E.E.A nationals: Expert (Environment and climate data flows)

European Environment Agency (EEA)

Copenhagen, Denmark 🇩🇰

VACANCY NOTICE FOR POSITIONS OF
Expert – Environment and climate data flows – 
Temporary Agent (AD6)
Reference no. EEA/AD/2022/8

Please send us your application by no later than 10 January 2023 at midnight (Copenhagen time), following the instructions in the ANNEX.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is organising an open competition to recruit experts to work within the area of environment and climate data flows, and further with a view to establishing a reserve list. 

THE AGENCY:

The EEA is an Agency of the European Union (EU) and one of the decentralised Union bodies. The EEA aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe’s environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public. 
A key element to deliver on EEA’s mandate is managing the exchanges of data and information between countries and the EEA that is reported according to obligations provided by EU law. 
In this context, this recruitment intends to hire motivated and engaged professionals who are interested to work in an EU institution at the forefront of Europe’s work on environment and climate. The successful candidates would work on specific elements of the data flow cycle, i.e., from data acquisition to data analysis and/or dissemination.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Under the responsibility of the Head of Group “Sustainable Resource Use and Industry”, reporting to the Head of Programme “Health and Sustainable Resource Use” (see organisational chart), the experts shall be responsible for working on industrial and environment data. This recruitment procedure can potentially be used for other environment and climate themes sitting in other departments, depending on the needs of EEA.

The EEA seeks talented individuals across different skillsets relating to data handling, processing and dissemination. This includes the development of IT tools to exchange data between EEA and its data providers, assessing the quality of the reported information, analysing it to inform status and trend assessments, and making it available to different stakeholders including policy makers and the wider public.

The position will entail the following tasks: 

1) Data stewardship

A role bridging the environment-theme knowledge and the management of the IT tools that assist the exchange of data between EEA and its data providers. The role requires both technical (information technology) and business-oriented (general familiarity with environmental and/or regulatory data processes) skills and knowledge. This combination of skills allows analysing reporting-tool business cases, contributing to data modelling, defining data warehousing and storage and being able to scrutiny data quality and analyse the reported data assisted by modern IT tools. This role also involves managing the relationship between EEA and the community of reporters, as well as other key stakeholders of data reporting under EU legislation, including the European Commission services.

2) Data custody

A role that ensures that data reported to EEA is safely transformed and fed to master databases, properly stored, and the tools across the data cycle are functional. This role facilitates communication between the business units (responsible for a given environment thematic field) and the IT unit, ensuring that processes and tools are operational and function according to the business needs. This function also interfaces with IT contractors when certain tasks are outsourced.

3) Data dissemination

A role oriented to design, develop and maintain the tools that are in place to make available the data to policy makers and the wider public. This includes production of indicators, data visualisations and online dashboards, thematic websites, and other public-facing products. This would be assisted by advanced software tools for data visualisation/mining.
In the short term, additional EEA responsibilities in the area of industrial accidents and industrial pollution are in focus, while the reserve list resulting from this recruitment procedure may serve other thematic areas of EEA work in the future. In particular, successful candidates will help EEA work on new tasks including: 

  • Reporting of Major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances;
  • Emissions of pollution to air, water and land, as well as generation and treatment of waste in an industrial context;
  • Assessing the efficiency in Europe’s use of raw materials, energy and water, in an industrial context based on different data sets. 

In cooperation with EEA’s thematic experts, those recruited through this call would cover one (or more) of the three roles defined above i.e. data stewardship, data custody or data dissemination. 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:

Candidates applying must satisfy the following eligibility criteria on the closing date for the submission of applications:
a)           Successful completion of university studies attested by a degree relevant to the field concerned of at least 3 years; OR where justified in the interests of the service, professional training of an equivalent level;                                   
b)           A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience after award of the university degree.

In addition, in order to be eligible a candidate must:

  • Be a national of one of the member countries of the EEA (Member States of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey);
    (corresponding to level B.2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages CEFR);
  • Meet the character requirements for the duties involved;
  • Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.
  • Enjoy full rights as a citizen;
  • Have fulfilled any obligations imposed by law concerning military service;
  • Have a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the EEA member countries and a satisfactory knowledge of another of these languages

Candidates should assess carefully and check before submitting their application whether they fulfil all the conditions for admission laid down in the vacancy notice, particularly in terms of qualifications and relevant professional experience.

SELECTION CRITERIA:

(In your application, please provide examples from current or past work experience where these competencies have been applied).

Essential:

  • Proven experience working with data in a role relevant to one or more of the following three functions of the data cycle: data stewardship, data custody and/or data dissemination (see illustrative description above);
  • Sound understanding of practices relevant to the handling, quality assuring and analysing data reported under EU and/or national legislation;
  • Excellent project management skills and experience, including proven experience of managing complex projects involving a variety of stakeholders;
  • Excellent command of written and spoken English language, at least at level C1 in all categories according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Language.

Advantageous:

  • Proven experience working with European Union and/or international institutions;
  • Proven experience working in one or more of the following topics: industrial accidents, industrial emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants, water pollution and/or waste generation;

Candidates invited to the written test and interview stage will also be assessed against the following behavioural competencies:

  • Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to interact with a wide range of people;
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
  • Diversity awareness and sensitivity;
  • Attention to detail and ability to summarise complex information;
  • Ability to work collaboratively and share expertise with others to deliver on common work goals;
  • Service orientation and ability to understand stakeholder needs and requirements to ensure the delivery of high-quality results;
  • Ability to seek out learning opportunities proactively, to handle situations and problems with innovation and creativity.

CONTRACTUAL CONDITIONS:

The successful candidate will be offered a Temporary Agent contract in accordance with Article 2(f) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities. The selected candidate will be employed for an initial time period of four years, renewable. 
Successful candidates who are recruited undergo an initial probation period of 9 months.
Should the successful candidate currently hold a Temporary Agent 2(f) contract and qualify for a transfer under the terms of the CEOS, the band width for this position which can be accommodated is in accordance with Annex I of the Staff Regulations. 
For information on salary, please see information published under Temporary Agents
The place of work will be Copenhagen, Denmark. 
It is brought to the particular attention of candidates that the provisions of Articles 11 to 26 of the Staff Regulations, concerning the rights and obligations of officials, shall apply by analogy to Temporary Agents. These rules specify that: 
“An official shall carry out his duties and conduct himself solely with the interests of the Union in mind. He shall neither seek nor take instructions from any government, authority, organization or person outside his institution. He shall carry out the duties assigned to him objectively, impartially and in keeping with his duty of loyalty to the Union.
An official shall not without the permission of the appointing authority accept from any government or from any other source outside the institution to which he belongs any honour, decoration, favour, gift or payment of any kind whatever, except for services rendered either before his appointment or during special leave for military or other national service and in respect of such service.
Before recruiting an official, the appointing authority shall examine whether the candidate has any personal interest such as to impair his independence or any other conflict of interest. To that end, the candidate, using a specific form, shall inform the appointing authority of any actual or potential conflict of interest. In such cases, the appointing authority shall take this into account in a duly reasoned opinion. If necessary, the appointing authority shall take the measures referred to in Article 11a(2).”
For further information on the Staff Regulations and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union see:
Staff Regulations

SELECTION PROCEDURE:

A Selection Committee is set up for the selection procedure. It consists of members designated by the Appointing Authority and the Staff Committee. The Selection Committee is bound by the principle of confidentiality as enshrined in Article 6 of Annex III to the Staff Regulations. This works in two ways: first, it imposes obligations to ensure equal treatment for candidates; and second, it seeks to protect the Selection Committee to ensure that its decisions are totally impartial. 
The Selection Committee adheres strictly to the conditions of admission laid down in the vacancy notice when deciding whether or not candidates are eligible. Candidates admitted to a previous selection procedure will not automatically be eligible. Candidates are strictly forbidden to make any contact with the members of the Selection Committee, either directly or indirectly. Any infringement of this rule will lead to disqualification from the selection procedure. 
In a spirit of transparency, and in order to align our working methods with current practice in certain Member States, the administration has decided to proceed with the publication of names of Selection Committee members
Should the Selection Committee discover at any stage in the procedure that the candidate does not meet one or more of the general or special conditions for admission to the selection procedure, the candidate will be disqualified. 
The Selection Committee decides on those candidates who are admitted to the selection procedure in accordance with the requirements as specified under eligibility criteria. The applications of the candidates admitted to the selection procedure are reviewed to establish whether or not they show evidence of all requirements as specified under selection criteria.
The Selection Committee will invite to the interview and to the written test phase the best qualified candidates (maximum of 40). Should the case arise that there are various candidates scoring the same number of points in the 40th ranking, the number of candidates to be invited may be increased accordingly to accommodate this.
The interview will be held in English and the candidate’s knowledge of other languages will also be assessed during the interview. Candidates invited for an interview will be asked to undergo a written test in the area of expertise required for the post. The test and the interview will take place online.
At the end of the interviews the Selection Committee will submit the list of suitable candidates to the Appointing Authority who will decide on the appointment of the successful candidate and the establishment of a reserve list for the post advertised or similar posts that may become available. There may be conducted follow-up recruitment interviews with the suitable candidates. Candidates shall note that inclusion on the reserve list does not guarantee recruitment. Recruitment will be based on availability of posts and budget.

The reserve list for this post will be valid until 31 December 2024 and may be extended at the discretion of the Appointing Authority. 

Prior to contract signature, the successful candidate will be asked:

  • to provide original or certified copies of all relevant documents proving his/her eligibility, including a police certificate confirming the absence of any criminal record; 
  • to undergo a compulsory medical examination to establish that he/she meets the standard of physical fitness necessary to perform the duties involved.

POSITION TYPE

ORGANIZATION TYPE

EXPERIENCE-LEVEL

DEGREE REQUIRED

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