Scientific Programmer

Key Skills

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud-EC2, Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), AWS, GIS, Github, Machine learning techniques, NumPy, SciPy, SQL

Job Description

Responsibilities

You will design, write, and maintain semi-automated routines and related documentation and reports for data analysis, data engineering, data management, and mass processing, primarily in the context of hydrologic & hydraulic (H&H) flood modeling and related risk analysis of natural hazards. You will gather requirements, design, and write components of our backend cloud computing stack, leveraging Python, Postgres (SQL), Go, and Docker on AWS infrastructure (S3, EC2, Batch, Lambda, RDS).

The role fits into an existing team of passionate developers and earth science modelers with backgrounds in hydrology, fluid dynamics, meteorology, computer science, geographic information systems (GIS), environmental science, civil engineering, oceanography, and statistics. Projects are version-controlled in Git (GitHub). Some projects involve publicly accessible websites and/or open-source codebases. Most projects involve geospatial data (vector and raster).

Recent federal and state clients include:

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – HQ and Regions
• S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
• Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (VADCR)
• Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)
• Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ)
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC)
• New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA)
• Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB)
• Texas General Land Office (GLO)
• National Academies of Sciences (NAS)

Required Skills & Required Experience

• 3-8 years of experience in developing tools, processes, and workflows related to scientific analysis, with preference for expertise in GIS, hydrology, hydraulics, fluid dynamics, climate change, meteorology, hydrometeorology, statistics, or other earth sciences
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, civil engineering, environmental engineering, water resources engineering, statistics, meteorology, climate science, mathematics, or related technical discipline

Proficiency in Python:

• Open GIS libraries: geopandas, rasterio, shapely, fiona, OGR2OGR, GDAL, etc
• Open mathematics & statistics libraries: numpy, xarray, scipy, etc
• Experience handling large amounts of data efficiently (compression, spatial indexing, tiling, etc)
• Proficiency in Git
• Proficiency in desktop GIS (QGIS, ArcGIS)
• Strong problem solving and persistence
• Professional communication
• Willingness to showcase skills through a portfolio, example apps, or shared code

Desired Skills & Experience

• Postgres (SQL + PostGIS)
• Go
• Docker: development of images and container orchestration
• AWS: S3, EC2, Batch, ECR, Lambda, RDS
• GitHub Actions
• Statistical machine learning (regression, decision tree, random forest)
• QGIS Plugin Development

Must have a valid driver’s license, good driving record and ability to pass a driving record background check.