Technical Specialist – Census Cartography (P-4), Kinshasa

About the role

The Census Cartography Technical Specialist provides technical and operational assistance to the national statistics office (Institut National de la Statistique/Bureau de Coordination du Recensement) on geospatial and mapping activities across all 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The role oversees pre-census mapping, field enumeration area (EA) delineation, mobile GIS integration and satellite imagery processing, under the guidance of the UNFPA Representative and the direct supervision of the Census Chief Technical Adviser.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the national Census Cartography & GIS Master Plan and budget, and set technical protocols for digital cartography, coordinate reference systems, EA size parameters and layer standards
• Manage procurement specifications for high-resolution satellite imagery, mobile mapping devices, GNSS/GPS and GIS software/hardware
• Oversee the spatial delineation and digitizing of EAs and Supervision Areas across the country, and develop QA/QC protocols so coverage is complete, non-overlapping and accurate
• Supervise mobile GIS tools used by field teams, ensuring offline capability and data integrity in remote areas, and conduct field monitoring visits
• Assess capacity gaps in GIS and cartography, train national staff and field cartographers on ESRI/QGIS, mobile data collection platforms and satellite image interpretation, and build sustainable local GIS infrastructure
• Integrate EA boundaries into CAPI platforms, manage the post-census geodatabase, and produce digital census atlases, web-mapping applications and georeferenced population portals
• Act as the UNFPA technical focal point for cartography and GIS committees, coordinate with partners and donors, and report progress and risks to the Census CTA and management

Required profile

• Advanced university degree (Master's or equivalent) in Cartography, GIS, Geomatics, Geography, Remote Sensing or a related quantitative field
• At least 7 years of progressively responsible international experience in census cartography, GIS design and spatial database management
• Experience designing digital mapping strategies for large-scale population censuses, especially in developing countries (Sub-Saharan Africa or fragile contexts highly desirable)
• Proven experience in technical capacity building and training national staff
• Fluency in French and working knowledge of English

Required skills

• Advanced GIS software: ESRI ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Enterprise, QGIS
• Spatial DBMS: PostGIS, SQL Server
• Mobile mapping tools: Survey123, ODK, CSEntry
• High-resolution satellite imagery processing