Data Scientist Consultant

We improve lives

The IDB Group is a community of diverse, versatile, and passionate people who come together on a journey to improve lives in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our people find purpose and do what they love in an inclusive, collaborative, agile, and rewarding environment.

About this position

We are looking for a motivated, technically rigorous, and collaborative Data Scientist. As Data Scientist, you will contribute to build a modern, AI-enabled data infrastructure that allows the Bank to harmonize, process, and analyze large-scale household survey data from across Latin America and the Caribbean efficiently and transparently. You will also help develop state-of-the-art tools and methods to improve how the IDB measures poverty and income distribution in the region, and to strengthen how it measures the poverty focus of its projects.

You will work in the Poverty Group, part of the Social Sector. This team is responsible for expanding knowledge on poverty and inequality in the region and on the policies that can speed up their reduction, in support of the IDB Group’s Institutional Strategy, IDBImpact+, and its goal of ensuring that a significant share of IDB projects directly benefit people living in poverty.

What you’ll do

-Contribute to the harmonization of household surveys and other microdata across Latin America and the Caribbean, designing and implementing AI-assisted workflows, for example using large language models to map questionnaires and variables across countries and years, classify occupations and industries, and generate and document harmonization code, with systematic human validation and a transparent, documented, and traceable methodology.

-Provide technical and operational support in the design, development, and maintenance of scalable cloud-based data infrastructure (e.g., AWS S3 and Databricks) for storing, processing, and managing large-scale survey, census, administrative, and geospatial data. Additionally, support the implementation of automated pipelines to update harmonized databases as new data becomesavailable.

-Support the implementation and coordination of automated quality-control and validation procedures for harmonized data and indicators, including consistency checks across countries and over time, AI-assisted anomaly detection, and benchmarking against official statistics.

-Contribute to the computation, updating, and monitoring of poverty, inequality, and other social indicators using tools such as Python, R, and Stata, helping ensure the reproducibility and comparability of results across countries.

-Support the development of poverty-targeting tools for IDB projects, such as poverty maps that combine survey, census, geospatial, and other non-traditional data using small area estimation and machine learning methods.

-Conduct statistical and econometric analyses to derive policy-relevant insights and support decision-making in project design.

-Make data and tools accessible to teams across the Bank through documentation, metadata catalogs, and user-facing tools (e.g., APIs or dashboards), and support training of colleagues in AI-assisted data workflows.

-Support other activities of the data and digital social cluster as agreed with the SCL supervisor.

What you'll need

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics, statistics, data science, computer science, or a related quantitative field. Candidates should combine training in quantitative economics or statistics with strong computational skills, for example an economics or statistics degree with substantial programming and data-engineering experience, or a data science or computer science degree with applied work on socioeconomic microdata
• Experience: At least two years of relevant professional experience in data science or data engineering with household surveys, censuses, or administrative microdata. Advanced programming skills in Python, R, Stata and proficiency in SQL. Experience with cloud computing (AWS preferred), version control (Git), and large-scale data processing (e.g., Spark, Databricks, Parquet). Demonstrated experience applying large language models or other AI tools to data workflows, including API-based pipelines and evaluation of AI outputs. Solid knowledge of poverty and inequality measurement, survey design and sampling weights, and applied microeconometrics. Experience with geospatial data or small area estimation is an asset
• Languages: Proficiency in Spanish and English, spoken and written, is required. Additional knowledge of French and Portuguese is preferable.

Requirements

• Citizenship: You are a citizen of one of our 48-member countries. We may offer assistance with relocation and visa applications for you and your eligible dependents).
• Consanguinity: You have no family members (up to the fourth degree of consanguinity and second degree of affinity, including spouse) working at the IDB, IDB Invest, or IDB Lab.

Type of contract and duration

International consultant Full-Time, 12 months (up to 48 months, subject to eligibility).

What we offer

The IDB Group provides benefits that respond to the different needs and moments of an employee’s life. These benefits include:

A competitive compensationpackage.

-Leaves and vacations: 2 days per month of contract + gender-neutral parental leave.

-Health Insurance: The IDB Group provides a monthly allowance to supplement the purchase of health insurance.

-We offer assistance with relocation and visa applicationsfor you and your family when it applies.

-On-site position with the occasional flexibility of teleworking.

-Development support: We offer learning opportunities to boost your professional profile, such as seminars, 1:1 professional counseling, and much more.

-Health and well-being: Access to our Health Services Center that provides preventive care and health education for employees.

-Other office amenities (as available):Lactation Room, Daycare Center, Gym, Bike Racks, Parking, spouse career support, and others.

Our culture

At the IDB, we work so everyone brings their best and authentic selves to work while finding their purpose. Our people consistently strive for excellence, and we recognize and celebrate the impact of their contributions.

In our efforts to drive innovation, we intentionally include all voices, cultivate a sense of belonging and champion fairness. We welcome individuals from underrepresented groups to join us and share their unique perspectives.

We ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to participate in the job interview process. If you require an accommodation to complete this application, please email us at [email protected].