• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $95,000-$95,000

Position Summary

The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University located in Palisades, New York, is seeking a Systems Engineer/Programmer to join its team of Geoinformaticists in the Marine Geology and Geophysics department.  Reporting to the Doherty Senior Research Scientist, the Systems Engineer/Programmer will oversee the development and maintenance of cloud-based infrastructure and applications for research data repositories.  Responsible for the design, implementation, operation, maintenance and continuous improvement of digital data repositories for the Astromaterials Data System and the Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance (IEDA), including the development and maintenance of front-end and back-end application software components, web services, and web applications, while implementing and upholding software development standards.  Responsible for working collaboratively with the geoinformatics team and other partners, primarily NASA's Mission Cloud Platform and NFS's CloudBank.

Responsibilities

• Software Development (Infrastructure)
  • Lead the design and development of cloud-based software solutions and tools, including front-end and and back-end applications, in support of online scientific data information systems, using Python, Java, JavaScript, front-end frameworks and more.  
  • Build and implement repository solutions, including archival storage, indexed relational databases, and tools, in the Amazon Web Service (e.g., S3, RDS, Lambda, Fargate, and more).
  • Work directly with NASA's Mission Cloud Platform team to ensure long term storage and preservation of Astromat data and stable operation of Astromat systems in the Mission Cloud Platform; support the transfer of Astromat's current cloud infrastructure from Amazon Web Services to NASA's Mission Cloud Platform.
  • Maintain and improve current repository infrastructure (PHP, PostgreSQL).
• Software Development (Applications)
  • Maintain existing and develop new tools to support data curation and API-based applications for the search and discovery of data from relational databases.
  • Contribute to the maintenance and development of tools to support improved metadata exchange and data system interoperability.
  • Develop and maintain workflows for end-to-end data and metadata processes, including data transfer and metadata ETL (extract, transform, load).
• Software Development (Operational Management)
  • Work with geoinformatics team to elicit requirements, derive new requirements as necessary.
  • Maintain traceability between requirements and solutions.
  • Responsible for implementing standard testing procedures from unit level to system level.
  • Implement and maintain automated CI/CD pipelines.
  • Maintain transparency of software development via version control system (Git).
  • Provide efficient and holistic solutions to support funding requirements, the scientific end-user community, and other stakeholders.
• Will work as part of a team of Geoinformaticists including data managers, developers, and project Principal Investigators.  
• Required independent judgement and initiative.  

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and/or its equivalent required, preferably in Computer or Data Science, Geoscience, or a related discipline.
• A minimum of 3 years of software development experience required, with demonstrated proficiency in a variety of programming languages including Python, JavaScript, Java, TypeScript, PHP, PostgresSQL.
• Experience with Git as a version control system.
• Familiarity with the Amazon Web Services suite of tools.
• Ability to maintain, augment, and document existing software components as well as troubleshoot existing code.
• Ability to create software design and architecture based on set requirements and proactively provide feedback on proposed technical capabilities.
• Ability to adapt to changing technologies and proactively assess more efficient solutions to technical problems.
• Strong problem-solving, organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills as well as the ability to operate under a high level of responsibility.
• Ability to effectively work collaboratively with team and independently.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience deploying and maintaining Amazon Web Service (AWS) products, including storage and database architecture, cloud-based operations, and computing solutions.
• Experience with REST API development.
• Experience with frontend frameworks and libraries for supporting web services and web applications (e.g. JavaScript, NodeJS, Flask, Angular, React).
• Experience implementing search-engine based library structures, such as Lucene and/or Elasticsearch.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

The Lamont campus values diversity and inclusion, and encourages applications from members of underrepresented minority groups. 

About Columbia University

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

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