National Center For Ecological Analysis And Synthesis's (Nceas) Director Of Research Software Engineering

The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) is a world leader in environmental data science, and has helped to stimulate and promote open data science research worldwide since our inception in 1995. Current and past data science research at NCEAS has built nationally-recognized systems including the DataONE federation of repositories, the NSF Arctic Data Center, the KNB Data Repository, the Ocean Health Index, and the Permafrost Discovery Gateway, among many others. Research on systems for synthesis have focused, for example, on high throughput computing systems for machine learning on large-scale satellite imagery, building systems to support and promote open data preservation and sharing, and designing and improving FAIR data repository systems.

As the Director of Research Software Engineering, you will lead independent environmental data science

research at NCEAS to envision, design, develop, analyze and operate a national software infrastructure

for open data management, analysis, modeling, and visualization. Independent software engineering

research activities will focus on novel approaches to data science to enable open and reproducible

science and facilitate synthetic research. In collaboration with other NCEAS leaders, including the NCEAS

Director and the Director of Informatics, you will create a sustainable funding portfolio for environmental

data science at NCEAS, including grants, contracts, and income accounts. Some of the research involved

will include:

● Conduct independent research at the frontiers of environmental data science and software

● Conceptualize, design, and implement environmental data science systems to enable new

capabilities in scientific synthesis at NCEAS and globally

● Create a funding program for these data science and infrastructure systems via successful

extramural grants, contracts, and fee-based income programs

● Recruit, train, and oversee a team of research software engineers and data scientists to conduct

the research and development for these projects and systems

● Promote the widespread use and uptake of open data and open science in support of the NCEAS

mission

● Publish research software, data, and papers from your data science research

In addition to data science research, technical design and development, you will communicate to the

international science community to promote research outputs and the software and systems based on

those outputs through writing, speaking, and training at, for example, scientific conferences and open

science events. Finally, we expect your research program will include collaboration on specific grant-funded research, including collaboration with researchers and engineers spanning a diverse set of

partner institutions.

General Summary of Duties and Responsibilities

NCEAS is committed to improving diversity and inclusion in science. We value the diversity of expertise, backgrounds, needs, and experiences reflected among our residents, visitors, and broader communities.

We are committed to providing a safe, productive, and welcoming environment for everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender identity, parental status, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, citizenship status, and nationality. To see the steps we are taking to advance diversity and inclusion please see our full statement here: https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/diversity-inclusion.