Organizational Setting

FAO Azerbaijan Partnership and Liaison Office, in close cooperation with the government and its in-line Ministries/Agencies, contributes to the sustainable agri-food systems, and supports the government with addressing issues food security, agriculture and rural development, natural resource management in the country. FAO’s technical assistance, provided mainly through projects, includes institution building, development of knowledge and competencies, and exchange of experience among FAO member countries.

Reporting Lines

Under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Azerbaijan, the programmatic guidance and direct supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative, and the technical guidance of the Lead Technical Officer (LTO), the National Specialist on Digital Soil Mapping will work in close coordination with the National Project Coordinator and project team (national and international consultants).

Technical Focus 

The National Consultant on Digital Soil Mapping will provide technical expertise in the systematization, calibration, and validation of soil data, ensuring the development of high-resolution digital soil property and suitability maps. The Specialist will also support capacity-building efforts by delivering training sessions on digital soil mapping techniques, data harmonization, and GIS-based soil assessments in alignment with international standards.

Tasks and responsibilities

•    Provide overall control over data collection, systematization and harmonisation of soil maps, datasets,
•    Make calibrations and cross validations of existing soil maps (hard copies)
•    Contribute to the Az SIS spatial data infrastructure design and preparation
•    Selection of input data, predictors and for national digital soil maps
•    Determine the software tools, modules, scripts and data for producing of digital soil maps
•    Support the training sessions on soil survey and data collection
•    Deliver training sessions on digital soil mapping, data preparation, harmonisation, as well as trainings to the the national staff on digital soil mapping techniques and producing the soil property maps and to guide the development of the soil suitability case studies
•    Quality assessment and quality check of collected soil data, information and analyses
•    Conduct evaluation, validation, preparation and harmonisation of national soil profile database
•    Guidance in preparation of high resolution (100-250m) digital soil maps of soil properties and threats and uncertainty assessments
•    Consultations and guidance in producing of digital soil property and uncertainty maps using the recent Digital Soil Mapping techniques and tools
•    Guidance in preparation of soil suitability maps for selected crops
•    Validation of the output of digital soil property and threat maps processing on test sites
•    Control work in preparation of the soil risk and soil suitability maps
•    Development of symbology for national soil maps and national soil grids of soil properties
•    Support the validation of national digital soil maps
•    Participating in preparation of soil suitability maps for different agricultural crops
•    Assistance in preparation of meta data for all produced GIS layers compatible with GloSIS and INSPIRE data standards

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    Advanced university degree in agricultural sciences, soil science or related field and focus on spatial data analyses, data science, geostatistics, digital soil mapping
•    Minimum 5 years of experience in digital soil mapping, environmental modelling, spatial data analyses
•    Working knowledge (level C) of English
•    National of Azerbaijan or resident of the country with valid work permit

FAO Core Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills

•    Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
•    Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and partners developing effective working relationships
•    Experience with UN system is considered an asset.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements