Digitalisation Specialist At Basel Agency for Sustainable

BASE Open Position: Digitalisation Specialist (Internship)

Location: Hybrid (Basel, Switzerland)

Schedule: Full-time position (80-100%)

Duration: 6 months, with possibility of extension

Start date: 1st September 2024

Deadline for applications: July 25th, 2024

A Swiss work permit or EU citizenship is required. EU work permits or student visas for non-Europeans are not eligible.

About BASE

The BASE Foundation is a Swiss not-for-profit foundation and a Specialised Partner of the United Nations Environment. BASE was established in 2001 with the objective of mobilising investment and finance into sustainable energy and climate change solutions. BASE is one of the few organisations fully dedicated to developing innovative business models, smart financing, and out-of-the box-approaches to drive investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green solutions.

Background

We are seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic professional to join the BASE team for an interim period of 6 months (with a possibility of extension) to support the software development activities of Your Virtual Cold Chain Assistant (Your VCCA), one of BASE flagship projects.

Your VCCA facilitates smallholder farmers’ access to sustainable cooling with a pay-per-use business model and digitalization, with the aim of reducing food spoilage and increasing farmers livelihood. To this end, we partner with local cooling service providers who own and operate solar-powered, walk-in cold rooms, support their scale-up efforts by developing a mobile application to digitalize their operations, and advise cooling users on the best time to sell to maximise income. The project builds on Cooling as a Service (CaaS), an initiative led by BASE since 2018 to mainstream servitisation in the cooling sector, and leverages data science and physics-based modelling to power the mobile application, named Coldtivate, and advise farmers on when and where to best sell their produce. Your VCCA has been launched in 2021 as a collaboration between BASE and Empa, the interdisciplinary Swiss research institute for Materials Science and Technology. The team is working in close collaboration with cooling companies and local communities in India, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Guinea-Bissau, with the goal of mainstreaming servitisation in the agricultural sector to improve smallholders’ livelihood. To date, the Your VCCA solution has helped reduce postharvest losses by 60% and increase farmers’ income by 43%, while reducing CO2e emissions by 139 Tonnes / year. We are currently working to standardise the solution, make it more robust and ready for scale-up, and are looking for a Digitalisation Specialist that can support this effort.

About the role

Within the Your VCCA project, the candidate will support activities linked to the improvements and further development of the Coldtivate app, which is being developed by an external software company. The candidate will support the Your VCCA team in coordinating the day-to-day interaction with the software company in preparation for Coldtivate open-source release. The candidate will also contribute to optimise the modules of Coldtivate developed by Your VCCA team and to define additional features based on user feedback. The candidate is also encouraged to support in identifying resources and/or structural changes required to improve the app performance and minimise disruptions, and to support Your VCCA data scientists in the deployment of production-ready code which serves as a backbone of the app.

The candidate will be responsible for: i) managing communications with the software company related to open-source release, ii) optimising Coldtivate modules focusing on database queries and deployment structure, iii) supporting the team in implementing software development best practices throughout the development lifecycle, iv) coordinate with Your VCCA data team to support monitoring and reporting efforts. The candidate will also have the opportunity to engage in conversations with multiple stakeholders interested in adopting the solution and contribute to the design of an incubator programme to facilitate the app handover to other organisations.

Professional requirements

• An MSc. in computer science, software engineering, or equivalent qualification;
• At least one year of professional experience in working hands-on on software development projects;
• Experience with app development pipelines, including strong technical skill set in SQL, Python, Git, and Docker, and familiarity with Django and CI/CD pipelines;
• Exposure to Agile methodologies and interest in project management and coordination;
• Previous experience with Java, geospatial data, and implementing applications in Google Earth Engine is an asset;
• Enthusiasm for climate change-related projects and interest to understand Your VCCA vision and stakeholder needs;
• Great communication skills;
• Full working proficiency in English.

Personal attributes

• Entrepreneurial mindset: a high degree of self-motivation, positive attitude, drive and the ability to contribute to a multi-cultural, team-based work environment;
• Enthusiasm for, and commitment to development and climate change work;
• Ability to multitask, work flexibly, creatively and under pressure in response to changing demands;
• Extremely well organised and proactive;
• Attention to details;
• Highest ethical standards;