involved, the main working language required for the job is English.

Eligibility requirements

• Be a national of one of the Member States of the European Union, Norway or Türkiye.
• Have fulfilled any obligations imposed by the laws concerning military service, if applicable.
• Produce the appropriate character references as to the suitability for the performance of the required duties.
• Be physically fit to perform the duties of the post.
• A level of post-secondary education attested by a diploma, OR a level of secondary education attested by a diploma giving access to post-secondary education, and appropriate professional experience of at least three years.
• Possess a thorough knowledge (mother tongue or minimum level C1) of one of the official languages of the European Union and, a proven satisfactory knowledge (minimum level B2) of another of these languages to the extent necessary for the performance of the required duties.

Essential requirements

1. At least three years of proven professional experience in data management of large datasets, including a scripting/programming component.
2. Advanced expertise in data collection, validation, transformation and documentation of data processing. 
3. Advanced use and knowledge of programming language used for data management and analysis, preferably R and/or Python.
4. Experience working with databases and database structures, in particular SQL query language.
5. Experience in applying data governance principles, including metadata management, data quality assurance and documentation standards.
6. Experience in providing user support in relation to data systems, tools or outputs.
7. Experience supporting the production of recurring statistical publications or analytical reporting outputs.