Research Associate -III, and Senior

Computer Science Support Position

Provide computer science support in the development of data management capabilities and visualization techniques for NOAA and its partners. An experienced computer scientist with extensive development experience and cloud-based programming is required to complete this work.

Salary Grade: 13

Please see Staff Compensation Structure or Skilled Crafts and Service Maintenance Compensation Schedule for salary ranges. For salary grade UC, these positions are "Unclassified" and salary ranges are determined by the hiring department.

The Northern Gulf Institute (NGI) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Institute comprised of six academic institutions that are geographically distributed across the U.S. Gulf Coast states. The six NGI member institutions are Mississippi State University (lead), the University of Southern Mississippi, Florida State University, Louisiana State University, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory.

Together with NOAA and in support of their strategic plan, NGI conducts research on interconnections among Gulf of Mexico environments, habitats, resources, and people and engages in outreach to help others learn about and make decisions based on these interconnections.

1. Effective Technology Solutions

• Analyze, identify, recommend, and implement solutions to the gaps in data management capabilities resulting from the development of new and existing environmental data sensors and platforms.
• Analyze, identify, recommend, and implement solutions to the increased complexities of multi-dimensional and non-traditional data sets that are outside the stewardship solutions currently available to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Oceanographic and Geophysical Sciences and Services Division (OGSSD).
• Data Collections and Archive:
  Collect Ocean surface marine and meteorological data from the global ocean observing systems and archive them at NCEI and the Global Data Assembly Centers (GDACs).

2. Support NCEI partner efforts

• Quality Improvement:
  Review and improve Quality Control (QC) processes to improve data quality.
• Optimize and automate data visualization tools and products for multidisciplinary oceanographic, coastal, and marine data.
• Identify, develop and shepherd the migration of tools, products, and services from NGI research to NOAA NCEI operations once fully vetted.
• Provide scientific expertise to assist restoration project performers to develop and optimize effective data management processes and procedures, ensuring efficient end-to-end data stewardship.
• Provide at-sea data and sampling support aboard NOAA research cruises on NOAA and non-NOAA vessels using a variety of at-sea data collection platforms.
• Work directly with users to turn feedback and ideas into solutions.

This position may supervise other research staff. The position will be located at the Mississippi State University Science and Technology Center at the Stennis Space Center. MS. Salary commensurate with abilities and experience. The period of performance is estimated to be a minimum of one year with a potential for additional years.

Department of Commerce Clearance:
Ability to receive a Department of Commerce moderate risk clearance.

Educational Background:

• Bachelor's Degree: A professional employee with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science or related field and demonstrated competence can begin work at the Research/Extension Associate I level. To begin at the Research/Extension Associate II level, one must have a bachelor's degree in the required discipline and a minimum of three years relevant experience and the equivalent of a master's degree.
  
  To begin at the Research/Extension Associate III level, one must have a bachelor's degree in the required discipline and a minimum of six years relevant experience and the equivalent of the master's degree.
• Master's Degree: A professional employee with a master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field and a minimum of 1 year of relevant experience can begin work at Associate II; 3 years for Associate III; 6 years for Senior Associate.
• Doctoral Degree: A professional employee with a doctoral degree in the required discipline and 2 years of relevant experience can begin work at Associate III; 3 years for Senior Associate.

Proficiency with common word processing, database, and office applications. Experience in software system analysis, design, development, testing, documentation, and implementation in a federal Government environment. Familiarity with NOAA NCEl data management policies and procedures as well as NIST specified security protocols. Expertise in cloud-based programming, Linux, XML/XSLT/XSD, technical support, HTML/DHTML, XHTML, R, Python, and Google Apps Script or JavaScript. Comfort with SQL databases.

Experience in "big data" management and…