Senior Statistician (Agricultural Census Team Lead)

Job Overview

The Senior Statistician (Agricultural Census Team Lead) will lead the Agricultural Census Team in the Statistics Division (ESS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at its headquarters in Rome, Italy. The role focuses on developing methodological guidelines for the FAO World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA), conducting agricultural surveys, documenting country practices, and providing technical assistance to national agricultural statistical systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Agricultural Census Team, managing highly specialized and multidisciplinary teams, providing strategic vision and technical leadership.
• Coordinate and participate in divisional teams, organization‑wide committees, project teams, and working groups, providing leadership or secretariat services on international technical networks and policy and standard‑setting bodies.
• Analyze global and country‑specific requirements and agricultural, economic, social and environmental factors to provide critical input into the FAO Strategic Framework, Programme of Work and budgets.
• Design, implement and monitor work programmes, including short‑, medium‑ and long‑term plans and strategies for developing statistics and analytical frameworks.
• Lead the design and development of tools, methods, systems and databases, including critical indicators and policy models.
• Lead and review research, data collection, validation, analysis and reporting to support development of technical standards, international instruments and innovative tools.
• Lead production of technical reports and support flagship publications, technical documents, divisional publications or web pages.
• Respond to technical requests and provide policy advice, assistance and solutions to regional, subregional and country offices.
• Organise and participate in capacity‑development services, including training workshops, seminars and preparation of online tools and information kits.
• Represent FAO at international and intergovernmental meetings, conferences and negotiations, developing partnerships and advocacy.
• Participate in resource mobilisation activities in accordance with the FAO Strategic Framework and divisional plans.
• Lead the implementation of the WCA and FAO Agricultural Survey Programme, monitoring national agricultural systems and identifying emerging topics.
• Lead monitoring and documentation of countries’ censuses, including preparation of metadata reviews and compilation of main results.
• Lead development, update and uptake of conceptual, methodological and operational guidelines for agricultural sector statistics.
• Coordinate technical dialogue on censuses and surveys with National Statistical Offices, Ministries of Agriculture and the United Nations Committee of Experts on Agricultural and Rural Statistics (UN‑CEAR).
• Lead technical support to FAO units and member countries in design, planning and implementation of agricultural censuses and surveys.
• Lead dissemination of census data from WCA rounds in FAO Statistical Database (FAOSTAT).
• Coordinate preparation of technical articles, working papers, books and training materials, documenting best practices.
• Coordinate and implement formulation of technical assistance projects on censuses and surveys.
• Maintain visibility of FAO’s work on statistics, develop strategic partnerships and negotiate agreements.
• Strengthen relationships with potential donors for mobilisation of resources.
• Maintain a motivated and effective workforce, ensuring recruitment, mentoring, coaching and performance management.
• Perform other duties as required.

Qualifications

• Advanced university degree (master’s or equivalent) in statistics, economics or related field with quantitative training.
• Ten years of relevant experience in compilation and analysis of food and agricultural statistics in national or international organisations and in coordination of high‑level statistical publications.
• Experience in design and implementation of agricultural census and surveys methodology, including data validation and dissemination.
• Working knowledge (proficiency level C) of English and intermediate knowledge (level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
• Experience in more than one location or area, especially in field positions.
• Strong command of statistical methods: data presentation, analysis, descriptive statistics, probability distributions, sampling, inference, hypothesis testing, regression, ANOVA, chi‑square tests, nonlinear models, survey design.
• Experience in collecting, compiling and disseminating agricultural statistics.
• Experience in agricultural census and survey methodology, including design, sampling, questionnaire design, data collection and validation.
• Experience in quantitative analyses, analytical studies and methodological research using statistical software.
• Experience in formulation of technical assistance projects and capacity‑development programmes at country level.
• Experience in organising international meetings, seminars and training courses.
• Experience in preparation of global statistical publications and reports to intergovernmental bodies.
• Knowledge of intellectual property matters related to data and statistical products.
• Ability to mobilisation of resources from international donors.
• Ability to work under minimal supervision, present statistics materials concisely and produce high quality papers in English.
• Experience in leading and supervising multicultural teams and delivering results‑based programmes.

Benefits and Compensation

• Competitive compensation and benefits package.
• Dependency allowances.
• Rental subsidy.
• Education grant for children.
• Home leave travel.
• 30 working days of annual leave per year.
• Pension fund entitlements under the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund.
• International health insurance, optional life insurance and disability protection.

EEO and Diversity Statement

• FAO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality, background and culture.
• Qualified female applicants, qualified nationals of non‑and under‑represented member states and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
• All workers must adhere to the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct, and uphold FAO’s values.
• FAO has a zero‑tolerance policy for conduct incompatible with its status, objectives and mandate, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.
• All selected candidates undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
• All applications are treated with strict confidentiality.

Legal Assessment

The role is open. No indication that it has expired.