Principal Statistician - Ghana Statistical Service

The purpose of the Principal Statistician at Ghana Statistical Service is to provide technical and operational direction for the implementation of programmes and activities related to Data Science. The successful applicant will work with multi-disciplinary teams and collaborate with others in government-industry, academia and non-governmental organisations to design, build and improve new and existing digital products and platforms that automates analytical processes for the handling of large, non-traditional and unstructured datasets

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

In line with the mission and objectives of the Service, the successful applicant will be responsible for supporting activities in the area of Data Science with specific focus on key responsibilities, including, but not limited to, the following

TECHNICAL

• Extract, manage and structure data into an interoperable format to harness wider use.
• Clean and validate data to ensure accuracy, completeness, uniformity and apply modules and algorithms to mine the stores of big data
• Analyse and interpret data using diverse and multi-equation statistical and econometric techniques which are underscored by theory.
• Develop reproducible pipelines for the regular headline statistics (Gross Domestic Product, Prices Indices, Unemployment and Poverty) generated by the Service.
• Explore new types of data, developing prototypes and delivering proof of concept projects.
• Develop or adhere to appropriate quality assurance processes and contribute to best practice guidelines to ensure that data science deliverables are of good quality and meets the expectations of users.

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

• A minimum of a master’s degree from an accredited tertiary institution in Statistics, Economics, Data Science and other relevant quantitative fields, Must have a relevant advanced professional level qualification or industry skill-based certification(s).
• A minimum of 3 years post-master’s qualification relevant work experience in a supervisory position of a reputable statistical/research institution.

COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS

• Understanding of machine learning, operational research and experience in data mining Knowledge in STATA, R, SQL and Python, familiarity with Scala, Java or C++.
• Experience using business intelligence tools (eg. Tableau) and data frameworks (e.g. Hadoop).
• Ability to lead and communicate clearly and concisely with a range of technical and non-technical parties in a variety of formats.
• Skills in project management and ability to meet deadlines

TERMS OF APPOINTMENT

The appointment is for an initial four (4) years, renewable upon satisfactory performance. Applicants must be eligible and capable of serving a full term of four (4) years before attaining the compulsory retiring age of 60 years.